Sean Payton reminisces on ‘summer job’ as Cardinals ball boy, relationship with Bidwill family

Well isn’t that something. The Arizona Cardinals have not yet requested an interview with former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton as they work through their list of candidates to replace Kliff Kingsbury, but the Saints are expecting to hear from them soon — and Payton has a surprising connection to the Cardinals.

Payton spoke about his “summer job” as a ball boy for the Cardinals during way back when they were still based out of St. Louis, with their summer training camp held at Eastern Illinois in the 1980’s. Payton was a student there at the time, and he looks back on that time fondly.

“I was a ball boy for this team,” Payton said unprompted, during an interview with Colin Cowherd back in November, after the Cardinals lost to the Broncos in Week 12 and fell to 4-8 on the season. He continued, “And so the early years there in ’83, ’84 and ’85, it was (head coach Jim) Hanifan and then it became Gene Stallings. You know, we’d clean the rooms, bring towels to the rooms, we had a summer job. Neil Lomax had just taken over for Jim Hart (at quarterback). Mr. Bidwill Sr. was the owner at the time, and I think I know that family well enough.”

Payton added that then-high school student Joe Buck was also around at the time, and he helped show the future broadcaster some of the ropes: “And finally my junior or senior year, I handed out rosters, and got to hang out and eat with the team, work for the team.”

Now that’s fascinating. Payton won’t be taking the Cardinals job out of any sense of sentimentalism or gratitude for a part-time gig he had 37 years ago, but it’s interesting to see that connection is there. That familiarity with the Bidwill family and the organization has to matter to some extent.

And Cardinals ownership can’t quite keep from smiling when the topic of Payton has been brought up. Michael Bidwill inherited the team from his father Bill Bidwill, and he would have been a young peer of Payton’s when the future NFL head coach was carrying towels and handing out rosters at Eastern Illinois back in the day. When asked about his interest in Payton and whether there had been any dialogue with the Saints, Bidwill grinned and declined to get into details about the candidates he was pursuing for the job:

Arizona owns the third overall pick in April’s draft, but it’s unlikely they’ll make that available in any trade talks with New Orleans. They also selections early in rounds two and three (and they’re expecting to receive a compensatory third rounder), which they could package with their 2024 first round pick in a deal. But things only progress to that phase if they actually reach out and ask for an interview with Payton. We’ll see whether anything develops here.

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Story originally appeared on Saints Wire