While much has been written about Sean Payton’s achievements as both an athlete and a coach, it’s his own words that paint the clearest picture of the man – and the heart – behind an accomplished life and career. In his book, Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life, written with Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, Payton reflects on his first “home team” – found in Naperville. In his opening chapter, “Football Dreams,” Payton shares: “Both my parents grew up around Scranton, Pennsylvania, anthracite coal country, although I was actually born in San Mateo, California. I was the third of four children with two sisters and a brother. My dad worked in insurance. He moved the family a couple of times. But Naperville is where I went to junior high and high school. It's where I learned to love the game of football.“I went out for the team at Naperville Central High School. […] No one would call me an instant standout. I mostly sat on the bench until my senior year. But I knew every diagram in the playbook, and I loved to analyze game films when I went home at night. Our coach, J.R. Bishop, liked my intensity. My senior year, he made me his starting quarterback. […]He told me I had the talent and the smarts to be a successful quarterback, and he said it with such conviction, I couldn't help but believe him. He trusted me enough to let me call my own plays when we were way ahead late in the game. […]The Redskins were quite a force in the DuPage Valley Conference in the fall of 1981. Our team made it to the playoffs that year.”The 1981 season was truly a storybook one for Payton, who served as senior co-captain with 2013 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Steve Bogdalek; it was equally as magical for his teammates, the school, and the community. That fall, the Redskins toppled East Suburban Catholic Conference champion Notre Dame by a score of 31-17, outgaining them in total yardage 384 to 31 and completing 25 first downs to the Dons’ five. Though the Redskins would fall to Reavis in the second round of the playoffs, their decisive win in the first round made a lasting impression on players and fans alike, including Payton, whose performance that season earned him a scholarship to Eastern Illinois University.Payton had a successful career as quarterback at Eastern, leading his Panthers to an 11-2 record and the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA Playoffs in 1986. He thrived under coach Al Molde’s system; Payton and his teammates became known as “Eastern Airlines,” a nickname inspired by their aggressive passing attacks that often topped 300 yards a game. Payton still holds the school record for passing yards in a single game, throwing for 509 yards. After graduation, he played arena football and was a replacement player for the Bears during the 1987 NFL players strike. His coaching career started in 1988 as an offensive assistant at San Diego State University, and he spent several years in assistant positions at colleges around the country. In 1997, he joined the ranks of NFL coaches, working with the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys before landing with the Saints in 2006, leading the team to the Super Bowl championship in 2009.Fresh off a Super Bowl win, Payton found himself drawn home. Approached by friend and country music singer Kenny Chesney to contribute to Chesney’s video for his single, “The Boys of Fall,” Payton returned to Naperville to address the Redhawk football team in a locker room speech prior to their game against Neuqua Valley. In his speech, he faced eager faces and shared, "Twenty-seven years ago, I sat in this locker room just like you guys. On a knee, getting ready to play a game. I would give anything tonight to jump in one of these uniforms with you." And in many ways, Payton’s spirit did. Trailing the Wildcats 17-0 at halftime, the Redhawks took his words to heart, and in true Cinderella fashion, staged a comeback, winning the game 21-17. The joy on the field under those glowing Friday night lights tugged at Payton, who understands well the fleeting nature of that Friday night feeling. As he told the team, "That feeling goes away […] and it doesn't come every Friday night […] but it does come back. It comes when you get married. It comes when your child's born. So you get it. You just don't get it every Friday night. You got plenty of time for tomorrow. But these ‘tonights’? They're going by fast."With a career and life full of special “tonights” scattered around the country, it’s the memory of his home “tonights” that resonates the most. Naperville Central, where his football dreams began, will always be the foundation of Payton’s story, with the chapters he continues to write perpetually adding to the legacy that is Naperville Central.