New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton is known for his sometimes-bizarre motivational tactics. Whether he’s posting corny cartoons on the bulletin board or hanging gas masks in the locker room (cautioning players not to get “gassed up” by media power rankings and their own overconfidence), he’s always looking for ways to fire up his players while keeping them focused on the task at hand. Sometimes that’s resulted in pointedly placing empty gas cans next to older players’ lockers.
Last season, that meant flying in college mascots like “Purdue Pete” and the Michigan State Spartan to celebrate upset wins over his players’ alma maters. During an appearance on Pro Football Talk from Miami ahead of Super Bowl 54, Alvin Kamara recalled one of Payton’s most-bizarre maneuvers yet.
“One week he brought in some fish,” Kamara said, “He was throwing dead fish in the team meeting room. It was for Seattle, with their fish market. I’m talking about, he’s throwing fish in the team meeting room, it smelled like fish for two days. People were catching them, but they were slippery.”
The famous Pike Place Fish Market is one of Seattle’s most iconic tourist draws, and Payton obviously took notice of what winning the important early-season road game could mean to his team. And lighthearted as it is, the move paid off: that Week 3 win over the Seattle Seahawks was arguably the most-complete game the Saints played all year, featuring a huge scoop-and-score defensive touchdown by Vonn Bell, a long punt returned for a touchdown by Deonte Harris (who went on to receive first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl recognition), and the best performance in recent memory from Kamara, who scored several touchdowns while shredding the vaunted Seahawks defense through the air and on the ground. Maybe Payton should toss some dead fish around the team meeting room more often.
