Netflix, ice cream helped Payton cope with Saints’ loss

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton met the media Wednesday for his season-ending news conference and said his team will recover from the heartbreaking and controversial loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game.

“This one, where it happened in the postseason, we’ve gotta be able to get past that. And we will,” Payton said.

“We’ve got good leadership on this team. I don’t know that you ever really get over it but you do get past it. And there’s enough resolve that this time away is healthy. And when it starts back up again in the spring … you get back at it again.”

Still, he acknowledged that the days following the Saints’ 26-23 overtime loss to the Rams on Jan. 20 — marred by a no-call on a play that the league admitted should have been called pass interference or helmet-to-helmet contact — were tough.

“What is it now, a week and a half? It feels like it’s been longer than that,” Payton said.

“I would say honestly after the game for two to three days, much like normal people, I sat and probably didn’t come out of my room, ate Jeni’s ice cream and watched Netflix for three straight days.”

He did have some phone conversations during that time, though.

The NFL’s head of officials, Al Riveron, called him immediately after the game and was “fantastic” and “brutally honest” during their conversation, Payton said, about the missed calls on a pass intended for receiver Tommylee Lewis.

He said he also talked to commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent.

“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. “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 is a member of the NFL competition committee and said he is hopeful the committee will find a way for so-called “judgment calls” to be reviewed.

–Field Level Media