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MOBILE, Ala . — Unlike 95 percent of his compatriots at Ladd-Peebles Stadium Wednesday, Sean Payton wasn’t sporting any team gear. Maybe that was the last part of his punishment. No fleur-de-lis until after the Super Bowl.

But Payton didn’t need that to demonstrate he was a man who was happy to be back.

“You miss the competition, that element of what it feels like when you’re winning, when you have success, the butterflies on Sunday mornings,” Payton said. “But the interaction with the people that you’re closest to is what I missed most.

“In other words, it wasn’t just being away from football.”

Indeed, there’s a band-of-brothers mindset about coaching a football team, especially in the all-in world of the NFL, where even road trips to places like the Senior Bowl are spent together.

Payton was properly contrite Wednesday, although he never said the word “sorry.” Nor he did not detail what part he played in the pay-for-performance system, which, in some minds, morphed into a bounty-for-injury system.

Read more: Lewis: Sean Payton did deserve all that he got | Saints | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA

Danno

I think its the equvalent of getting a $10,000 ticket for speeding on the Interstate.

Yes, you did break the law, but $10,000 is way too excessive.

Jamessr

I appriciate the story but tbh I can't wait for all this to be in the past.
We'll never get the 2012 season back and there is nothing we can do but beat the sh*t out of everyone we face.

Rickh

"... which, in some minds, morphed into a bounty-for-injury system."
That is what absolutely BURNS me! The implication isn't true yet unless you read carefully many people just accept that's what happened.

xan

And spent a year under house arrest, you lost your job and they took your phone away.

onebyone

"No matter how you look at it, he deserves it."

Yep, that article was crap.

TheOak

Not my facebook app and twitter!!!!!

QBREES9

BS

Ashley

It's all behind us now. Lets just rip through the nfl in 2013

aintasinner

And if journalists were suspended for writing stories that only relied on "unidentified" sources or things "that in some minds" become facts because they say it is so, then this guy would "deserve" to lose his job for a very long time.