SmashMouth

Sean Payton has been accused of being a Bill Parcells clone at times.

Parcells might be the one person in the universe that would send Payton scurrying to tidy up his office and making sure he was sitting up straight when the Hall of Fame head coach enters the room. Everyone has that one person who knows you so well he or she can spout off the brutal truth about any situation and you're forced to listen and follow.

For Payton, that's Parcells.

Walk into Payton's office, and to the left hangs a picture of the Saints head coach in his early 40s being "Dennis the Menace," Parcells' moniker for Payton, on the sideline with the Cowboys next to Parcells. It's really the only non-Saints item nailed into the walls of Payton's personal workspace on Airline Drive.



Parcells' admiration for Payton is mutual.

It's so mutual that Parcells even recently included Payton in one of his primary passions: horse racing. Payton received a picture of a horse from Parcells recently.

The Saints coach reached out, basically saying the horse was nice, but what's the deal? Parcells passionately explained how the horse was Payton. He named the horse "Menacing Dennis."

Payton had his chance after the 2015 season, another meandering 7-9 journey in New Orleans, to follow in Parcells' career timeline. Payton already was one year past his mentor's timetable.

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