ESPN’s Seth Wickersham Talks Sean Payton, Seahawks’ Sale & More with Rich

Seth Wickersham spent the Broncos' playoff run the way Sean Payton spent it, in 14 and 16 hour days that ended only when the season did. The idea came together organically, Wickersham told Rich. Nobody, to his knowledge, had ever witnessed the NFL playoffs from the inside in an unauthorized written story, and Payton signed up right away. So Wickersham was in Denver mirroring the coach's hours, trying to bring fans as close to the flame as possible.

What jumped off the page first had nothing to do with the playoffs at all. Payton, at one point, seriously chewed on the idea of bringing Bill Belichick to Denver as head coach. Payton would temporarily relinquish his throne, slide down to assistant head coach in charge of the offense, and let Belichick coach the Broncos for as many seasons as it took to pass Don Shula's wins record. Wickersham framed it as more than a fleeting thought but less than a full proposal. Payton was offended that no team hired Belichick after the split with the Patriots in 2024, and the two share the mutual trauma of working under Bill Parcells. The idea, impossible and fanciful, went nowhere. But it came from respect.

It also revealed something Wickersham kept coming back to. Payton has astounding creative energy. He watched all 71 fake punts from the past eight years looking for something to steal. One he called "baby shower," a fake punt from a previous playoff meeting with the Bills that targeted a player whose family had just welcomed a first child, on the theory that the guy's head would not be in the game. Another, adapted from a punt the Raiders ran against the Lions in 2019, he actually called on fourth and 11 in overtime of this year's win over Buffalo. Tyler Badie waved it off. Days later, sitting in his stadium office, Payton grabbed Wickersham's notebook and drew it up, insisting it would have worked.

That office is where the story turns. Minutes after the overtime win, the head of sports performance walked in with the injury report. Bo Nix had fractured his ankle. Surgery Tuesday, season over. Payton stared at the ground, said "Stidham," and started messaging it in his head. He knew the Super Bowl was gone.

The grind nearly broke him. Wickersham was privy to Payton's sleep scores the week before the Patriots game, and they were horrible. Payton is a night owl who gains steam as the night goes on, working on red zone plays alone at 8 p.m. on a Friday, calling it therapeutic. One of those plays met the exact defense he had prepped for on the pivotal fourth and one.

Which is why the decision to hand play calling to Davis Webb stunned Wickersham. Payton, who calls himself a play caller as much as a head coach, admitted it is harder to call plays at 62 than at 42, comparing it to not wanting to drive at night in the rain. Wickersham heard insecurity creep in, a word he never associated with Payton.

On the Seahawks sale, which he and Adam Schefter broke, Wickersham pointed to Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley name who edged a Celtics group at the 11th hour and whose son Neil, a former 49ers intern, figures to be involved. And on whether the World Cup's grass fields might push owners to switch, Wickersham reached out to an owner and a team president. Both gave a resounding no. It comes down to cost, he said, and grass is a chip owners will hold for the next CBA.