Sean Payton has spent the week trying to convince his team not to buy the hype.

You know, the Seahawks don’t belong in the playoffs, the Saints are clearly the better team, a possible rematch with Atlanta looms, yada, yada, yada.

Football coaches are usually on edge anyway, but Payton and the Saints have an opportunity to join some pretty elite company over the next month or so.

If they beat the Seahawks.  In Seattle.

If they then beat the Falcons or Bears.  In Atlanta or Chicago, respectively.

If they can get to the NFC championship game, which will be played on the road unless the final two seeds on their side of the bracket, the Saints and Green Bay Packers, manage to win two games away from home to get there.

Oh yeah. And win it.

It’s a daunting task, but it certainly has been done before.

The Pittsburgh Steelers went the wild-card round route to win the Super Bowl five years ago.

Two years later, Eli Manning and the New York Giants did the same, knocking off the previously undefeated New England Patriots in the big game. The Baltimore Ravens pulled it off in the 2000 NFL season.