Sean Payton is watching you

I always feel like somebody's watching me. (AP)

Is that a poster of Mao Zedong at Saints practice? Or Big Brother? No, it's just a creepy humongous picture of non-New Orleans coach Sean Payton that reminds the Saints that, well, Payton is watching them even if he's not there in person.

The Saints unveiled a huge picture of Payton at their practice facility Friday with the phrase, “Do your job” scrawled across the front.

Is it creepy? Sort of. Any less creepy than the Saints keeping a seat open at team meetings or on the team plane for the absent Payton? Perhaps not (and perhaps we should start referring to Payton as Elijah this year).

But most importantly, will that kind of motivation from the suspended coach actually work? I wouldn't doubt it.

Apparently, the work of art was the idea of Saints owner Tom Benson.

"Everybody in this organization has gotten that look," interim coach Joe Vitt said, via our pal Larry Holder at the New Orleans Times Picayune. "I've gotten that look before. But that's the motivation is that Sean is watching."

Right. And it is, well, scary.

“It's Sean's last message to Mickey [Loomis], Vitt to pass on to us,” tackle Jermon Bushrod said. “So when we walked in, when you walk in his eyes are on you and everywhere you go in here he's looking at you. It kind of creeps me out. ... He was looking at me and then when I got all the way there [the opposite end zone], he was still looking at [me]."

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