Kiszla: Coach Sean Payton is now on the clock in Broncos Country, where we’re all out of patience for losing

Sean Payton, we don’t give a hoot if you were the toast of Bourbon Street. In Broncos Country, you’re officially on the clock. Win, or else we’ve got a hot seat waiting with your name on it.

“The main message for Broncos Country that I would have is we’re just as impatient as you are to win here,” franchise owner and CEO Greg Penner said Tuesday. “We understand that we have a lot of work to do.”

While preparations for the Super Bowl tournament began in earnest from Miami to San Francisco, the Broncos management team fitted another season with a toe tag during a meeting with media members. Two days after their season came to an end, they talked mealy out of both sides of their mouths about how the relationship with quarterback Russell Wilson was irrevocably and awkwardly broken over money after the biggest victory of the season.

If the Broncos flushed Wilson and beaucoup bucks after only 30 starts in a Denver uniform and “Huggy Bear” Hackett was tossed into an orange-and-blue dumpster after going 4-11, how long does prickly Payton get to prove that his let-’em-eat-cake approach wins football games?

What did Payton establish during his first season in Denver?

No. 1: He is indeed a better coach than a man he labeled one of the worst head coaches in NFL history.

And No. 2: He despises the way Wilson plays quarterback so much he would rather have no viable NFL starter than Wilson.

But has Payton really built anything resembling a foundation for winning football with the Broncos, especially on the offensive side of the operation, where his expertise is supposed to shine brighter than the Colorado sun?

“I don’t know if you’d say, ‘Laid the foundation,’” said Payton, who admitted these Broncos were stuck in the muck of parity in the middle of the NFL, citing the fact his team couldn’t win a single game this season if it failed to win the turnover battle.

“Were we as good as we expected or wanted to be offensively this year? Absolutely not … (It’s a) heavy-duty work in progress. I would say we’re not building on that foundation yet. We’re still putting the friggin’ pilings in, based on what I saw.”

But rather than addressing the attributes Payton needs in his next signal-caller, the Broncos are still playing the silly charade that the volcanic rift between this team and Wilson could heal, claiming the door’s open to his return, even though we can all see the police tape strung across the entrance for a dead QB walking.

Know what’s worse than the game mismanagement in the Christmas Eve loss to the Patriots that left a pit in the stomach of Penner and everyone in Broncos Country?

When Payton should’ve sat down with Wilson after a stirring victory against Kansas City and told him man-to-man that he couldn’t work with him, the coach left it to minion George Paton to unsuccessfully bluff the veteran quarterback’s agent into contract concessions with what was perceived as a threat to bench a Super Bowl champion for financial reasons.

So now there’s a matter of a messy divorce with Wilson before the Broncos can really get down to the serious business of ending an eight-year playoff drought.

“I felt like we had a chance, and this team had a chance to get into the postseason,” Payton said. “I feel that same way now. I’m disappointed because of that.”

I’m not so certain, however, Payton has fully grasped we’re so sick and tired of losing NFL games around here that the Emperor of Bourbon Street has no clothes in Broncos Country, especially when he now backs off a bodacious preseason vow to be ticked off if this team failed to make the playoffs.

Starting to feel the heat, Payton proved there might be a heart somewhere beneath his prickly exterior by sending a holiday treat to the media wretches who cover the Broncos: Five quarts of Jenni’s ice cream, with gourmet flavors ranging from Brambleberry Crisp to Salty Caramel.

My gift was packed in a big orange box with dry ice and specific instructions to open immediately because there was ice cream inside. Unfortunately, it arrived Saturday, after I had already departed for Las Vegas, where the Broncos barely put up a fight in a 27-14 defeat to the Raiders.

When can ice cream be a metaphor for another football season that was a crying shame in Denver?

Payton made a brilliant play call.

But his yummy ice cream turned to lukewarm soup, going rotten on the stoop, the result of either poor execution, operational issues, or both.

Me? I blame the quarterback.

Penner said he expects the team to win more games next season.

Hey, we’re all fresh out of patience.

The Broncos don’t need to pay Payton $18 million per year to miss the playoffs.

Fangio, Hackett or any bum off the street could do the same for a fraction of the cost.

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