Sean Payton Used a Giant Pile of Cash to Motivate Players for Super Bowl Run
If capturing a Super Bowl isn't enough motivation for the Saints this postseason, coach Sean Payton knows exactly what is.
Payton brought a stack of more than $200,000 in cash, a Vince Lombardi Trophy and a Super Bowl ring—along with three armed guards to keep them all safe—into New Orleans' team meeting room on Monday.
The cash total represented the $201,000 playoff bonus Saints players could earn if they go on to win Super Bowl LIII, according to the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, per ESPN. Bankruptcy attorney Jon DeTrinis was first to break the story.
Payton also delivered a simple but poignant message perhaps equal to his display.
"Y'all want this?" Payton asked. "Win three f---ing games."
The locker room apparently erupted. Saints running back Mark Ingram called Payton's tactic "very appealing."
"The Lombardi sitting right there in front of it, the ring sitting right in front of it, the armed guards. It was pretty dope," Ingram told ESPN. "But we still gotta go out there and do what we do."
