New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton may not have been the most disciplined student while attending school in Naperville, but he knew what he wanted. Don Zedrow, his 8th-grade teacher at Lincoln Junior High School, remembers telling the young, cocky Payton in shop class that if he didn’t stop goofing around, he’d never amount to anything.
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“I kid you not, he looked at me and said, `Mr. Zedrow, I’m going to be a professional football player,'” Zedrow recalled this week with a wry chuckle. “I said, `Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.'”
Thirty years later, Payton was named NFL Coach of the Year, and his Naperville friends and former coaches find themselves rooting–ever so slightly–for a man who won’t be wearing blue and orange Sunday on the Soldier Field sidelines when the Bears play the Saints for the NFC title.
From his innate quick study of the game to the confidence he exuded as quarterback at Naperville Central High, Payton was destined to be a star, say those who knew him when.
Yet he accepted mentoring from Naperville football coach J.R. Bishop, and still relies on the advice he was given then. Bishop is retired now in Florida but still keeps in contact with Payton.
“The success that he’s had does not surprise me,” said Bishop, who attended the Saints’ playoff win against Philadelphia as Payton’s guest and may go to the game Sunday. “The way he was as a player, the way he was as a coach early on and through his career. … I would have bet the bank five years ago that he’d be a head coach in the NFL.”
Payton’s declaration to his shop teacher did prove true–although only briefly. After a solid career at Eastern Illinois University, he had short stints in the Arena Football League, Canadian Football League, even the World Football League, playing for London. He also endured 3 1/2 weeks as a Bear under Mike Ditka during the 1987 players strike.
But Payton has made his mark now with a clipboard and drive. At 43, he’s one of the younger head coaches in the NFL. He took over a Saints team that went 3-13 last year and led them to 10-6 in the regular season this year. “He really knows the game,” said Bishop, who also coached Wheaton College from 1982 to 1995. “He’s been a student of the game ever since his sophomore year in high school–unusual for a person of that age to have such a strong desire to learn more and more about the game.”
Payton learned about hard work and disappointment during his years at Naperville Central, where he started as quarterback his freshman and sophomore years, but got sidelined to second string his junior year, recalled teammate Paul O’Toole (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
“He took that role and decided to learn as much as he could in the position,” O’Toole said. “When his turn came to start, he was ready.”
When Payton called a play in the huddle, everyone listened, even the players who were older, like O’Toole.
“He had presence in the huddle that was, `Never fail.’ It just instilled confidence and it was carried out,” he said. “He was able to talk to the seniors and he was able to take charge. That’s what you need in a quarterback, and that’s what you need in a good coach.”
Payton has not forgotten his Naperville roots. Last fall, when his alma mater was preparing for a big cross-town rivalry with Naperville North High School, Payton made a two-minute video message of inspiration for the players, suggesting they “seize the seconds.”
Naperville Central won that game in the last three seconds with a field goal, recalled Redhawks Coach Steven Kenyon, whose wife, Jan, arranged for the video. Kenyon says the video likely will be used again and again.
“They really seized the seconds, like he said,” Kenyon said. “It’s a keeper, in my opinion.”
Payton, the third of four children of the late Jeanne and Thomas Payton, was born in San Mateo, Calif., and came to Naperville while in junior high school.
“I have great memories [of Naperville], and it’s where I call home,” said Payton, while taking a break from practice this week in Metairie, La. “I think it’s a great town and a great place to be from.”
As for loyalties, his former coaches and teammates say they wish Payton some success–but not too much–against the Bears.
“I hope Sean makes all the right calls,” said Bill Seiple, Payton’s former Central High baseball coach and now dean of students at the school. “And then [Bears kicker] Robbie Gould comes in and makes a game-winning field goal.”
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Jack McCarthy is a freelance reporter.
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