Craig Carton: It's Wrong For Sean Payton to Humiliate Russell Wilson Like This

The Russell Wilson situation finally came to a head in Denver as the Broncos decided to bench him in favor of Jarrett Stidham. Shortly thereafter it was reported that the team planned to release the former All-Pro quarterback this offseason to get out of his insane contract, and that Wilson has been aware of these plans for months. Just like that the Jenga tower collapsed and the league-wide perception that things were going okay between Wilson and Sean Payton dissipated into a fine mist.

Payton himself is taking some heat on how this has been handled. There was a report that he and the Broncos threatened to bench Wilson far earlier this season if he didn't alter his contract to get the team off the hook for some of his guaranteed money. Then, when asked why he was benching Wilson when his team still had a (very, very unlikely) shot at the playoffs, the head coach said he couldn't replace all the linemen and receivers but he can replace Wilson. Which is true but was a weird thing to say and it shifted the focus of the news cycle from Wilson to Payton.

Craig Carton kicked off Thursday morning by taking the moral high ground (hmm) and saying it's "wrong" for Payton to humiliate Wilson by benching him while still forcing him to dress as the backup.

That is one way to look at it, I suppose. For my money I'd guess Wilson would rather be in a position where he might play and is therefore happy to dress as a backup. If Jarrett Stidham gets hurt or something they'll have to throw him in there now. And it's a bit hard to imagine that the TV cameras would actually spend that much time on Wilson after the first quarter since, you know, he's not in the game. There isn't the same desire for reaction shots from Russell Wilson that there is for Taylor Swift.

It does feel like Wilson has been done dirty a little bit. The NFL insiders are tweeting the Broncos want to "see what they have" in Stidham like everybody doesn't already know he's a career backup at best in a useless attempt to mask that the Broncos just don't want to pay Wilson. But at the same time he did not hold up his end of the bargain with Denver. They gave him an enormous contract extension to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league and instead he's been one of the worst.

When that happens, feelings are put aside in favor of business. Regardless of whatever perceived humiliation is at play.