Report: New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton has been made a very rich man

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton watches his team warm up before the 2011 NFC divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park. (Jason O. Watson-USA TODAY Sports)

There is no better way to prove one’s worth than to watch someone else flail, falter, and eventually fail at the job you are supposed to be doing.

The New Orleans Saints entered offseason training primed for another big year 2012. However, players and fans were basically forced to suffer through a wasted season after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended coach Sean Payton for the entire season following a scandal that involved offering bounties if players injured members of the opposition.

The team currently sits at 7-8 and will not make the playoffs following runs under not one, but two interim head coaches.

Thus, when Payton is eligible to return to his full-time coaching duties on Feb. 4, a day after the Super Bowl, he will be doing so as the league’s richest coach.

On Saturday, he and the organization agreed to a five-year contract that will pay Payton a whopping $8 million annually.

According to ESPN, while the salaries of coaches are often secretive, it is believed New England Patriots coach Bill Belichik currently makes just under that amount.

Payton led the Saints to the franchise’s first title in 2009. Obviously, team ownership is confident he can bring the organization back to the pinnacle of the sport.

With that amount of money now on the line, the expectations will be for nothing less than exactly that.

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