Re: Payton "very upset"
 

I think this is worth repeating... emphasis mine...

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

If you haven't noticed, what he did was legal those 41 times and didn't cost the Saints field position and touchdowns. All of a sudden he seems to think the rules no longer apply to him. Don't get me wrong, I love Jimmy Graham but he needs to come up with another "signature" celebration move... and above all, obey the coach's orders. If Sean orders Jimmy to do the funky chicken after a touchdown, DO IT!

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

All of a sudden, you seem to think he thinks the rules don't apply to him because he wanted to please the crowd in a stanndings-wise meaningless game.

Again, preseason. It costs the team NOTHING. A penalty could be assessed for 100 yds and turn into 35 points worth of TDs, and guess what? The team still travels to Atlanta on September 7 with a 0-0-0 record.

And, as a matter of fact, one could argue that getting in that type of situation now, when neither the final score or the win-lose ratio counts for anything, is beneficial to the evaluation of special teams. Do any of the kickers have enough leg to compensate for such penalties? Can ST cover such ground and prevent a long gain from a returner with a head of steam and good field vision?

And before you reply with "we won't be in that situation during the regular season if Jimmy doesn't dunk" or such penalty coming from any sort of celebration: imagine a TD, followed by a scrum because of a cheap shot to Drew and his o-line going to his defense, and the refs throwing the flag against the Saints only.

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

I never would have imagined Jimmy and Payton hollering at each other. It is Paytons obligation to get on players whose actions are detrimental to the team. Jimmy has no excuse to trade words with his coach. Jimmy may resent Payton saying he was a TE.

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

Yeah, the dunking doesn't bother me. He was playin to the crowd and showin Goodell how much we all respect him.

Shoutin at Payton is another thing all together. He needs to shut up and listen. The sideline is no place to question the coach.

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

I guess I need to quote Allan Inverson again: "IT'S PRACTICE!"
Do you really think when JG scores his 15, 18, 20, 22 or whatever ridiculous number of TDs he will get this regular season, that you figure that he's going to penalize the team each and every time? Seriously?

I'm sure that he's decided what to do when he scores in the regular season. But why spoil the surprise of that at a practice?

What I noticed is that in practice JG scores 2 TDs against what I presume is a first team NFL defense. That's a good practice.

Since this has become such a distraction, I personally think that JG should hand the ball to someone in the crowd for now. $100 fine IIRC and no penalty. He can do this for the rest of the next practice until he gets around to scoring his 3 TDs against Atlanta on September 7th. I wait with baited breath to see what he will do then.

Talk about the No Fun League. Sheesh!

SFIAH

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

This is preseason football. It has no bearing at all on what the team will look like once regular season starts. It's sole purpose is to evaluate individual players and to make more money for the league.

As far as Jimmy G, if we're up by a couple of scores towards the end of the game at the Foulcants, then I hope he slam dunks it just to flip the bird to Goodell.

WHO DAT!!!

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

METAIRIE, La. -- Jimmy Graham stopped short of saying he regrets his goalpost dunks from Friday night, which drew two penalty flags and led to a shouting match between the New Orleans Saints tight end and coach Sean Payton on the sideline.

But Graham insisted Sunday that he "would never do anything to hurt the team" in the regular season.

"You know, for four years and however many touchdowns, I've always dunked it. And I just gotta stop doing that now," said Graham, though he made it clear that he's still not on board with the NFL's new rule to ban his preferred touchdown celebration -- which he said is "not hurting anyone."

Jimmy Graham of New Orleans Saints -- I wouldn't jeopardize team - ESPN

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

No. Spiking a football is simply spiking a football. Dunking, hook shooting, laying the ball up, etcetera, are all using the football as another object ... a basketball. I know, it's stupid, but it is how the rule is defined.

Re: Payton "very upset"
 

For any of you that think there was any to do with the exchange between Graham and Payton after the second dunk, read this article. I saw the actual interview and you can tell that Graham has nothing but total respect for Payton. Move on because there is nothing there.