Sean Payton Had A Specific Reason For Revealing Bo Nix’s Injury So Quickly After Broncos’ Win

Sean Payton's postgame news conference on Saturday night was expected to be entirely celebratory, as his Denver Broncos punched their ticket to the AFC Championship Game with an overtime win over the Buffalo Bills. It turned out to be the exact opposite of a celebration – it instead took on funeral vibes – as the head coach announced quarterback Bo Nix would miss the remainder of the year with a broken ankle.

It's not all that often you see a head coach make an injury announcement like Payton did, mere minutes after the final whistle. Typically, you get the ‘we’re waiting on test results' or something along those lines, but Payton came out and said Nix was done for the season and that the quarterback was set to undergo surgery early next week.

Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos roars after throwing a touchdown pass to Marvin Mims Jr. against the Buffalo Bills. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Payton didn't have to share that news moments after the game, with Denver not having to submit an injury report until early in the next week. He was asked why he opted to do so on Sunday, and gave a pretty classy explanation.

"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."

Payton's explanation puts into perspective just how odd Nix's injury and the situation were at the end of the game, as he alluded to plenty of Denver's players not knowing their quarterback suffered such a serious injury in the closing seconds.

Nix sustained the ankle injury just three snaps before the Broncos kicked a game-winning field goal in overtime.

Jarrett Stidham will start under center for Denver next week, with the Broncos taking on the winner of the Texans - Patriots with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.