{"id":774872,"date":"2017-12-08T01:12:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T06:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=774872"},"modified":"2017-12-08T01:12:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T06:12:08","slug":"devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Devonta Freeman accuses Sean Payton of doing choke gesture at him during game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Falcons nearly choked late in Thursday&#8217;s game against the Saints, but a Deion Jones interception bailed the team out and they emerged victorious with a 20-17 win over their division rival.<\/p>\n<p>Saints head coach Sean Payton apparently did the best he could to try to get in his opponents&#8217; heads, though, as he was seen doing a choke gesture on the sideline in the fourth quarter of the game. Payton appeared to put his hand on his throat and then mouthed &#8220;choke,&#8221; which you can see in these photos from Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com below.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Admittedly, I\u2019m not lip reader but this sequence seems to validate Freeman\u2019s claim. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fXeLroH6NJ\">pic.twitter.com\/fXeLroH6NJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffDuncan_\/status\/939009119473639426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Falcons running back Devonta Freeman confirmed that he saw Payton do the choke gesture in speaking to reporters after the game, and added that it was directed at him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I saw it,&#8221; Freeman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/web\/status\/939008449282576384\">said<\/a>, via Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. &#8220;That man don\u2019t know nothing about choking. He ain\u2019t from where I\u2019m from. He\u2019s a good competitor so the competin\u2019 probably came out. But you don\u2019t let that bother you.He don\u2019t know nothing about chokin&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Falcons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Falcons<\/a> RB Devonta Freeman on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Saints?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Saints<\/a> coach Sean Payton making the \u2018choke\u2019 sign at him: \u201cthat man don\u2019t know nothing about choking. He ain\u2019t from where I\u2019m from.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WrTXzeJlqV\">pic.twitter.com\/WrTXzeJlqV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Justin Felder (@Justin_FOX5) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Justin_FOX5\/status\/939001337504661508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A video clip that has since gone viral seems to validate Freeman&#8217;s claim.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Saints?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Saints<\/a> HC Sean Payton yelling, \u201cchoke\u201d on the sideline \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hRgCD6yavm\">pic.twitter.com\/hRgCD6yavm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uSTADIUM\/status\/938980490459123712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Falcons got the last laugh, though, as it was the Saints that choked late with Jones&#8217; interception in the end zone. They now trail the Saints by only one game for the division lead, and will meet again in Week 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Falcons nearly choked late in Thursday&#8217;s game against the Saints, but a Deion Jones interception bailed the team out&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":774875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[231608556],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.2 (Yoast SEO v22.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Devonta Freeman accuses Sean Payton of doing choke gesture at him during game - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Devonta Freeman accuses Sean Payton of doing choke gesture at him during game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-08T06:12:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/screen-shot-2017-12-08-at-1-01-39-am.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1006\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"766\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Devonta Freeman accuses Sean Payton of doing choke gesture at him during game\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-08T06:12:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-08T06:12:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/screen-shot-2017-12-08-at-1-01-39-am.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Sports Daily\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/devonta-freeman-accuses-sean-payton-of-doing-choke-gesture-during-game\/\",\"name\":\"Devonta Freeman accuses Sean Payton of doing choke gesture at him during game - 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