Is going to have a lot of time on his hands.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Saints head coach Sean Payton for the season after talking to him about his role in the Bounty-gate scandal.

Payton, assistant  coach Joe Vitt (seven-game suspension) and Saints general manager Mickey Loomis (eight-game suspension) all lost their appeals.

While Payton is disciplined, team officials decided it would be  best to keep his memory alive with some bizarre imagery. For example, the Saints purposely left vacant his chair in the draft room and team meeting rooms according to a report in the Sporting News. There will be seats left open on the team bus and team plane during the season.

Vitt, offensive coach Pete Carmichael, newly hired defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and special teams coordinator Grege McMahon all faced the media at the news conference following the first minicamp.

All of which means this is a win for the Eagles at New Orleans in Week Nine. That's one game after Vitt returns from suspension (the Saints bye week effectively gives him a seven-game suspension) to be the head coach against the Eagles.

A defensive assistant with the Eagles under Ray Rhodes from 1995-98, Vitt is 6-8 as an acting head coach, including a loss to the Eagles while in that capacity with the St. Louis Rams.

Vitt grew up in Blackwood, N.J. 

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