The Hilarious Way Kenny Chesney Became Friends with Sean Payton

Kenny Chesney has stories. The country music star sat with Rich on The Rich Eisen Show and traced his decades-long friendship with Sean Payton back to a single night that nearly torpedoed a New York Giants training camp.

Chesney met Payton when Payton was the Giants' quarterbacks coach under Jim Fassel. Chesney was friends with quarterback Kerry Collins. The Giants were holding camp in Albany, New York. Chesney's tour was playing the arena downtown. Collins invited Chesney to practice. Chesney returned the favor and invited the Giants to the show.

He didn't really meet Payton that day. He almost dismissed him, in his own words.

Then the show happened.

"The next day Sean calls Jim Fassel and says, 'Look, we got a problem,'" Chesney recalled. "He goes, 'We had 16 guys miss curfew last night.'"

These weren't rookies. Real veterans. Jeremy Shockey. Jason Garrett. Kerry Collins. A dozen-plus Giants paid the fine because Kenny Chesney had played a show down the street.

That was the introduction. The friendship took root later. Payton went to work for Bill Parcells in Dallas, and that's where the bond formed. When Payton was named head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Chesney happened to be playing the Cajun Dome in Lafayette, Louisiana on the same day.

From there, Chesney bought a suite in the Superdome, partly as an excuse to spend time with his father. Night games in New Orleans became a ritual.

"The loudest I've ever heard an indoor stadium in the NFL is a night game in New Orleans during the Sean Payton, Drew Brees era," Chesney said.

The single loudest moment, he said, was the NFC Championship Game when New Orleans beat Minnesota to reach the Super Bowl. He brought up another candidate too, the night the Superdome reopened after Hurricane Katrina, when Steve Gleason blocked the punt that became a statue.

Chesney described the goosebumps he still gets thinking about it. Michael Vick fumbled on the opening drive. The ball came loose. The crowd thought a turnover was coming and roared. Then it rolled out of bounds. Then the punt got blocked. Touchdown. Stadium reborn.

"I've never heard a stadium like that," Chesney said. "You could feel the Superdome shake. It was almost unsafe."

Then came the Super Bowl. Chesney went down to Miami. He did Chris Berman's pre-game show on the spot, navigated a question about Peyton Manning versus Sean Payton with a polite line about wanting Peyton to win, and confessed to Rich he'd already had a couple of Bloody Marys at the hotel bar.

A few days earlier, Payton had asked Chesney to play the after-party. Chesney refused payment and asked only for eight tickets for his band.

Then the Saints won.

Driving from Miami to the stadium on his tour bus, Chesney got a text from Payton telling him to look out the left window. The Saints team bus was right next to him. Payton waved him in. Chesney's tour bus rolled into the Super Bowl behind a police escort.

The band didn't take the stage until 1:30 in the morning. By then Chesney had logged plenty of cocktails. He doesn't remember every detail. He remembers the moment.

"If I live to be 120," he told Rich, "I will not forget that."