<span>              <span style="">Saints Coach Sean Payton</span>                

"It's hard to come up here and talk about the significance of that group of guys in the locker room and the significance of this win. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of our fans. I'm proud of the hard work it took to get us to this spot. It's a pretty special feeling. Any Questions?"

(on defense) "There was a lot of momentum shifts in that game. Just after the game ended I had a chance to visit with (Brett) Favre for about five minutes, and I've never seen two quarterbacks compete and two defenses hang in there, and the offensive lines play the way these did today. I tip my hat to Minnesota. You had two teams that played their hearts out. I'm glad we were able to win and I'm proud of just having a chance to coach these guys in a game like this. Garrett (Hartley) hit a big kick obviously, for us and we just kept fighting. The momentum shifted back and forth and we just kept battling and it was a heck of a game."

(on what he told Hartley) "I just told him there's a little fleur de lis up there right between both uprights, and I said why don't you see if you can hit this fleur de lis dead center. We belong, you are here for a reason and you are going to hit it through. He has just been real consistent for us and obviously it was a big kick."

(on the significance to this organization) "It's hard (to explain). Four years ago, there were holes in this roof. The fans in this city and this region deserve it. Like I said before, I'm just proud to be a part of it, to be part of something that is so special for this city and well deserved."

(on comparing now to when he first came to New Orleans) "There are a handful of coaches and players that were on that first team, and I would say to those players and coaches that aren't here now, they're just as much a part of this. They know who they are. I can't go through every one of the names, but there are a lot of people who came when no one else wanted to come. There a lot of coaches and a lot of players that aren't with us now, and I appreciate them."

(on fourth down call in OT) "I'm trying to think of the call, did we go for it? We weren't close enough for a field goal. We called everyone over and said, 'hey, look we've come this far.' Pierre (Thomas) ran behind those two guys and did a great job of getting the yard and a half we needed. It was significant."

(on the takeaways) "I know this; we came up with the turnover margin pretty significantly. I think five-to-one, so credit Minnesota at five-to-one and we win by a field goal. That's unusual."

(on Pierre Thomas) "He played hard. He battled. The screen play early in the game to answer their touchdown was significant when they went up seven-nothing it was kind of like last week. He made a bunch of big plays. He's been a big part of what we've done so I'm happy with the way he played."

(on playing the Colts and Peyton Manning in the Superbowl) "He's a special player. We had a chance to watch some of his game today and then we turned it off. The four best teams played today, and the first half of that game, the little bit that we got to watch, we saw two AFC teams playing their hearts out. It's a credit to Indianapolis and Peyton (Manning). Its been a while since the number one seeds met and we are excited to be in this game and look forward to the challenge."