Sean Payton is Getting the Biggest Free Pass in the History of the World

One thing has been chapping my ass forever but this week seems like as good a time as any to blog about it.  And that is: How has Sean Payton gotten off scot-free after BountyGate?  I’m not talking about with the NFL; they whacked him with a year in the Time Out Chair which was entirely appropriate.  I’m talking about in the much more important Court of Popular Opinion, where he’s basically been cleared of all charges.  In fact, he’s being treated like a friggin hero.

You think I’m exaggerating?  Google it.  Try anything.  Better yet, try any phrase they applied to Belichick with SpyGate.  Search “Sean Payton scandal” and it gets you nothing but links to the news of him getting suspended.  “Sean Payton taint” links you to one interview he did in March on ESPN where he said he won’t be tainted by this.  “Sean Payton asterisk” leads you to like two old opinion pieces that ask if the Saints Super Bowl deserves and asterisk and quickly say “nope.”  But try “Sean Payton triumphant return” and your hard drive will crash from all the hits.

This is the reaction to a guy getting kicked out of football for a year for running a team that paid guys to injure opponents.  At a time when lawyers are circling football like sharks and the future of the sport is danger, Sean Payton was the capo de regime of a criminal enterprise that took out contracts on guys’ ACLs.  He was the boss of Cash for Concussions scheme that at the very least should get him shunned by decent society like post-Watergate Nixon, if not tarnish the title he won.  Even if you want to defend Payton by saying he didn’t actually order the Code Reds, the league – and the subsequent appeal – found that he knew about it, covered it up, and that he allowed it to keep going after Saints owner Tom Benson ordered him to shut it down.  And while some of the players ( ie Jonathan Vilma) won their appeals, it was because it was ruled the coaches were to blame.  And you’ll notice that the one guy who didn’t even try to challenge the ruling was Sean Payton.  Because he was guilty.

But check any news outlet and he’s still the media darling he always was.  The same toner-stained wretches that wanted the Patriots‘ Lombardis  melted down into silver bullets to destroy the monster Belichick for once pointing a camera at a sidelines are saying nothing about BountyGate any more. Unless it’s to say how Payton’s “overcome it,” like he was the victim.  The indignant hacks who railed at Belichick and perpetuated all this drivel about tainted legacies and asterisks and demanded he be hauled in front of congressional bloody hearings, are throwing rose petals before Sean Payton’s feet.  I mean where’s the sanctimony from Tony Dungy?  Where’s the preachiness from moralists like John Clayton and Peter King?  Where’s the James Harrison-like outrage from players the Saints beat in ’09 saying they got cheated out of a ring?

None of that is happening and it’s not about to.  Not because Payton isn’t culpable in the biggest scandal ever to hit pro football.  But because unlike Belichick, he’s friendly and approachable, looks like Frankie Muniz and the media loves him.  And the free pass he’s getting is all the proof you need that SpyGate was never anything but a vendetta. @JerryThornton1