Sean Payton’s ‘Skol’ chant went from troll to self-own in 25 seconds thanks to the ‘Minneapolis Miracle’

Rumors swirled after the Saints’ loss to the Vikings that Sean Payton was doing the “Sköl” clap as it appeared his team would beat the Vikings with 25 seconds to go in the game. We can now confirm those to be true.

Payton didn’t just do it facing the field, either. He turned to the Vikings fans behind the Saints’ bench and looked at them as he did it, as photos from Twitter user cyvonne1229 point out:

Here he is in motion:

At his season-ending press conference Tuesday, Payton said of the gesture, “Just a group of fans — it was good playoff fun.”

The troll was first mentioned by former Viking and current KFAN sideline reporter Ben Leber:

“This is an unconfirmed report, and I’m waiting on some sort of video evidence. With about 20 seconds left to go in the game, I was told that he turned around and was doing the “skol” chant at Vikings fans. A brilliant troll move by a douchebag if he did it. But even better — now I really, really hope that he did it. Because that’s a premature celebration. You’ve probably got to keep it reeled in. Doing a “skol” chant, that’s like an a-hole after the game — hey, you won. Taunt us. Go for it. Twenty seconds left, the game’s not over, Sean.”

The Vikings were well aware of it as well:

It’s not the first time Payton has attempted to troll a team this season. In their first meeting with the Falcons, Payton made a choking motion to the Falcons’ sideline, allegedly at Devonta Freeman:

Much like Sunday, the Saints also lost that game against the Falcons after Payton’s attempted troll.

Perhaps Payton will now think twice before taunting prior to the final whistle. Like our friends over at The Daily Norseman wrote, “Of course, since NFL games are 60 minutes long and not 59 minutes and 35 seconds, the Vikings had an opportunity at the end of the game, and they made the best of it.”