After 16 years in New Orleans, Payton was burned out on an existential level. The job was hard enough to do under ideal circumstances; to have his legacy subject to blown calls and bureaucracy left deep scars. He decided to walk away. "I got tired," he says. "There was a feeling, I would say on my part, of losing the jump balls in this game. You know? Success or lack of success with the Saints is a blip on the NFL."