Report: Suspended Saints coach Sean Payton divorcing wife Beth

As if things couldn't get worse for suspended Saints coach Sean Payton this offseason, they just did: he's now going through divorce proceedings with his wife.

Payton and wife Beth are reportedly divorcing. (US Presswire)

You'd think that Saints coach Sean Payton, suspended one full year by the NFL for the bounty scandal, was having the worst offseason imaginable for a head coach. You'd be wrong, because Payton and his wife Beth reportedly began divorce proceedings in Texas last week.

That's according to Ryan Jones of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who obtained the petition for divorce, filed by Sean on June 14 in Tarrant County, Texas. (The petition does not specifically list Payton and his wife; Jones speculates that Tarrant County appears to be providing some privacy for the couple. Their initials, marriage date, childrens' birthdates and last name are all on the petition.)

Per Jones, the petition lists the grounds for divorce as "discord or conflict of personalities between Petitioner and Respondent that destroys the legitimate ends of the marriage relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation."

Making matters uglier is the counter-petition filed by Beth on June 26 in response to Sean's request for joint custody of the children. Beth requests to be appointed custodian "who has the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the children in Tarrant County, Texas."

There's a reason that "when it rains it pours" is an old saying, and Payton is getting doused this offseason. He's been suspended from his job for an entire year, left without his source of primary income, denied the $5.5-plus million he'd make in 2012, banned from contact with his friends in the coaching community and now on top of this he's got what could be a brutal divorce proceeding to deal with.

It's pretty hard to root for Payton given what went down with the Saints, but it's impossibly difficult to root against the guy right now. The worst part of all this is that because he's suspended, he won't have the opportunity to let work distract him from the personal issues he's dealing with over the next few months.

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