Anonymous Broncos Source Speaks Out About HC Sean Payton
Ruh roh.
It turns out that Sean Payton's public curb-stomping of Nathaniel Hackett — via USA Today's Jarrett Bell — which included some friendly fire, roping in the likes of Denver Broncos GM George Paton and the team's PR department for how bad 2022 was — rubbed some people wrong internally.
ESPN's Jeff Legwold cited an "anonymous" Broncos source on Monday, who apparently didn't take kindly to Payton painting some of the team's incumbents from 2022 with the same strokes Hackett got.
One Broncos employee, requesting anonymity, said “some people were surprised at that, not happy, people are giving him their best, working their asses off and this organization has done an awful lot right for a long time, more than most."
This is a good example of how Payton's violation of his own "anonymous donor" mandate, which was a standard he held Broncos players and coaches to this offseason, has really backfired on the veteran head coach.
Payton's crackdown on all things media, and his hyper-control over any and all information that goes in and out of Broncos HQ, is meant to not only keep his NFL rivals from gleaning intel on his football operation, but also to minimize the potential for any storyline to jump the shark and become a distraction to the team.
Alas, Payton's comments to USA Today, true though they were, have now become the very distraction to the Broncos that he hoped to avoid with his players. When anonymous Broncos sources are giving quotes to local beat writers with a national platform, Payton has lost control of the narrative.
Payton could have avoided this situation by being more disciplined in that on-the-record sit-down with his old pal Bell, but his passionate remarks, according to the head coach, were motivated by his desire to defend Russell Wilson and the Broncos players, who were dragged through the mud last year due, in large part, to gross organizational incompetence.
“I’ve been preaching that message, and here I am—the veteran—stepping in it. It was a learning experience for me," Payton said back on July 28. "It was a mistake, obviously. I needed a little bit more filter. There’s a pound of flesh for these guys, and as a coach, you stick up for them. After a while, we’re past that season last year. I said what I said. I needed a little bit more restraint, and I regret that. That being said, what I told the team is—I think I’m pretty good, relative to working with the media and am pretty savvy. I just had one of those moments. Jarrett [Bell] is a good friend and is really good at his job. [I had] two lattes in the morning. [He’s] the first one I see, and 40 minutes later, I’m regretting it. It is what it is.”
Payton can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. But now he runs the risk of a mutiny with anonymous sources within the Broncos organization speaking out in the media about their hurt fee-fees.
To that anonymous source, and any further Broncos who might feel inclined to join their comrade in lamenting Payton's criticism of those complicit in the team's 2022 embarrassment, I say this:
News flash: Nobody gives a rip about how the Broncos have "done an awful lot right for a long time." The bottom line is the NFL is a production-based business.
Not only have the Broncos failed to produce a winning season in the past six years, let alone a playoff berth in the past seven, but the team allowed itself to become an NFL laughing stock. The Walton/Penner ownership group spent big to bring in a big gun who would, as Hall-of-Famer Terrell Davis said, "not have to think about how to fix it but know how to fix it."
A coach of Payton's caliber, who knows how the championship sausage gets made, is going to break a few eggs making that omelet for the Walton/Penners. Feathers will get ruffled.
But if the Broncos truly want out of the mess they've created, now would be a good time to zip their lip, keep their heads down, and, as the anonymous source said, continue working "their asses off." This source proves, alas, that not everyone at Broncos HQ is truly giving Payton their "best."
This internal pushback on Payton reminds me of an apropos military cliche: you get the most flak when you're over the target.
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