SEAN PAYTON NEVER SHOULD HAVE LEFT FOX IN AN ALL-TIME CAREER CRASH
He took the Walton money in Denver, biggest ever for an NFL coach, and before scolding his predecessor, Payton should have known the Broncos are wicked and that he can’t last any rebuilding project
The ploy was called “Ambush,” and Sean Payton ran it to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV, almost 14 seasons ago. That far back? Term one, Obama? We figured opening the second half with an executed onside kick was launching an all-time career, given his coaching kinship with Bill Parcells but, more critically, how he saved Katrina-bitten New Orleans with a stunning Mardi Gras float.
Since then, he hasn’t come close to a championship. But he was suspended by the NFL in 2012 for his gruesome role in the wicked “Bountygate” scandal, when he knew his defensive coordinator doled out bonus money to players who caused injuries to opponents. In a league of concussion crises and CTE, Payton should have been permanently banned. Instead, he made a Netflix biopic in which he was played by Kevin James, with no concerns about the weight difference.
He came back and eventually chose to leave for good, when Drew Brees retired. He waited a season and spoke on the air for Fox Sports while settling in Manhattan Beach, where we figured he’d wait until the Los Angeles Chargers dismissed coach Brandon Staley before he naturally took over Justin Herbert’s development as a superstar. But the Chargers retained Staley, a mistake, and Payton signed with the Denver Broncos, now turning into one of the sport’s absurdist errors.
The team’s new ownership, run by another Walton snob, gave him $18 million a year, the highest per-year coaching contract in league history. He was expected to leap into the postseason, something he told USA Today in training camp, when he said, “I’m going to be pissed off if this is not a playoff team.” Then Payton added another dose of dirty pool, ripping apart a head coach who didn’t last one season, Nathaniel Hackett, for the poor handling of $245-million bust Russell Wilson and a trade that destroyed a roster.
“Oh, man. There’s so much dirt around that,” Payton said. “There’s 20 dirty hands, for what was allowed, tolerated in the fricking training rooms, the meeting rooms. The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.
“That was a message. They can only beat the (expletive) out of you so much. But everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
Who knew the Broncos were signing something much worse? Last week, in one of the ugliest single-game performances in American sports lore, Payton’s team allowed 70 points to the Miami Dolphins. It was the league’s most grisly defensive output since 1966, more dreadful when you consider Hackett won two of his first three games last year and allowed 36 points in that period. Payton was destroyed in August by Aaron Rodgers, sticking up for his longtime friend and offensive coach in New York, Hackett, but we expected him to point an upward arrow in the Rocky Mountains. Instead, what we have Sunday in Chicago is one of the horrible reasons to watch the NFL. Payton and the Broncos face a Bears team with zero hope. If he somehow loses to Matt Eberflus, Justin Fields and a defense with no coordinator, he should quit on the spot and hope Fox Sports takes him back.
Think I’m kidding? You don’t hold cards from 2010, milk a desperate owner for his Walmart leftovers, rip your predecessor to the point of angering Rodgers, then collapse 70-20 in Week 3 in an ultimate franchise dismantling that can’t possibly include Payton. His defense gave up 10 touchdowns and 726 yards and 24 missed tackles. Does anyone want to hear more from the $18-million-a-year coach?
“I’m at a loss for words,” he said Sunday.
By Wednesday, he had no apologies for Hackett, who has another issue with Zach Wilson after Rodgers’ Achilles tear. Payton realized he walked into a mess beyond his reach, but shouldn’t he have known that as an astute commentator? Is his ego so far beyond reality that he thought he could walk in anywhere? “This is one of those weeks when you take a butt-whooping like that, you find out about everyone," he said. “It’s a tough film to watch. I debated whether we were going to show it or not, but I think we would be remiss if we didn’t. We have to sit here — as unpleasant as it’s going to be — we have to get these things cleaned up.”
The Bears won’t allow 70 points. Or half that. Or one-third that. But can the Broncos actually find a winner’s plane and find any grit? “Grit applies for all of us," Payton said. “It’s not just a player thing. It’s a coach thing. It’s for every one of us. There’s a mental toughness and fortitude. One can’t become two, can’t become three. If we allow that to happen, then we’re missing the things we’re talking about right now. You lose that game, you lose it. It’s worth a loss. Now, you have to pay attention to how poor it was. You can’t ignore it or gloss over that.”
At some point, whether it’s drafting Caleb Williams or Drake Maye or Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion, Sean Payton must decide whether he wants to rebuild for many seasons or escape his own hell. “Hey, leave my guy alone. Leave my guy alone,” Deion said. “I love the Broncos. I love their coach, and Sean Payton’s my guy. He’s going to get it right, I promise you that. I believe in Sean Payton.”
The bounties are long gone, from 2009 to 2011, which came in the Super Bowl era. But you can’t allow 14 years to pass without a return visit and then lose 70-20. This is a man worth watching closely, for all the wrong reasons.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.