Sean Payton opens up about why he left the Saints (merged)

Not sure. I think there is definite bias against franchises whose success disrupted the direction the NFL wanted to go. Payton's continued success beyond 2009 is not something the NFL was ready for, certainly not after they were forced to keep the Saints in New Orleans, post-Katrina. Remember, that was a Tagliabue call, not a Goodell call.
But it still doesn’t make sense. The League kept putting the Saints in the spotlight by giving the max or near max prime time games.
Even this season, with DA, the Saints got 3.