Sean Payton, now entering his third season with the Denver Broncos, has been one of the most successful head coaches in the NFL over the last 20 years. During his long run with the New Orleans Saints, he went 152-89, won a Super Bowl and made it to two other NFC Championship Games.
Before taking the Saints' head coaching job in 2006, Payton was an assistant coach under Bill Parcells with the Dallas Cowboys. It was a matter of time before he got his first head coaching opportunity, and ultimately, New Orleans proved to be the perfect fit as he paired with quarterback Drew Brees.
ESPN's Peter Schrager has a new podcast called "The Schrager Hour," and Payton was the guest for the debut episode that was released on Wednesday ahead of the 2025 NFL season.
Sean Payton gives new details about old Raiders story
Back in 2010, in his autobiography, Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life, Payton recalled a two-day head coaching interview he had in 2004 with legendary Raiders owner Al Davis.
After a long first day of questions on everything from defensive fronts to player tickets, Davis sent an assistant to get dinner.
"He came back with a bag of cheeseburgers. Not Quarter Pounders with cheese or Big Macs. The kids menu cheeseburgers — 10 of them," Payton wrote. "Like the kind that come with the Happy Meal. And then there was another bag of Kentucky Fried Chicken cole slaw."
While this seems like a weird and pretentious bone to pick, Payton then revealed that he had been advised not to take the Raiders' head coaching job.
His boss, Parcells, backed up the sentiment by citing the words of three other coaches he had worked with: John Fox, and former Raiders head coaches Bill Callahan and Jon Gruden.
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Talking to Schrager this week, Payton had a slightly different perspective on his long-ago conversation with Davis. Schrager framed it as the first time Payton has ever told this specific story, and Payton said he first learned of Davis' interest in him from Parcells himself.
"Bill comes to see me and he says, 'Al Davis wants to interview you for the head job.' And he said, 'I'm gonna be honest with you, I think he's gonna wanna hire you.' So I fly out to Oakland, spend three days with Mr. Davis, and then have a family vacation in Florida," Payton said. "[Davis] and I would speak nightly now about staff, and it became apparent to me that he was going to offer me this job. I went to Jos. A. Bank and got my black suit with the silver tie. Thursday, at Disney World, I get a call in the morning from Michael Lombardi. He says, 'Look, Al wants to speed this up.' There was still three days left of this vacation. He said, 'Well, you're gonna have to call Al.'"
After completing the vacation, Payton said he visited the Raiders and Davis for another three days. At this point, Parcells was getting impatient, since he would have had to replace Payton if he was going to leave. Parcells reinforced that Payton would have other head coaching opportunities down the road if he turned down the Raiders. Then came another call.
"After [Parcells and I] hung up, two minutes later, the phone rings and it was (Cowboys owner and general manager) Jerry (Jones)," Payton said.
Jones invited Payton to his house, sending a driver to pick him up. Payton, of course, stayed in Dallas through the 2005 season.
"There's a moral of this story," Payton said. "If Jerry's the last guy you see, you're probably staying."
How Payton would've faired as head coach of the Silver and Black is unknown. What we do know is that, with the ultimate hiring of Norv Turner in 2004 when it was all said and done, the Raiders have had 13 full-time or interim coaches, counting Pete Carroll, since Payton had that interview.