Sean Payton is back in the NFL as the head coach of the Broncos, and he has no time or interest in sparing anyone’s feelings during his first season in Denver. This includes the darlings of the NFL offseason, the Jets, who Payton had directly in his crosshairs with recent comments.
During a recent interview with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, Payton responded to the topic of Denver’s woefully disappointing season last year … by flipping the script and putting Gang Green on blast.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much [expletive] time trying to win the offseason—the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that. The Jets did that this year. You watch. Hard Knocks, all of it. I can see it coming. Remember when [former Washington owner] Dan Snyder put that Dream Team together? I was at the Giants [in 2000]. I was a young coach. I thought, ‘How are we going to compete with them? Deion’s [Sanders] there now.’ That team won eight games or whatever. So, listen…just put the work in.”
After citing that the Broncos were essentially trying to “win the offseason” with the “PR, the pomp and circumstances” last year, Payton proceeded to point to the Jets for doing the same thing that led to embarrassing on-field results.
Just to make sure his point was driven home fully, Payton finally called out the Jets for doing the same thing this year and then predicted a similar fate for Aaron Rodgers and company: being “embarrassed.”
Payton may have taken a year away from coaching, but he certainly hasn’t lost his ability to speak openly and bluntly on any topic.
