SmashMouth

When the Green Bay Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy on Sunday, it didn’t just open one of the most prestigious jobs in the NFL. It also inadvertantly improved Sean Payton’s status among the most tenured coaches in the NFL.

Payton is now the third longest tenured coach in the league behind Bill Belichick (19 seasons) and Marvin Lewis (16 seasons). And with Lewis on the hot seat in Cincinnati, it might be a matter of time until Payton is second on the list.

It’s not a mantel Payton is proud of or enjoys. He lamented McCarthy’s firing earlier this week, saying he “hated to hear the news (and) how it happened.”

“Don’t get me started on that subject,” Payton said. “As a head coach, the first thing you realize (is) winning, losing, wherever you are at, it is a business, just like it is for the player.”



Payton and McCarthy’s career were always intertwined by fate. They both interviewed for the Packers coaching job. When Green Bay picked McCarthy, it left Payton for the Saints. They were two of 10 new head coaches hired in 2006.

Now Payton remains the lone member of the 2006 coaching class still employed as an NFL head coach. The others — Brad Childress, Herm Edwards, Dick Jauron, Gary Kubiak, Scott Linehan, Eric Mangini, Rod Marinelli, Art Shell and now McCarthy — have all been fired. Half of the group lasted less than three seasons.

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