Losses are tough to accept.
Sean Payton drowned his latest defeat in ice cream.
“What is it now, a week and a half? It feels like it’s been longer than that,” the Saints coach said Wednesday, via ESPN.com. “I would say honestly after the game for two to three days, much like normal people, I sat and probably didn’t come out of my room, ate Jeni’s ice cream and watched Netflix for three straight days.”
Product placement? Perhaps, but more importantly, it was Payton’s way of coping with a game he and the rabid base that supports his team feel was taken from them by a non-call (or two). Nickell Robey-Coleman‘s hit on Tommylee Lewis late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game has been analyzed nearly as much as the Zapruder Film at this point, and we can all agree Robey-Coleman hit Lewis early. The league even agreed that Robey-Coleman hit Lewis with his helmet, leading to a $26,739 fine, even though a flag wasn’t thrown on the play.
Instead of spending the week in Atlanta preparing for Super Bowl LIII, the Saints are at home. Payton spent the first painful days escaping by streaming hours of video content.
Did Payton binge-watch the new season of Narcos? Might he have viewed both Fyre Festival documentaries? The Fighter was recently added to Netflix, too, if Payton needs some inspiration after such heartbreak.
We don’t know everything he watched for those days, but we do know he spent some of the alone time talking to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent. He couldn’t escape entirely.
“My discussions briefly on Monday and Tuesday with the commissioner and Troy were relative to — not any type of reversal or anything like that — just the play and any statement,” Payton said. “But there’s tons of people that reach out to you, you get a ton of text messages and emails, and you’re appreciative of all that, then you just want to disappear into your cave for a little while.”
This cave, brought to you by Jeni’s. Here’s to hoping New Orleans’ future tastes sweeter than 2018’s outcome.
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