NEW ORLEANS // Sean Payton's many motivational ploys included a life-size poster of an exit door on the locker-room wall at the Saints headquarters. It served as a not-so-subtle reminder that finding the way out of the organisation was easy for those who failed to buy in to his way.
The NFL has shown Payton the door, suspending him for the 2012 season after it was found that the Saints paid bounties to players who successfully injured members of opposing teams. The move has left the Saints reeling, trying to figure out how to move forward without their No 1 coach.
A person familiar with the situation said that three current assistants are strong candidates to take over in Payton's absence: the offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr, the defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and the offensive line coach Aaron Kromer.
The Saints also must orchestrate a shuffle of their management and coaching staffs to account for partial-season suspensions of the general manager Mickey Loomis (eight games) and the assistant head coach Joe Vitt (six games), who also coaches linebackers.
It is believed that Payton and Loomis still have the backing of Tom Benson, the team owner, and the club could appeal the punishments handed down by Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner.
The Saints also do not know who they will have playing defence. The NFL still has not decided how to punish players who participated in the bounty system, and the Saints may have to replace several defensive regulars for a few games.
A more immediate priority is having a plan in place to fill the voids left by Payton's suspension, which begins on April 1, and the absence of Loomis. The GM will be able to oversee the draft and signings all the way through training camp, but will have to prepare his staff for his absence for half of the season.
Payton's influence seemed to touch every aspect of the franchise. The lone coach to lead the club to a Super Bowl championship has had a hand in everything from personnel decisions to the photos and slogans hanging in various meetings rooms and giant murals on the walls of the practice field.
Payton preached the importance of communication and coordination between not just the coaching staff, scouts and front office, but also the business and marketing sides of the franchise.
A saving grace for the Saints could be the experience of the staff working under both Payton and Loomis, along with the veterans in the locker room, starting with the quarterback Drew Brees.
Brees and Payton worked in lockstep. The coach often consulted his quarterback on the mood of the locker room, and sought his input on when it might be a good idea to change routines or give players a day off.
One potential problem: Brees has said he is not happy with the "franchise" tag the team placed on him. The Saints still hope to work out a long-term deal with him if they can get closer on the money Brees is seeking after passing for a record 5,476 yards last season.
Things will change in Payton's absence, but the Saints have candidates for his interim replacement.
Carmichael took over play-calling when Payton suffered a broken leg in a sideline collision last year. The Saints were 9-1 afterwards. He has been with the Saints since 2006, when Payton and Brees also arrived, and Brees has often spoken of how much he likes working with Carmichael.
He was an offensive assistant in San Diego from 2002 through 2005, while Brees was with the San Diego Chargers.
Spagnuolo is coming off a three-year stint leading the St Louis Rams. Before that, he was the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants' 2007/08 championship team that stifled Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. He is known for bringing the kind of intensity to the sideline and locker room that Payton does.
Kromer has a decade of NFL coaching experience. He arrived in New Orleans in 2008, the year before the Saints won their only Super Bowl, and oversaw one of the best offensive lines in the league.
In the front office, Loomis has several experienced hands reporting to him, including the director of football administration Khai Harley, who is seen as a Loomis protege.
* Associated Press
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20S24%20ULTRA
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SPEC SHEET
Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support
Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR
Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Stereo speakers
Biometrics: Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular
Finish: Space grey, starlight, pink, purple, blue
Price: Wi-Fi – Dh2,499 (64GB) / Dh3,099 (256GB); cellular – Dh3,099 (64GB) / Dh3,699 (256GB)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The%20specs
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