There are very few tears being shed for Sean Payton. The man who has built a career believing he’s the smartest coach on the field is winless. Like a Final Destination movie, karma hunted down Payton, crushing his soul.
It’s too early to tell what the ramifications of the Denver Broncos’ 70-20 meltdown at Miami will be. Unfathomable defeats happen in the NFL all the time. The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs fell to the lousy Indianapolis Colts last year. But NFL teams aren’t supposed to get curb-stopped like some lower-tier homecoming opponent. And the negativity will only intensify if Denver (0-3) falls at the Chicago Bears (0-3) on Sunday.
This was comeuppance for Payton needlessly sideswiping his predecessor in the preseason. He took shots at Nathaniel Hackett, who was fired after going 4-11.
In an interview with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, Payton described Hackett’s stint as “One of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.” He also said, “The offense. I don’t know Hackett. A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell (Wilson). 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.”
Coaches rarely trash other coaches in the media like that. Later, Payton walked back his criticism saying, “I had my Fox hat on, and not my coaching hat.” He was alluding to his time spent as a Fox TV analyst. While the national media gave Payton a pass, his words bothered many in the coaching fraternity.
How do we know this? Look how quickly he apologized.
So, you can bet that after last weekend, many in the coaching brethren probably thought that Payton got what he deserved. After calling Hackett’s brief tenure an embarrassment, Payton suffered the most embarrassing loss in NFL history.
“When he said what he said, I was on my camp tour,” Yahoo’s Charles Robinson told Awful Announcing. “I can tell you it was a gift to me because every franchise I went to instantaneously everybody said, ‘What the hell was that about?”
“Everybody wanted to talk about it. And particularly amongst coaches, there was a lot of disdain amongst his peers because you just don’t do that. You don’t because of the code. You don’t staple something like that to a guy’s resumé. And so I think there’s a little bit of karma here. I think other coaches are probably looking at that 70-20 loss and saying,’ This is why you don’t say **** like that in the preseason.'”
Payton is intelligent. His football brain helped him deliver a championship to the New Orleans Saints. He was one of the early innovators of the passing revolution the league features today. Plus, his decision to onside kick against the Indianapolis Colts is one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history.
Being smart also means being self-aware. If the Miami debacle is an indicator. Payton misjudged his talent, his staff, and his Xs and Os. You can’t just walk into a new job, sprinkle pixie dust, and expect these Broncos to look like the 2009 Saints.
A lot goes into winning. It’s not just about the coach. Ownership, the front office, the players, and luck play a significant role too. But Payton, in his misguided hubris, thought he could scheme his way to being a contender fast.
Doesn’t work like that, and it never will.
Of course, what happened in Miami was just one game. It could wind up just being an aberration that, while humiliating, will be completely different from the rest of his tenure. But for one Sunday, Payton got to experience how it feels to be the subject of everyone’s mockery.
Maybe he’ll show more empathy the next time he thinks about unfairly ripping a fellow coach.
