{"id":242158,"date":"2025-10-21T23:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242158\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:35:08","slug":"russell-wilson-calls-sean-payton-classless-after-broncos-coach-takes-dig-at-his-former-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242158\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Wilson calls Sean Payton \u2018classless\u2019 after Broncos coach takes dig at his former QB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russell Wilson didn\u2019t throw a pass when the Giants visited Denver on Sunday, but the veteran quarterback and his old coach managed to exchange shots all the same.<\/p>\n<p>Broncos coach Sean Payton, after his team\u2019s 33-32 comeback win at Empower Field at Mile High, credited Giants rookie Jaxson Dart by saying New York \u201cfound a little spark with that quarterback.\u201d Payton finished the compliment with what was viewed as a not-so-subtle dig at Wilson, who played for Payton in Denver in 2023 and was the Giants starting quarterback for the season\u2019s first three games before being benched for Dart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was talking to (Giants owner) John Mara not too long ago,\u201d Payton said, \u201cand I said, \u2018We were hoping that (quarterback) change would have happened long after our game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson responded Tuesday with a post on X that called Payton \u201cclassless\u201d and referenced the coach\u2019s 2012 suspension for his role in the Saints\u2019 \u201cBountygate\u201d scandal.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Classless\u2026 but not surprised\u2026.<br \/>Didn\u2019t realize you\u2019re still bounty hunting 15+ years later through the media. \ud83d\ude0e\ud83d\ude02 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LetsRide?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#LetsRide<\/a> \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DangeRussWilson\/status\/1980735749394665615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 21, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wilson was acquired by the Broncos in a blockbuster trade ahead of the 2022 season. He went 4-11 as a starter under first-year coach Nathaniel Hackett, who was fired with two games left in the regular season. Wilson started the first 15 games of the 2023 season under Payton, going 7-8, before being benched by the coach with two games remaining. The two clashed publicly on several occasions, including during a late-season game in Detroit when broadcast cameras caught Payton berating Wilson on the sideline following a failed red zone series.<\/p>\n<p>The Broncos cut Wilson after the 2023 season despite having to absorb a record $85 million dead money hit to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson said at the time of his benching that the Broncos threatened to bench him midway through the season if he was unwilling to push back the trigger date on an injury guarantee in his contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The Broncos) told me that if I didn\u2019t change my contract, my injury guarantee, that I\u2019d be benched for the rest of the year,\u201d Wilson said at the time. \u201cI was definitely disappointed about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Broncos general manager George Paton later said he reached out to Wilson\u2019s camp \u201cin good faith and in a creative attempt to adjust his contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn\u2019t get a deal done and we did move on with our season,\u201d Paton said then. \u201cIt didn\u2019t come up again. Fast forward, Week 17, Sean makes a change at the quarterback position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paton emphasized that the decision to bench Wilson near the end of the season was \u201ccompletely independent\u201d of conversations about his contract earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson has returned to Denver twice since his two-year stint with the Broncos ended, but he didn\u2019t play against his former team either time. The Steelers visited Denver in Week 2 last season, when Wilson was on the team, but he was unavailable to play due to an injury. He was the backup behind Dart on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Wilson didn\u2019t throw a pass when the Giants visited Denver on Sunday, but the veteran quarterback and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[7820,977,349,99],"class_list":["post-242158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-denver-broncos","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}