Sean Payton will have a front-row role in Drew Brees’ Hall of Fame moment, and he’s making sure he’s ready for it.
The Broncos coach is set to present his former quarterback when Brees is inducted into the Hall of Fame on Aug. 8, according to ESPN and multiple other outlets. And Payton isn’t treating it like a casual walk-up. Nick Kosmider of The Athletic reported that he rehearsed his speech and had it taped so he could go back and review it before the ceremony.
Payton explained Thursday at Broncos training camp that he wanted the presentation to feel right from the start. “There’s a series of questions and statements for you (to respond to) as they put it together, and your fear is it’s not going to be good enough or complete enough; at least that’s how I felt,” Payton said.
“But (the producers) were here the whole day and I asked if they were going to (still) be there after (minicamp) practice. I said, ‘OK, I’m going to come back and put the coat and tie on, and I want you to do the whole thing over again.’
“(The producer) asked me why. I said, ‘I just know if we do the whole thing over again, there’s going to be certain answers that are different that you reflect on.’ So after practice we went back for another three hours because there’s that feeling: ‘Is it good enough?'”
The moment also hit Payton emotionally when Brees FaceTimed him while they were discussing their relationship, something Payton said isn’t usually his style. That reaction underscored just how close the two were through years of working together.
“He’s one of the only players, when he played, it almost looked like Madden,” Payton said of the popular NFL video game.
Payton also pointed to the way their partnership ended after 15 years together. He said quarterback-coach relationships can often turn sour by the end, but that wasn’t the case here.
“The 15 years, it’s just a long time and a lot of hours,” Payton said. “A lot of times, for a number of reasons, those quarterback-head coach relationships, you kind of always take for granted, yet a lot of times they don’t end like you’d want them to end. … I was really proud that it ended the way he wanted it to.”
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