Broncos coach Sean Payton stunned the football-following world on Saturday night, when he announced during his post-game press conference that quarterback Bo Nix had suffered a broken ankle during the playoff win over the Bills.
On Sunday, Payton was asked why he disclosed the injury affirmatively, days before the first injury report is due..
“I wasn’t trying to send you guys cakes or flowers,” Payton told reporters on Sunday. “Here’s what I thought. I would’ve liked to talk to the team first, but like half of the locker room had left. There’s no way that story survives until Monday when I talk to the team. I don’t want the team to hear it from you all first or any national media first because that story is going to break in 24 hours. If we were meeting this morning at 9 a.m., I wouldn’t have come back to see you. I would’ve addressed it after the team meeting. We just discussed it, and I said, ‘Well, why don’t I just go in and tell everyone what happened?’ That seems to me like the smartest and easiest thing to do, and just be straightforward with it. At least then the players are going to hear that from me on the podium and not some national insider that gets it from an agent or that gets it from a doctor.”
That’s what would have happened. It would have gotten out, and the players wouldn’t have heard it in a way that traces back to Payton. So Payton said it himself, prompting shock and surprise — and disbelief — from those who saw it.
