Major national media voice rips Sean Payton, sides with Russell Wilson

The saga between Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and former QB Russell Wilson continues to get major national attention.

After the Broncos rallied to beat the New York Giants on Sunday, Payton appeared to take a shot at Wilson. Essentially, he wished the Denver defense had faced him instead of promising rookie QB Jaxson Dart.

Wilson then fired off a tweet earlier this week calling Payton “classless” among other things. Payton responded on Wednesday, saying his postgame comments had nothing to do with his ex-quarterback.

And while seemingly everyone has an opinion on this, ESPN’s Michael Wilbon unloaded on Sean Payton on his television show Pardon the Interruption. Wilbon’s co-hosted the popular program since 2001.

Michael Wilbon says Sean Payton "behaves too often like a classless bum" amid the coach's war of words with former QB Russell Wilson pic.twitter.com/SwG8LN1GIV

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 22, 2025

“Sean Payton is a really, really, really fine coach,” Wilbon said. “I lean toward letting this slide. Except Sean Payton behaves too often like a classless bum. That’s what he behaves like.”

The divorce between Payton and Wilson in Denver was ugly. It’s clear the two don’t like each other, at all, and Wilbon thinks it’s been one-sided with Payton taking shots at Wilson. That obviously changed with Wilson’s social media post, which is now over 40 million views.

“And he thinks he’s so chesty he can say stuff, but you can’t say something back? Russell Wilson’s got as many Super Bowl rings as Sean Payton. And been to one more,” Wilbon continued. “What does Sean Payton think this is, like 1948? Like Russell Wilson as a quarterback can’t come back at him as a man? I’m glad Russell Wilson did. They can be equals in that way in terms of status in football.”

Wilbon went on to say he wishes Wilson had gone further in his criticism of Sean Payton.

The reality is even though Wilson left the Broncos nearly two years ago, these feelings aren’t going away anytime soon.

And this isn’t just a local story, it’s generating plenty of national headlines as well. Regardless of whose side you’re on, this is probably not the kind of attention the 5-2 Broncos wanted as they look to win a fifth game in a row on Sunday.

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