Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Drill sergeants and football coaches have enjoyed license to address their charges in a manner that’s unprofessional and unacceptable outside the military and sports.
Soldiers might risk an insubordination charge if they respond with the same tone and tenor, and perhaps follow with lefts and rights. But NFL quarterbacks with multiple Super Bowls and Pro Bowls to their credit have no excuse for holding fire if a coach berates them during games while the camera rolls. Heat-of-the-moment arguments in competitive sports don’t have to be one-sided shouting matches, and respect should run in both directions between labor and management.
That wasn’t the case three weeks ago when Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton got in the face of quarterback Russell Wilson during a blowout loss against Detroit. The 13-second video of Payton yelling and gesticulating — while Wilson stands passively with hands on hips — told us everything we needed to know about their shotgun relationship.
Payton has shown his ass and Wilson has acted with class.
The coach deserved some invective in return, but Wilson is too much Mr. Nice Guy to respond like that. He’s won an NFL Man of the Year award for community service and he’s been clowned for corniness that drew his singing wife, Ciara. Wilson remained quiet and inanimate while absorbing that public tongue-lashing on Dec. 16, even more remarkable considering the behind-the-scene disrespect he reportedly faced before Payton benched him last week.
There’s no business like NFL business, among the nation’s iciest cold-hearted enterprises. Everyone understands that X’s and O’s on the field can conflict with years and dollars on the payroll. If Wilson was hurt in the last two games, he could receive $37 million in injury guarantees for 2025. If he’s not in Denver’s plans — which Payton inherited but never loved — a quarterback change makes sound business sense. The Las Vegas Raiders put Derek Carr on the shelf late last season for similar reasons.
Payton could’ve been honest and said that’s why Wilson was relegated to backup quarterback. Instead, the coach said it was strictly about giving Jarrett Stidham a shot and seeking a spark on offense. “Look, we’re desperately trying to win,” he told reporters Dec. 27 in announcing the move.
Wilson was cussed out in front of the world and didn’t bat an eye. But he couldn’t swallow more contemptuous gaslighting from Payton, who has acted like a gangster since arriving in Denver last year. Only the gullible believe Payton’s self-defense that he’s not privy to his QB’s contractual circumstances. Wilson suggests that Payton is full of doo-doo.
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“They came up to me during the beginning of the bye week, on Monday or Tuesday [Oct. 30 or 31],” Wilson told reporters Dec. 29, “and they told me that if I didn’t change my contract, my injury guarantee, that I’d be benched for the rest of the year. … I was definitely disappointed about it. … The NFLPA and NFL got involved or whatever, I think, at some point.”
The Washington Post reported that the players union sent a Nov. 4 letter to the Broncos and the NFL’s management council, stating that the threat was illegal and a violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. “We are particularly concerned that the Broncos still intend to commit these violations under the guise of ‘coaching decisions,’” the letter read.
A made man among NFL coaches, Payton soon benefitted from a conflicting NFL.com report that cast doubts on Wilson’s side of the “threat” story. The reporter wrote that Payton tried but never believed in Wilson, adding that teammates agreed Wilson should be benched for performance reasons: “Players saw it, and privately discussed it among themselves, sources say.”
Wilson is no longer the elite QB who orchestrated back-to-back Super Bowl appearances with Seattle in 2014 and 2015. Odds are he won’t be with the Broncos much longer, either, giving him no reason to toe the corporate line and play nice. “I think Sean messed with the wrong guy because [Wilson] told the story,” an anonymous NFL exec told The Athletic.”
Payton picked the right guy to upbraid in animated fashion three weeks ago in Detroit, spittle flying at an intensity rarely directed toward any player in public, let alone a Hall of Fame quarterback on the sideline. Then Payton had the nerve to say our eyes deceived us, and he was screaming about a penalty that negated a touchdown. “That’s all,” he told reporters. “Simple.”
Then why was the verbal barrage directed at Wilson? “What I talk to Russell about is none of your business,” he said.
He wouldn’t have spoken to Wilson in that fashion if he respected the quarterback. I wish Wilson had let him know times have changed and the NFL isn’t the military. I’m not saying Payton deserved a Sprewellian response or something close.
But we would’ve understood.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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