Report: Payton to appeal fine

• Advocate staff report
• Published: Sep 29, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:45 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

NEW ORLEANS — According to ESPN, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton plans to appeal a $15,000 fine he received from the NFL for comments he made about the officiating in a 34-32 setback to the Denver Broncos last week.

Payton described a non-call as “a hard pill for me to swallow on a critical play like that” after a Broncos linebacker wasn’t called for lining up offsides on third-and-1, which the Saints failed to convert when Pierre Thomas was stopped for a 1-yard loss.

On the next play, kicker Martin Gramatica missed a 43-yard field goal that could have won the game and the Saints fell to 1-2 with their second straight road loss.