There is a certain level of respect coaches have amongst their peers. Just because someone didn’t respond to a certain style of coaching, doesn’t mean that the coach is at fault. It simply didn’t work. Coaches don’t talk trash about other coaches.

Unless you are Sean Payton.

Sean Payton took over the Denver Broncos about six months ago and has wasted no time in throwing an entire coaching staff, and frankly an entire organization under the bus. The previous regime was led by current Jets offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett.

In an interview with USA Today, Payton described everything that went wrong in the Broncos’ disappointing 2022 campaign.

“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.”

Payton continued to pull no punches in his critique of the former staff. “Everything I heard about last season, we’re doing the opposite,” Payton said.

Don’t get me wrong, the Hackett year (I don’t think you can use the word “era” with only one season) was a disaster. But that isn’t for Sean Payton to say. That’s for the media to say. When he says it, he sounds like a disrespectful curmudgeon.

Payton went on to throw shots at the current New York Jets who were forced by the NFL to participate in the HBO Series “Hard Knocks”.

“We’re not doing any of that,” Payton said definitively. “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). 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.”

Hey Sean Payton, I got news for you. If you don’t make the playoffs in an absolutely stacked AFC and AFC West this season, guess who’s throat the NFL can shove Hard Knocks down? That’s right. The Denver Broncos. You know what you can do about it? The same thing Robert Saleh did. Not a damn thing.

You would figure a guy who ditched his team after seeing how hard it was to win without a Hall of Famer at QB for the media would know things like that.

Coaches like this can almost be laughable at times. This is old school for the sake of being old school. Who can’t wait to sign with a team that wouldn’t want Deion Sanders because of his star power?

Payton comes from the Bill Parcells coaching tree like Bill Belichick. Those coaches earned their ability to demand respect. Payton lucked into Drew Brees and still only managed to get to one Super Bowl. Not to mention the whole “bounty-gate” issue.

Robert Saleh said he wouldn’t acknowledge the comments of Sean Payton but said “we must be doing something right if you have to talk about us and we don’t play until week 4, and I’m good with it. I think Hackett is doing a phenomenal job here. I get it, there’s a lot of external noise. There’s a lot of people who are hating on us. There’s a lot of people looking for us to fail.”

Bravo, Saleh. That is how a head coach should act. Sean Payton is a punk and should show some decorum and respect to his fellow coaches, especially considering his history.

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