By Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune

March 07, 2010, 10:29AM

It’s still hard, isn’t it, to think about anything but hittin’ that fleur-de-lis?

In so many words, those words were Sean Payton’s final instructions to Garrett Hartley before the New Orleans Saints kicker won the NFC Championship game and A) sent his team to the Super Bowl and B) the team’s city into a state of weeks-long bliss.

Payton was referring to an iconic emblem on a Superdome wall, high and dead-center behind the goalposts.

A NFL Films microphone captured a moment both salty (Payton slips an attention-focusing profanity between de and lis, neatly excised from the online versions of the clip) and heartwarming.

“Just hit your kick though, son,” Payton says as he sends Hartley onto the field. “Here’s why: You deserve to be here.”

Rest of the story here.

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