This article will answer every question you have about Sean Payton. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about him.
- What does Sean Payton do for a living?
- Who are Sean Payton’s parents and siblings?
- What are Sean Payton’s interests and hobbies?
- Is Sean Payton married or does he have a girlfriend?
- Does Sean Payton have any children?
- Where is Sean Payton now?
- How tall is Sean Payton?
- How much money does Sean Payton earn?
- What is Sean Payton’s net worth?
N/B: Please read the entire post to have all your questions answered.
Who is Sean Payton?
Patrick Sean Payton is an American professional football coach and former player. Currently, he is the head coach of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He was a quarterback at Naperville Central High School and Eastern Illinois University. Sean professionally played with Chicago Bears in 1987 and overseas in Britain for the Leicester Panthers.
Payton started his coaching profession as an offensive assistant for San Diego State University. He also had several assistant coaching roles on college and NFL teams prior to being named the tenth full-time coach in 2006 in Saints history. Sean has always been recognized for his offensive prowess, having scored more points (2,804) and gained more yards (40,158) than any other team in a coach’s first 100 games in NFL history. He has the second-longest NFL single-team tenure among all active head coaches, behind New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, from the 2000 season.
Under Sean’s coaching, the Saints made the 2006 NFL playoffs following a 3-13 season in 2005. They also made it to their first NFC Championship appearance in franchise history. For these efforts, Payton received the AP NFL Coach of the Year Award. The Saints won their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history after the 2009 season. Since coming into the Saints as head coach, Sean has led the team to 3 NFC Championship games (2006, 2009, and 2018), and an appearance in Super Bowl XLIV. As well as nine total playoff berths with seven division titles, making him the most successful coach in Saints franchise history.
Sean was suspended in April 2012 for the whole 2012 NFL season due to his alleged involvement in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal. This is where bounties were allegedly paid for contact that would try to injure players on opposing teams. He filed for an appeal later but was denied, remaining suspended until being reinstated in January 2013.
How old is Sean Payton?
Patrick Sean Payton was born on December 29, 1963, in San Mateo, California, U.S., and is aged 58 as of 2021. He shares his birthday with celebrities including Dylan Hartman, Dylan Minnette, Hudson Matter, Jude Law, Charles Goodyear, Andrew Johnson, Tom Bradley, Ted Danson, Charlotte Riley, Diego Luna, among others.
Sean Payton Family
Who are Sean Payton’s parents?
Patrick Sean Payton was born in San Mateo, California to his parents Thomas and Jeanne Payton. His parents were originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where his father worked in the insurance industry. Payton was brought up in Naperville Illinois and lived in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania in his grade school and middle school years.
Does Sean Payton have siblings?
Payton was born to his parents into a family of four children. He has three siblings, one brother Tom Payton and two sisters Molly Payton and Patrice Payton.
Sean Payton Education
From 1970 to 1978, Payton studied grade school and middle school in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. He then joined Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois, graduating in 1982. Payton later attended Eastern Illinois University, where he went on to play football.
Sean Payton Interests
Payton’s interest in football began at an early age. He played as a quarterback in his senior year in high school before joining Eastern Illinois University. At the university he was a successful quarterback, leading the Panthers to an 11-2 record and quarter-finals of the Division I-AA Playoffs in 1986. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity alongside close friend, Rick Henghold. His teams were referred to as ”Easter Airlines” because of their prolific passing attack setting a school record held to date.
Sean is an Irish Catholic by religion.
Sean Payton Wife
Payton was previously married to Beth Shuey. The couple had met at Indiana State University, Beth as a student and Sean as a coach. They later filed for divorce in June 2012, which was finalized in 2014. He currently lives in his condo in Uptown New Orleans since 2014.
Sean recently married his longtime girlfriend Skylene Montgomery in July 2021. The couple married on a Friday evening in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in a ceremony initiated by NBA champion player and coach Avery Johnson. Skylene is a former Miss West Virginia and was engaged to Payton since 2019.
Sean Payton Kids
Payton and his ex-wife, Beth have two children together. The couple has a daughter, Meghan Payton, who was born in 1997, and a son Connor Payton who was born in 2000.
Sean Payton Height
His athletic, well-built, and muscular stunt body adds up to a height of 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and a moderate weight of 91 kg (200 lbs).
Sean Payton Playing career
Despite not being drafted in the 1987 NFL Draft, Sean tried out for one day for the Kansas City Chiefs. He then played quarterback in 1987 for the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Gladiators in the inaugural season for the Arena Football League. Later his rights were sold for $1,000.00 to the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League. Also, he was a member of the Chicago Bears unit of strikebreaking replacement players, referred to as the ”Spare Bears”, during the 1987 NFL players’ strike.
Payton finished 8 of 23 passes (34.8%) for 79 yards no Touchdowns, and 1 interception, a passer rating of 27.3 in 3 games. Additionally, he sacked 7 times for 47 yards and had one rush attempt for 28 yards. Ironically, his only one interception came against the New Orleans Saints, the same team he would later coach to a Super Bowl win.
He then played for the Leicester Panthers of the professional UK Budweiser National League in 1988. He landed the starting quarterback role for the team and led them to a touchdown on their first possession. In the same season, the Panthers were able to proceed to the Quarterfinals of the British League but finally lost to the London Olympians. Following this, Sean then went back to the US to take up a coaching role.
Sean Payton coaching career
Early coaching career
In 1988, Sean started his coaching profession at San Diego State University as an offensive assistant. He made a number of assistant coaching positions at Indiana State University, Miami University (offensive coordinator), and Illinois. As well as again at San Diego State as running backs coach, prior to becoming the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach in 1997.
From 1992 to 1993, Payton coached Marshall Faulk, while working at San Diego State. As an offensive coordinator at Miami University, he assisted running back Deland McCullough running for over 1,600 yards with 14 touchdowns and quarterback Sam Ricketts also threw 14 touchdowns. In 1996 at the University of Illinois, he mentored quarterback Scott Weaver, to complete 56% of his passes for more than 1,700 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Philadelphia Eagles
Sean was quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1997 to 1998. He served alongside offensive coordinator Jon Gruden and offensive line coach Bill Callahan. Jon and Bill departed for the Oakland Raiders in 1998. and Eagles head coach Ray Rhodes and Payton were sacked. In 1997, the team’s quarterbacks passed for 4,009 yards.
New York Giants
Payton was employed by the New York Giants as their quarterbacks’ coach in 1999. In 2000, he was promoted to the position of offensive coordinator. Under his coaching, the team would go on to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XXV. During this time, he was known to lock himself in the stadium and sleep on the couches as he studied plays during off-days.
On September 11, 2001, at around 6:45 a.m., the New York Giants’ flight from Denver, after playing the Denver Broncos for the first Monday Night Football game of 2001, landed at the gate of Newark Liberty International Airport. It landed next to United Airlines Flight 93 and was then hijacked and finally crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Sean remembers this moment in his autobiography Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life. In the 2002 season, following various poor showings by the Giants’ offense, his role in play-calling was taken over by the then head coach Jim Fassel. With Fassel, the offense improved and led the team to a wild-card playoff berth.
Dallas Cowboys
In 2003, Payton joined Bill Parcells and the Cowboys as an assistant head coach and a quarterbacks coach. He assisted coach Quincy Carter, Drew Bledsoe, and Vinny Testaverde to 3,000-yard seasons. He was a major factor for the team to sign undrafted free agent Tony Romo. Sean was later promoted to assistant head coach and passing game coordinator by Parcells in 2005.
New Orleans Saints
Sean got his first head coaching position with the New Orleans Saints in 2006. In the previous 2005 season in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints has completed with a 3-13 record, ranking the second-worst team in the league. Payton, however, changed the struggling team around and with newly signed free-agent quarterback Drew Brees, guided the Saints to their first playoff appearance in 6 years. They also had one of the league’s most productive offenses, rating first in passing and fifth in points scored.
The Saints won the NFC South with a record of 10-6, had a first-round playoff bye, and clinched only the second playoff win in franchise history. This gave them a berth in the NFC Championship Game against the top-seeded Chicago Bears. They out-gained the Bears in total yards of offense, however, they lost the game by the lopsided score of 39-14. Sean won the AP NFL Coach of the Year Award in January 2007 after gaining 44 out of 50 votes from a panel of sports journalists and broadcasters.
The Saints tried to improve in the 2007 season upon their 10-6 record in the previous season. Alongside the Pittsburgh Steelers, they opened the NFL preseason playing the Hall of Fame Game on August 5, 2007. They were 3-2 in the pre-season and had the honor of opening the season against the defending champion Indianapolis Colts. The Saints completed the 2007 season with 7-9.
2009 Season: Super Bowl Champs
Sean aggressively coached the Saints in 2009 to their most successful season, with a 13-3 regular season. They also had a 31-17 win against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.
While coaching against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on October 16, 2011, Payton tore his MCL and broke his tibia in a collision with tight end Jimmy Graham’s helmet after Jimmy was tackled on the sideline. Sean coached from the booth during rehabilitation as he was unable to stand on the sidelines. In the week after, in a memorable moment, he was spotted eating a hot dog in a relaxed state as the Saints beat the Colts by 62-7.
Starting from 2013, Payton agreed to a new multi-year contract extension as head coach of the Saints. He then announced on January 6, 2016, he would stay with the team despite interest from other teams.
2016 to 2017
On March 23, 2016, Payton agreed to a new 5-year contract extension as head coach of the Saints. He then got his 94th win as head coach on Christmas Eve 2016, surpassing Jim E. Mora as the winningest coach in franchise history. Together with the team, they would endure some eventful seasons over the following three years.
The 2017 season saw the Saints attain their first winning season since 2013 with a record of 11-5. They beat the division rival Carolina Panthers 31-26 in the Wild Card round of the postseason, to advance to the Divisional round against the second-seeded Vikings. The Saints beat the Vikings 24-23 in the final minute of the fourth quarter after falling behind 17-0 but fell to a 29-24 loss to the Vikings. The game was the first in NFL playoff history to conclude in a touchdown as time ended, and the play was then known as the Minneapolis Miracle.
Recent Years and Drew Brees retirement
The Saints attained the top-seed in the NFC in the 2018 season after completing with a 13-3 record. After defeating the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles 20-14 in the Divisional round, they went on to the NFC Championship Game. They faced the Los Angeles Rams for the right to represent the conference in Super Bowl LIII, where they lost 26-23 in overtime.
The Saints and Sean agreed to a 5-year contract extension on September 15, 2019. The team again completed 13-3 in 2019. In the Wild Card round, they were beaten by the Vikings in overtime 26-20, a third consecutive disappointing playoff finish for the Saints.
Sean was later fined US$100,000 by the NFL for not wearing a face mask properly, as required for coaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was during a week 2 game in the 2020 NFL season on September 22, 2020. Previously it was reported that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 19, 2020. He became the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the NFL and was then announced he tested negative and cleared from COVID-19 on March 26.
Sean Payton Net Worth
Payton is the second-longest NFL single-team head coach from 2006 to present as head coach of Saints. He has also coached college and NFL teams in the past and is among the highest-ranked coaches in football. At the Saints, Sean earns a salary of $9.8 million per year and has garnered up an accumulative net worth of approximately $24 million as of 2021.