Report: Saints Not Allowed to Show Sean Payton on Superdome Video Board During Sunday Night Football

by Jimmy Kelley on Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 10:48AM

If there is anything that the last two years of Roger Goodell‘s reign over the NFL has made clear, it’s that the league will do whatever it wants, regardless of whether it makes sense to the majority of fans.

Sunday night, suspended New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was allowed to attend his team’s game against the San Diego Chargers due to Drew Brees‘ opportunity to break Johnny Unitas‘ 42-year-old record for consecutive games with a touchdown. Suspended players and coaches are typically not allowed at games, but the NFL was willing to bend on this one because of the circumstances.

However, the league was not willing to bend on letting Payton’s presence be known. While anyone with a television saw Payton every two minutes, fans in the Superdome were never shown their fearless leader’s mug per order of the NFL, according to FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer.

From the dept of the absurd: Saints were told by the league they are not allowed to show Sean Payton on the screen at game. Give me a break

— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) October 8, 2012

Few leagues cherish their history more the NFL, so it is understandable that the game’s significance would be treated in a special way (you think the Sunday night time slot was an accident?). But to bend the suspension policy and then tell the Saints what they could and could not show on the big screen borders — as Glazer so eloquently put it — on the absurd.