NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints and suspended coach Sean Payton will indeed be together again next season as the bounty scandal fades into history and the bid to win a second Super Bowl resumes.

Payton has agreed in principle to a multiyear contract extension, the team said.

“Very happy it is official,” quarterback Drew Brees said in an email to the AP. “Never had any doubts.”

Payton was due to begin his seventh season as the Saints’ head coach in 2012 before being suspended for the whole season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in connection with the NFL’s bounty investigation.