The penultimate play of the game featured a 24-yard punt return by Marcus Murphy; a fumble, which the Saints recovered; and a 15-yard face-mask penalty on Giants punter Brad Wing, which set up the Saints at the Giants 32-yard line for Forbath’s game-winning kick.
“This was certainly one of the craziest games that I have ever been a part of,” Brees said. “It was punch for punch. We knew we couldn’t slip up. There were a lot of things about today that were kind of mind-boggling.”
Brees completed passes to nine different receivers and hit five different players for touchdowns. Late in the fourth quarter, Brees had completed 18 consecutive passes and had as many touchdown passes (six) as incompletions (six). It marked the 10th five-plus-touchdown game of his career, a new NFL high.
For the Giants, it was just the latest nightmarish experience in the Superdome. The Brees-led Saints routed them 48–27 and 49–24 on their previous two visits to New Orleans in 2009 and 2011, respectively.
“I’ve played here before and when Drew plays like Drew plays at home, he’s almost unstoppable,” said Giants linebacker Jonathan Casillas, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Saints in 2009.
21. Don’t Eat the Cheese
The NFL regular season covers five long months. It begins in the humid heat of September and ends in the frigid frost of January. Along the way minds can wander, focus can falter, motivation can wane. Coaches like Sean Payton know complacency can be enemy of focus and execution.
During the season, motivation is a weekly challenge for Payton. In addition to compiling a game plan for the upcoming opponent, he spends time each week preparing a mission statement to mold the minds of his players and hone their focus. He delivers it in a PowerPoint presentation at the team meeting on Wednesday morning to set the tone for the week ahead. The message typically highlights a few simple statistical metrics Payton believes are keys to success in the upcoming game. An opponent’s record in games after the bye week. Or their success in home games on Monday Night Football.
But strategic plans often aren’t enough. Players sometimes need a little extra motivation to get ready for an upcoming game. And few coaches in the NFL are better motivators than Payton.
Payton learned most of his tactics from Bill Parcells, a master motivator who knew exactly which buttons to push and when to push them for each of his players. Payton has employed a similar M.O. over the years, and many of his ploys have become legendary among his players and coaches.
One of the most famous tactics came during the week of the 2019 NFC divisional playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles. When the team reconvened after the bye week that Monday morning, Payton wanted to make a statement to the players. He enlisted his assistant, Kevin Petry, and do-it-all executive, Jay Romig, to carry out his plan. The idea was to seize the players’ attention and motivate them for the playoff run. To pull it off, he asked Romig to order $201,000 in cash from a local bank. The booty represented the bonus money at stake for each player if they won the Super Bowl.
The cash arrived in a Brinks truck, and Romig housed it in the cylindrical glass case used to display the Lombardi Trophy in the lobby of the club’s Metairie offices. Not only was the case big enough to corral the 210 bricks of 1,000 $1 bills, but it also would provide the proper showcase for unveiling.
At the start of the team meeting, Payton began the session in usual fashion by addressing the team with his points of emphasis for the Eagles game. At the end of his speech, he gave the cue for Romig and Petry to enter the room from a side door, where they wheeled in the covered case on a cart. For effect, two armed guards accompanied the pair.
Then Payton read off the playoff bonus amounts for each round of the postseason: $29,000 for winning the divisional round, $54,000 for winning the NFC championship, and another $118,000 for winning the Super Bowl.
Payton then signaled for Romig to remove the cover of the display, and the players saw the glass case full of cash, along with the Lombardi Trophy. He then told his players if they wanted it, go win three more games. The room erupted. Players excitedly swarmed the display for selfies.
“It’s just Sean trying to give everybody a vision, especially the young guys, obviously as to what we’re after and the opportunity that we have, especially as the [No.] 1 seed,” Brees said.
Payton’s ploy was a reprise of a stunt he pulled during the Saints’ Super Bowl run in 2009. But the bonus money has doubled in the decade since. And because Brees and punter Thomas Morstead were the only players on the roster left from the Super Bowl team, the scheme hit home.
“It was surreal because I’ve never seen that much money in person, so when he brought that out…I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is for real? This is what we’re playing for?’” rookie defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth said.
In previous years, Payton littered the locker room and meeting rooms with mouse traps to warn players not to “eat the cheese” during a winning streak, a Parcellsian ploy to ward off complacency and overconfidence. Translation: don’t get too full of the good things people are saying about you.
Another time, he left empty gas cans in players’ lockers to remind them to keep fuel in the tank for the long season. He also brought baseball bats to the facility before a game to encourage players “to bring the wood” on Sunday.
At other times, he dropped leaflets with motivational messages into players’ lockers. One year it was a photo of the Superdome beneath shots of Panthers quarterback
