Disillusioned by Roger Goodell and league politics, Payton left the NFL. Now reinvigorated, he's back to rebuild the Broncos and take another run at a Super Bowl.
on a flare route with 1:49 left. The Saints went on to lose in overtime. Nobody -- not the league office, which called Payton after the game to apologize, not Rams coach Sean McVay, not even Robey-Coleman -- disputed it was a blown call. In the days after the game, Payton ate junk food and stared at the TV until dawn, anything to"numb the pain with distraction," Skylene says.
Al Riveron, then the league's head of officiating, took questions from the room. It started to resemble fans at a bar. These meetings are always combustible, and even though Payton was calm, others were impassioned. Bills owner Terry Pegula lit into Riveron over accountability."You need to just fire somebody on the spot," he said. Giants owner John Mara defended Riveron, saying it was"unacceptable" to go after him for referees who make split-second decisions.
Somewhat. Payton doesn't know why his grievances always simmer beneath the surface. It's not scars from a childhood spent moving around due to his father's insurance business. It's not because a youth coach broke him; he speaks of J.R. Bishop, his coach at Naperville Central High in Illinois, like a family member. The best answer arrives halfway through the round, on the tee box. Payton pulls out his scorecard and writes a note. His penmanship is precise.
After Jeanne died, Payton went through her belongings and found her checkbooks. Years of immaculate handwritten entries, until disease and treatment took twin tolls. She no longer had the energy to craft every letter, and the words on the checks appeared less pristine. He saved them and still looks at them, his own penmanship an inheritance."I'm used to scoring points," he says."Not keeping 'em.
Payton reentered football after his suspension, hell-bent to reclaim all that was lost. He didn't, of course -- but he did get something else. He and Skylene dated most of the next decade, unsure of whether to marry. She loved how he had a magic to him, how he captivated a room with his endless jokes and impressions."A born storyteller," she says. She learned to handle his moods."Sometimes he's Jekyll and Hyde, in a bit of a good way.
Late Friday night, when he was the only one left in the office, Payton watched practice video of the fake and saw all kinds of problems with it. They needed to block it differently and run it from the right hashmark. They fixed the problems and ran it on Sunday. McCown hit Watson for 25 yards, down to the 1-yard line. The Saints scored on the next play -- the touchdown that ended up being the difference in a Saints win.
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