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MY GOD this Payton SMEAR piece.

Payton breaks from coaching (frequently) to put squeeze on press

If there is one thing we've learned about Sean Payton it is this: He's Sean Payton, and you're not.Brett Favre is coming to town. So is Adrian Peterson. So is that Vikings defense.One of the first things on Payton's mind after a blistering beat-down of Arizona last week? Being a smart-ass. Waving that little finger in the media's face.

He lectured the media about the perception that New Orleans is a finesse team. That's what you're worried about when the Super Bowl is within spitting distance? You don't obsess over the number of calories in a Krispy Kreme. You just inhale the sucker.
But that's why he's Sean Payton, and you're not.

It wasn't always like this. Payton wasn't always atop Mount Olympus, belching lightning bolts at the kingdom below. He didn't always believe the football world should worship at the spirals of his playbook. Sean the Magnificent was once a laid-back guy who treated everyone around him with respect. When Payton was an assistant coach with the Giants, I covered him, and saw a shy and smart man with great potential. Since then, something's happened. Even Brian Billick thinks Payton is smug.

Now, Payton acts like a man who believes he should run a team, run the media that covers his team and control the message, too.He has a singular and much larger purpose to worry about, like, oh, a shot at the Super Bowl. Yet Payton seems just as concerned with the trivial, things outside the scope of his purview as a coach.

This is one of my favorite Payton stories: In 2007, a Saints beat writer wrote a story about a player who was going to miss an upcoming game. The writer asked the player if he was going to participate in the game and the player said he wasn't. At the time, Payton claimed the player would indeed play.So the writer wrote the accurate story -- not playing. The following day, around 8 a.m., the writer received a call from Payton, and Payton cursed out the writer calling him a "negative f---" about a half-dozen times before hanging up

Payton calling up writers to berate them isn't unusual. It has happened many times before. Telemarketers are less intrusive.These aren't just garden-variety media squabbles. These are indications of something else, like a despot syndrome. Or possibly, despite Payton's talent, there is a thick haze of insecurity settled around him like a moat around a castle.While the media ranks in popularity next to drug dealers, prostitutes, Dick Cheney and Simon Cowell, they are nevertheless conveyors of sports news. Without the journalists that cover the Saints, all fans would get is Kafkaesque nonsense from the official Payton politburo.

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