Michael Irvin Rips Sean Payton For Yelling at Russell Wilson, Calls For Public Apology

Sean Payton lost his cool on Saturday night while his Denver Broncos were getting smacked around by the Detroit Lions, screaming at Russell Wilson on the sideline in full view of a national audience. Payton then made matters worse by trying to deny it happened afterwards before settling for telling everyone it was none of their damn business. It's not the first outward sign of frustration Payton has shown during this up-and-down season for Denver, but it was the first time in weeks he exhibited that kind of emotion towards his quarterback and thus it will remain in the news cycle, no matter whose business it is.

Michael Irvin must've been pretty eager for Monday's episode of Undisputed because he really did not like what Payton did. Visibly disgusted, Irvin tore into Payton for doing this in today's day and age when Wilson's family will see it on repeat for the next few months. He also proclaimed he never saw Payton do that to Drew Brees. Irvin concluded by calling for a public apology from the head coach to the quarterback.

A fascinating clip for two reasons. One, Irvin is speaking at a normal level. For a guy who has become notable in media for being loud and audacious, that's a shocker. Two, it's not often we see Old Head sports commentators calling for people to be softer. Calling out Payton for creating a viral moment that might negatively impact Wilson's wife and kids is something you'd expect to see from a millennial Twitter account or something, not a retired football player who played for the Cowboys in the '80s.

None of that makes his take any less valid. Whether it's a good one or not is up for debate. Nothing he said is wrong, per se. I'm sure Ciara and the Wilson kids aren't going to enjoy catching glimpses of him getting ripped into by his boss in the future. It also objectively isn't good for a head coach to be getting into the face of his quarterback while the game is going on; Wilson is supposed to be a leader and that kind of scene tends to undermine things.

But on the other hand these are grown men being paid millions of dollars. It would probably suck to have my failures replayed over and over again for debate fodder on a show like Undisputed and my family might be ashamed of me but if I'm getting paid as much as Russell Wilson is getting paid then sign me the hell up. Payton could and probably should apologize to Wilson behind closed doors depending on how much the incident affected the locker room and things of that nature but a public apology is not at all necessary. They can work it out like adults.

If they can't, then there are larger problems at hand than a sideline spat.