Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 6:17:38 GMT -8
Sean Payton rails against guns after Will Smith's death
Listen to Sean Payton. Carefully. He’s mad. Sad. Frustrated. Passionate.
“If this opinion in Louisiana is super unpopular,” Payton told USA TODAY Sports in a 33-minute phone conversation on Monday, his first interview since Will Smith’s death, “so be it.”
In the aftermath of the senseless shooting on Saturday night that left former defensive end Smith dead – and Smith’s wife Racquel wounded -- amid a beef linked to a traffic accident, the New Orleans Saints coach is pleading for more gun control.
He isn’t merely talking about tighter laws. If Payton had his druthers we’d live in a country without guns.
“Two hundred years from now, they’re going to look back and say, ‘What was that madness about?’ “ Payton said. “The idea that we need them to fend off intruders … people are more apt to draw them (in other situations). That’s some silly stuff we’re hanging onto.”
Payton is still processing the death of a former team captain -- who was weeks away from joining the Saints coach staff as an intern -- and no one in their right mind can blame him for expressing his raw, human emotion. He wants to get this off his chest, and it hardly matters if Payton is bucking conventional NFL coach speak by coming out strong on a hot-button political issue.
“I’m not an extreme liberal,” Payton said. “I find myself leaning to the right on some issues. But on this issue, I can’t wrap my brain around it.”
Payton, who grew up in suburban Chicago, said that his philosophy was influenced by his father, an insurance claims adjuster whose line of work was filled with tragedies. He also spent six months playing in a British football league during the late 1980s, before launching his coaching career.
“I hate guns,” he said.
“If this opinion in Louisiana is super unpopular,” Payton told USA TODAY Sports in a 33-minute phone conversation on Monday, his first interview since Will Smith’s death, “so be it.”
In the aftermath of the senseless shooting on Saturday night that left former defensive end Smith dead – and Smith’s wife Racquel wounded -- amid a beef linked to a traffic accident, the New Orleans Saints coach is pleading for more gun control.
He isn’t merely talking about tighter laws. If Payton had his druthers we’d live in a country without guns.
“Two hundred years from now, they’re going to look back and say, ‘What was that madness about?’ “ Payton said. “The idea that we need them to fend off intruders … people are more apt to draw them (in other situations). That’s some silly stuff we’re hanging onto.”
Payton is still processing the death of a former team captain -- who was weeks away from joining the Saints coach staff as an intern -- and no one in their right mind can blame him for expressing his raw, human emotion. He wants to get this off his chest, and it hardly matters if Payton is bucking conventional NFL coach speak by coming out strong on a hot-button political issue.
“I’m not an extreme liberal,” Payton said. “I find myself leaning to the right on some issues. But on this issue, I can’t wrap my brain around it.”
Payton, who grew up in suburban Chicago, said that his philosophy was influenced by his father, an insurance claims adjuster whose line of work was filled with tragedies. He also spent six months playing in a British football league during the late 1980s, before launching his coaching career.
“I hate guns,” he said.
He was joined in this chorus later Monday by Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Alvin Gentry, the coach of the city's NBA team, the New Orleans Pelicans.
"I feel like this is a problem that's been around for a long time," Brees said in an interview with local station WWL Radio. "And it's not just New Orleans, it's nationwide. It's worldwide. It's the way that people treat people. And somehow along the way we've all become desensitized to the fact that this stuff happens every day and it's OK, or we can just kind of move on from it as if it's gonna happen and it's part of the way things are and there's nothing we can really do about it.
"And it's overwhelming," Brees added. "It's overwhelming when you think about this epidemic, or this problem, of young, mainly young men, killing young men for no apparent reason."
Gentry called on the need "to eliminate such senseless violence in our city," saying he was "totally against" guns.
"I feel like this is a problem that's been around for a long time," Brees said in an interview with local station WWL Radio. "And it's not just New Orleans, it's nationwide. It's worldwide. It's the way that people treat people. And somehow along the way we've all become desensitized to the fact that this stuff happens every day and it's OK, or we can just kind of move on from it as if it's gonna happen and it's part of the way things are and there's nothing we can really do about it.
"And it's overwhelming," Brees added. "It's overwhelming when you think about this epidemic, or this problem, of young, mainly young men, killing young men for no apparent reason."
Gentry called on the need "to eliminate such senseless violence in our city," saying he was "totally against" guns.
More: espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15185257/sean-payton-new-orleans-saints-rails-gun-laws-smith-death