Sean Payton’s 2 Kids: All About the Denver Broncos Coach’s Daughter Meghan and Son Connor

Sean Payton's children are as involved in football as he is

Sean Payton balances his life on the field with his role as a dad to kids Meghan and Connor.

Payton began his NFL coaching career in 1997 as a quarterback coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. After successful tenures with the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, Payton got his first head coaching opportunity, helming the New Orleans Saints. He secured his legacy in the city after leading the team to their first Super Bowl win in 2009.

Outside of football, Payton is a father to his daughter Meghan and son Connor. Over the years, they’ve been alongside him through his career highs and lows, building their own lives while sharing his love for sports. Meghan has pursued a career in media, while Connor is working toward a job in an NFL front office.

Following the 2021 season, Payton announced his retirement from coaching, a move that was welcomed by his children. “I know he’s excited to kind of have some free time and be able to come down here and visit me and go visit Meghan a little bit in California,” Connor told WDSU News. “He’s definitely looking forward to it, and we are too."

Payton enjoyed downtime with his family, including his wife Skylene Montgomery, before making a comeback in 2023 with the Denver Broncos.

Here's everything to know about Sean Payton’s kids: Meghan and Connor.

Meghan Payton, 27

Payton and his first wife, Beth Shuey, welcomed their daughter Meghan Payton in 1997.

As Payton's career took him to different places across the United States for work, Meghan followed along. She moved to Louisiana, with her family when her father accepted the New Orleans Saints head coaching job in 2006. Meghan later relocated to California when she enrolled at Pepperdine University in 2015.

The significant life event brought up mixed emotions for Payton, who described the bittersweet experience of setting up her dorm.

“A good part of the day was spent at Walmart, and I would say storage and space and organization were at a premium,” he joked to reporters. “So whether it was finding shelving for a television set ... just doing normal dad stuff. Kind of a lump-in-your-throat type day, too, when you leave. But I’m excited for her.”

At Pepperdine, Meghan studied sports journalism and media production, which opened doors to an internship with the NFL’s rotational program. One assignment took a personal turn in 2016 when she interviewed her father for NFL Network’s Total Access.

Far from going easy on him, Meghan pressed Payton about the Saints’ playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings. While he answered her questions, he jokingly mentioned that his Lake Tahoe golf getaway had been interrupted by the direct questioning from his own daughter.

Reflecting on the experience, Meghan admitted it was more challenging than expected.

"It was harder to interview my dad than I thought it would be because with someone so close to you, you already know a lot about them,” she explained in an interview with the GALvanize mentorship program in 2016.

When she got a chance to work the sidelines of her first NFL game, the proud dad shared the footage with family and friends and offered some feedback of his own. He also opened up about seeing his daughter in action.

“There’s nothing like it as a parent when you get a chance to see ... they’re growing up and all of a sudden they’re in this role,” he told KLFY in 2018. “When we moved here, she was 9 or 10 years old, and now she’s doing sideline reporting.”

Since then, Meghan has worked as a reporter for a New Orleans ABC affiliate, Fox Sports, the Action Network and SportsGrid, according to her FanDuel TV bio. Meghan also won an Emmy in 2020 for producing the NFL Network’s NFL 100 show. She is currently a host and analyst for FanDuel TV.

In June 2023, Meghan married writer and actor Chris Titone. Titone helped produce the script for Home Team, a film about Payton's time coaching Connor’s sixth-grade football team during his 2012 NFL suspension. The idea came from Meghan and a segment she produced for the NFL Network.

Connor Payton, 24

Payton and Shuey welcomed their son Connor Payton in 2000.

With his dad still coaching the Saints in New Orleans, Connor and Meghan commuted on weekends from Texas to spend time with him. But in 2012, an unexpected turn allowed the father and son to connect in a new way.

Payton's NFL suspension in the “Bountygate” scandal — in which Saints players were allegedly paid bonuses, or “bounties,” for injuring opposing players — allowed time for him to step in as an assistant on Connor’s sixth-grade football team. It would be a stark contrast to the high-stakes world of professional coaching.

“One of the things I'm looking forward to doing this fall is helping coach my son's football team and doing a few things that you normally wouldn't be able to do while coaching in the NFL,” he told the Associated Press (via ESPN) in 2012.

He welcomed the chance to spend more time with Connor, adding, “I look forward to cutting the oranges, hauling the Gatorade and watching my son play every game — and being a part of calling plays for his offense and doing some things like that that really get me excited and I know get him excited.”

Their unique season together even inspired the film Home Team, produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, with Kevin James portraying the embattled coach. For Payton, the suspension was a blessing in disguise.

“Absolutely (the best thing about the suspension) is the time it's allowed me to spend with the children," he reflected in a 2012 Q&A with Nola.com. “One of the things about what we do, so many times you're missing things, getting pictures of things we miss, phone calls of what you missed.”

After graduating, Connor continued his journey by enrolling at Texas Christian University with aspirations of eventually working in an NFL front office. By his senior year in 2022, he was getting hands-on experience with the Saints’ scouting department during training camp.

“This organization has meant everything to me,” he told WDSU News in 2022. “Just being a football kid, it’s almost hard not to love it and want to have a career in it. ... Growing up around the Saints and in New Orleans, how can you not want to work in football and ... make your own path in it?”

When his father departed the Saints in 2022, Connor posted a heartfelt tribute on X (formerly Twitter), sharing photos of their moments on the sidelines and post-game over the years. He captioned it, “from age 6 to 21, thank you and love you all #WhoDat.”