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Saints Coach Appears To Take Big Shot at Roger Goodell, NFL with Choice of Shirt

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On Wednesday, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton addressed the media for his end-of-season news conference even though many think the Saints’ season should still be going on.

Payton and the entire city of New Orleans are still bitter about the obvious missed call in their NFC Championship Game loss to the Rams.

Last week, Saints tight end Ben Watson ripped NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, demanding Goodell comment publicly on the controversial no-call. (When Goodell finally did comment on Wednesday, it was likely of little consolation to the Saints or their fans, since it amounted to “stuff happens.”)

Payton appeared to take a more subtle shot at Goodell than Watson during his own news conference, as it looks as if he was wearing one of the infamous Goodell clown T-shirts that became popular after Deflategate.

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It’s hard to tell for sure what Payton was wearing underneath. But NBC Sports Philadelphia created an animated GIF that makes many think it’s “more likely than not” that Payton is rocking the clown shirt.

Do you think Sean Payton was wearing a Roger Goodell clown T-shirt?

To make a football analogy, if Payton wearing that shirt was the original call on the field … And we needed indisputable and irrefutable evidence to overturn that call …

Then there is not enough evidence to overturn that call and we can safely assume that Payton is subtely calling Goodell a clown.

Payton and Goodell have not been on the best of terms since the commissioner suspended the coach the entire 2012 season for Bountygate.

But the two did talk shortly after the NFC Championship Game, along with Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president for football operations, even though Payton knew that there was never going to be retroactive reversal of the missed call.

“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, according to ESPN.

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He also said that despite the positive feedback he got from friends and family, he wanted to revert back to his “cave” for a while so that this could presumably blow over.

“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,” Payton said.

With the Minneapolis Miracle last season and the obvious blown call this season, many Saints fans are fearful as to what could possibly happen next.

But Payton’s message to the Saints fans is similar to the one he shared with his team.

“It’s not gonna happen overnight and it will take a little bit of time, obviously. But it’s why we like this game. I mean, football is like life,” Payton said.

“It’s not always gonna be how you planned it, it’s not always gonna be fair. And sometimes you get punched and you get up. And there’s that toughness and grit element that’s involved with this game that I think fascinates us all with it.”

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Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009.
Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009 and previously worked for ESPN, CBS and STATS Inc. A native of Louisiana, Ross now resides in Houston.
Location
Houston, Texas
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Sports




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