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Sean Payton’s movie idea is almost as bad as his play-calling

By ArtieFufkin

Sean Payton acts out a scene from "The Xbox Kid". The refs are unimpressed.

Nola.com reports that Saints head coach Sean Payton is currently shopping a movie screenplay around Hollywood. And this isn’t just another crappy re-hash of a 1970s TV series or something. Oh no. Get this:

The movie, currently titled “The Xbox Kid,” is about a boy from a poor family in New Orleans who starts controlling the outcome of NFL games through a refurbished Xbox given to him by his grandfather following a devastating hurricane.

Payton said the idea came to him when his son Connor would play upcoming Saints games on his Xbox during the 2006 season.

“I just wrote about four pages, piddling around with it,” said Payton, who later turned the idea over to a professional screen writer to flesh it out.

The best joke that I could make right here has already been made, so I’ll just re-print it (from the comments of the Nola.com article):

“Hope the kid doesn’t run a reverse to kill the clock.”

BAAHAAHAAHAA!  Too funny.

CAA is currently shopping the script on Payton’s behalf, and let’s not kid ourselves, it’s more original than anything Hollywood has come up with in years. This thing is going to get picked up tomorrow.

Read on after the jump for an extended tirade on Sean Payton’s play-calling abilities.

But as the headline might have suggested, I’m not a big fan of Sean Payton. The Saints’ wunderkind has done pretty well for himself in the Big Easy, and before that in Dallas where Bill Parcells tagged him as the next disciple-in-waiting.  But Payton first made his mark in the NFL as offensive coordinator for the New York Giants.

And while the Giants made it to Super Bowl XXV in 2000, Payton seemed to fall in love with his playbook far too often. Legend has it he used to sleep in his office at the Meadowlands while coming up with plays, and I truly think he believed he could outsmart the game.  Instead of drawing up plays that played to the Giants strengths as athletes, he would be getting overly cute and running gadget plays at the wrong time.

Jim Fassel took play-calling duties away from Payton in 2002.  Today, Fassel no longer works in the NFL, and Payton is the new Hollywood darling.  Go figure.

But the prime example of Payton’s awful play-calling is the aforementioned fumbled double-reverse from the 2007 playoffs.  Against the Bucs, up 23-20 with 2:30 remaining, instead of running out the clock, Payton called this play, which he had dubbed the “Superdome Special”.  Double-reverse.  Drew Brees hands the ball to Reggie Bush who makes an awkward toss to Devery Henderson, which of course, he fumbles.  Tampa Bay drives the field for a game winning TD with :17 left.

I’m just saying, if I’m a Saints fan, I’m not too comfortable with that guy at the controls.