ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — How do you whittle down 15 years’ worth of stories about the Hall of Fame quarterback with whom you set countless records and hoisted a Lombardi Trophy into a 10-minute window?Sean Payton did it by sitting down for hours with the Hall’s ceremony producers on a June morning inside the Denver Broncos’ training facility to describe his time in New Orleans with Drew Brees, who will officially be inducted as a first-ballot Hall of Famer next weekend in Canton, Ohio.And then, at his own request, Payton did it again in the afternoon.“There’s a series of questions and statements for you (to respond to) as they put it together, and your fear is it’s not going to be good enough or complete enough; at least that’s how I felt,” Payton said Thursday. “But (the producers) were here the whole day and I asked if they were going to (still) be there after (minicamp) practice. I said, ‘OK, I’m going to come back and put the coat and tie on, and I want you to do the whole thing over again. (The producer) asked me why. I said, ‘I just know if we do the whole thing over again, there’s going to be certain answers that are different that you reflect on. So after practice we went back for another three hours because there’s that feeling: ‘Is it good enough?'”Payton’s commitment to his role as Brees’ presenter, spending hours on a project that will be condensed into a 10-minute video that will precede the quarterback’s speech, helps explain the emotions that dashed through the 62-year-old coach when Brees asked him to present him at the Hall of Fame in April. Payton’s eyes watered as he took a FaceTime call from the quarterback while awaiting dinner at a restaurant. His voice caught in his throat. A decade and a half of memories came dashing back. The Saints’ first — and still only — Super Bowl after the 2009 season. The games where Brees rendered his own punter’s job obsolete. The days where it was hard to remember the ball ever hitting the ground.
Sean Payton reflects on Drew Brees as QB’s Hall of Fame presenter
Payton was Brees' head coach in New Orleans for 14 seasons.







