Sean Payton on his improved relationship with Roger Goodell

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton kicked off his offseason with a key victory, leaving league ownership meetings in Phoenix with a game-changing vote to expand instant replay on pass-interference fouls — called or non-called.

But a key player in the negotiations surrounding that ownership vote was league commissioner Roger Goodell; Peter King of NBC Sports reported a moment between Goodell and Payton in his weekly column:

One club official who noticed strange bedfellows Goodell and Payton sitting together also noticed Goodell slap Payton on the leg when the vote came in. We did it! That’s what the slap of camaraderie seemed to signify.

Relations between Goodell and Payton (and by…