Things are looking up for Denver football fans. The Broncos reached the AFC Championship game last season, and they’ve opened this year 7-2, leading a competitive AFC West.
Sean Payton has been a major part of the turnaround. Since arriving in Denver in 2023, he’s helped a team that had missed the playoffs since its Super Bowl 50 win become a serious contender. His direct coaching style and offensive expertise seem to have brought some much-needed direction.
That straightforward approach showed up at Sunday’s postgame press conference, too. After Denver’s 26-21 win over the Carolina Panthers, Payton began discussing the game, then appeared to take issue with a reporter smoking in the room.
Except the reporter wasn’t smoking at all. He was chewing on a No. 2 pencil.
Payton looked embarrassed once he realized what was happening, and both men seemed to take the mix-up in stride. Still, it was a pretty unusual moment—and Payton could barely finish his response without laughing.
Given his concern about smoking, the reaction was understandable, even if the pencil made for an awkward misunderstanding. Payton might have a future as a school anti-smoking officer after football. “I don’t care if you’re a Super Bowl champion or a Broncos beat writer,” he might tell students. “No smoking or drugs. That’s not what winners do.”
So, if anyone’s thinking of sneaking an e-cigarette into a postgame press conference, perhaps take the hint: just say no.
