NFL BREAKING: Amid Cowboys Speculation, Coach Sean Payton Retiring From Saints

Multiple reports in the noon hour Tuesday have Payton deciding to step away from coaching and retire from the NFL.

FRISCO - The future of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has been determined - or at least part of it has.

Multiple reports in the noon hour Tuesday have Payton deciding to step away from coaching and retire from the NFL.

While it is really not fair, at this moment, to the Saints or to Payton's legacy in New Orleans, the Dallas Cowboys are attached here, at least via circumstantial evidence. (Read the Jerry Jones-related background here.) 

It’d been reported that Payton, 58, was considering retirement. And it’s been reported that FOX Sports would like to lure him from the sideline and into the TV booth.

On Tuesday morning, Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com offered an update of sorts on Payton.

“Sean Payton met with Saints GM Mickey Loomis for a couple of hours on Monday. That’s the latest and only news I’ve got on that front,” Duncan tweeted.

This comes on the Monday heels of team owner Gayle Benson saying she doesn’t know what Payton - who still has years left on his contract with New Orleans - might do.

Now she knows ... though the decision was obviously a difficult one for the coach, as FOX Sports insider Jay Glazer noted when commenting on Payton’s future in New Orleans on Monday.

“Sean changes his mind every two seconds,” Glazer said. “We talk about it a lot. It’s why I haven’t reported anything because he changes his mind like every two minutes.”

His mind is now set.

Glazer said the past two seasons have taken its toll on Payton due to the challenges of COVID-19. And there is no doubt that has presented the NFL with a great deal of obstacles.

But the Saints sort of needed to know; indeed, as much as Payton has earned the right to some elbow room in which to make a decision, New Orleans is owed something as well. And now the Saints move on, even though Payton has years left on his contract. Step into the FOX job? That can be a smooth move, though Troy Aikman's set-up has something to do with that. Explore that long-standing connection with the Dallas and the Joneses, who presently employ Mike McCarthy as the head coach? That is a complicated idea ... but one that won't fade until those involve offer more clarity.

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