After Sean Payton's Suspension, Saints Scramble to Fill a Void Little more than two years ago, hours after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl, Sean Payton held a bleary-eyed morning news conference. With Mardi Gras beads around his neck and the Lombardi Trophy slung over one shoulder like a cardigan, Payton appeared to be celebrating the sublime revival of a city brought low by Hurricane Katrina as well as the dominance of a defense against three likely Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Near the end, Payton noted that with quarterback Drew Brees in his prime, the Saints burned to separate themselves further from the rest of the N.F.L. The party, one that Payton oversaw as one of the league's most powerful coaches, screeched to a halt last week as the Saints separated themselves from the league in a most unsavory way. The N.F.L. suspended Payton for the 2012 season for failing to stop, and working to cover up, the three-year existence of a bounty system that included targeting four quarterbacks, two of whom the Saints beat during their championship run, Kurt Warner and Brett Favre. The severity of the punishment - the N.F.L. had never suspended a head coach - was said to have stunned Payton and the Saints. Payton, whose duties include personnel matters and calling offensive plays, must stop working on April 1. A person briefed on the suspension said the league's edict did not offer details but broadly prohibited Payton from being involved in coaching the team. Could he buy a ticket to sit in the stands at a game? Could he have a three-hour phone call with Brees to discuss the game plan? The N.F.L. has no realistic way of monitoring Payton's interaction with Brees or anyone else in the organization. But the implication is that if the N.F.L. finds out that Payton has violated the suspension, he will be in even deeper trouble. Payton will lose at least $6 million in salary from the Saints and could seek work elsewhere, perhaps in television. On Friday, representatives for ESPN, NBC and CBS indicated that they had no plans to hire him. But Fox Sports, which carries N.F.C. games during the season, is open to the possibility. "Our feeling about Sean is that he's bright, articulate and obviously contemporary," said Lou D'Ermilio, Fox's senior vice president for communications. Any network with N.F.L. rights would have to consider it. The league responded in a statement: "He is suspended from the N.F.L. for the season. His involvement in any non-N.F.L. employment or business matters is not our decision. The Saints" immediate future is no easier to predict. "It's a disturbing situation in terms of how they proceed," said Bill Polian, the former president of the Indianapolis Colts, who is now an ESPN analyst. It's a shock. It's a shock to the whole organization. The Saints have an urgent need to designate an interim coach. But that is not an easy decision. Joe Vitt, the assistant head coach, would have been an obvious choice but he was suspended for six games. The offensive coordinator, Pete Carmichael, who called plays last season after Payton hurt his knee, would be Polian's choice because the offense is experienced and established. But the defense is being overhauled under the new coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, and Carmichael is familiar with the way Payton runs practices and meetings. Charley Casserly, the former Houston Texans general manager who is now an analyst for NFL Network, said he would make Spagnuolo the interim coach because he has previous head coaching experience and because Casserly would prefer to leave intact the staff for the high-powered offense, the team's backbone. Whomever General Manager Mickey Loomis, the owner Tom Benson and Payton choose as interim coach will spend intensive time with Payton and Loomis before April 1. Payton had considerable say on personnel decisions, and Loomis must direct next month's draft without him. Although Loomis will also be around for the final roster cuts in the summer, he and the interim coach will want to determine personnel plans while Payton is still available. During Loomis's eight-game suspension, senior members of the personnel staff will manage any transactions caused by injuries. "You want to draw everything you can out of him," Casserly said of Payton. Make sure you're all together on draft strategy. The interim coach will probably also talk to Payton about team priorities and running practices and off-season workouts. But after that, the interim coach will be on his own.