True story: My wife and I were watching the local news yesterday evening and Jim Henderson was covering the Sean Payton to Dallas story. It's been the top story on the evening news the past two nights. Disturbed that such a big deal was being made about this whole mess, she got on top of her soapbox and started voicing her opinions to me and me alone. Well, maybe the cats were listening.
So I started typing. She asked me to stop but I told her this was good stuff and kept typing. She kept talking. When she was done, I had enough for an entire post. What follows is her entire take on the recent drama that's been caused in Who Dat Nation amidst the revelation that Sean Payton's family would be moving to Dallas. I thought it was interesting enough to share and I also thought you'd get a kick out of hearing what my better half had to say for a change.
By the way...she reads the blog.
"People have to get over it. At the end of the day, it's football. Just football. It's so stupid. It''s silly.
"I can understand being upset about [former mayor Ray] Nagin not living here. To me, that's different. But Payton, Brees, they don't owe the city anything more. Payton's not even from here. So what does he owe us? He was here after Katrina. He already won a Super Bowl for us. What more does he owe us?
"Of course New Orleans holds a special place in his heart. He won a Super Bowl with the team. He's been here five years already, probably longer than the average lifespan of a coach. Now his family has to stay here for the rest of their lives? He has to be buried here? How often does that happen in football? People need to grow up and move on.
"Besides, he is living on the Northshore. It's not like he chose to live in the heart of New Orleans. He'd already opted out of living in actual New Orleans when he first moved here. The Northshore is probably as close as your going to get to that Dallas suburb in the New Orleans area.
"Perhaps he's not a real New Orleans kinda guy or they're a real New Orleans kinda family. What you find charming about New Orleans, some people find slow and old. Some people want a nice new house in a gated community with a perfect school. You don know anything about him personally. It's probably just not where they want to live.
"For a number of reasons Payton has decided with his family that Dallas is where they want to end up. They want Dallas to be their home. Big deal. It's not insulting. I think people in New Orleans can sometimes go a little too far with all this New Orleans pride. There are other nice places to live in the world.
"Maybe his family can get a little more privacy in Dallas. Saints fans can often be like the clingy, stalker girlfriend that won't leave you alone. All this drama is proof of that. Maybe they don't want to be around people that are too emotionally attached.
"I guess I just look at it more from a family perspective. Just like when everyone wondered if Drew would miss a game for the birth of his son. He gets to be there when his kid is born. If he wants to not play a football game and take a day off of work, he should get to do that. In what other profession would it be acceptable to miss the birth of your baby? I don't even think the president would miss the birth of his child.
"When Drew was having his baby and everyone made a big deal about it. I looked at the from the perspective of his wife who has been somehow dragged into this nonsense where everyone thinks they have a right to your business. They're just normal people. They poop just like us and they have families just like us. It's nobody's business. I'm sorry, it's football.
"I think some people feel too strongly. It's like Sean Payton just broke up with the fans. Why do people feel that way? I don't even know that much about football but I know this is just how things work. The chances of somebody staying in the same place their entire career and everything working out just so are slim to none.
"I promise you that if you post this, people will be pissed at me. People will tell me I don't understand. Well, I get it and I do understand. I just don't agree with it. I have a different perspective."