Sean Payton Reveals Legendary Mentor He Still Calls to Talk Football: 'He's Like a Father to Me'!

The Denver Broncos are preparing to make a playoff run in 2025, under the ever-impressive coaching of HC Sean Payton.

Sean Payton took over as the head coach of the Denver Broncos in 2023, inheriting a team that hadn’t had a winning season since Gary Kubiak’s final season in charge in 2016.

Payton took the Broncos back to the playoffs in the 2024 season, in only his second season in charge. He’s now hoping to fight for the division title in an extremely competitive AFC West, and continues to lean on one incredible mentor.

Sean Payton still calls Bill Parcells regularly to talk football, ‘I feel like I’m talking to my father’

Sean Payton’s first coaching job was as an assistant at San Diego State. He’d gone undrafted in the 1987 NFL draft, and after short stints as a player, including appearances in the Arena Football League and a call up to the ‘spare bears’ during the 1987 player strike, he went straight into coaching.

Payton took various roles in the world of college football and went on to become a quarterbacks coach at both the University of Miami (OH) and Illinois.

He eventually earned a role in the NFL in 1997 as a QB coach under Jon Gruden, who was the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator at the time. When Andy Reid took over as the HC of the team, Payton was not retained.

From there, he took the same role with the New York Giants before being promoted to the offensive coordinator in 2000.

Sean Payton was eventually hired by Bill Parcells in what would be his final head coaching role in the NFL. Parcells was hired by Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys in 2003, coming out of retirement to take the role, and sought out Payton as his assistant head coach, and coach to the QBs.

The franchise was struggling to find a franchise QB at the time, but under Payton’s guidance, Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe all had impressive years as the starter.

Payton was quickly climbing the ranks, and Parcells and the Cowboys had to give him a raise to keep him in the building.

Eventually, an opportunity came up with the New Orleans Saints in 2006. Sean Payton inherited a three-win team, and a city that was rebuilding in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

Much like the Broncos, this was a franchise that hadn’t been to the playoffs in a long time.

Sean Payton enlisted Drew Brees as his starting quarterback, and immediately led the Saints to the NFC Championship game in his first season in charge.

Three years later, the Saints were back, and this time beat out the Minnesota Vikings in overtime of the NFC title game, before defeating Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

Payton won 118 games with the Saints, and is now looking to pull off a similar feat with the Denver Broncos.

Before heading into his third season in charge, Payton sat down with Kay Adams at training camp. She pointed out that he was just three wins away from passing Bill Parcells on the all-time leaderboard. Adams then asked Payton what the phone call with Parcells would be like when he overtakes him.

He replied:

“We talk all the time. It’s funny, when I call Bill and we talk football, we immediately go back into, he’s the head coach and I’m the entry level assistant, and I feel like I’m talking to my father.

He’s been so important to what I do. Those three years for me were like law school, and still at age 82, he’s extremely sharp with situations and games.”

Sean Payton has 170 career wins, while Parcells retired with 173. If the Denver Broncos get off to a hot start in the 2025 season, Payton could overtake his mentor in Week 3 against the LA Chargers.

Sean Payton’s one opportunity to face Bill Parcells as head coaches in the NFL

Sean Payton took the New Orleans Saints job in the offseason of 2006, and one of their preseason games that year was against the Dallas Cowboys.

The 2006 season turned out to be the last that Bill Parcells coached in the NFL, but he did get the opportunity to school one of his students before he left the game for good.

It was only a preseason game, but the Saints got beaten badly. They didn’t score a single point for the first three quarters, and the game finished 30-7 in favor of the Dallas Cowboys.

Payton has valued Parcells’ role in his career for years, and the legendary coach always respected his work ethic.

Parcells once said:

“I just like him. He likes football. Football’s important to him. He was a very dedicated guy, he worked very hard, he was trying to get better. He had high aspirations, and you try to help those kind of guys. I always tried to, anyway.”

Payton has been known to lock himself in the facility and study the game, constantly finding ways to improve. He got a lot of that from the time he spent with Jon Gruden, and will now be hoping it shows when the Denver Broncos take the field in 2025.