Denver Broncos star cornerback Pat Surtain II revealed something interesting about his head coach Sean Payton.
Surtain was on Julian Edelman’s Games with Names podcast in which they looked back at the Broncos epic 33-30 OT win over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs.
The whole episode is worth your time as Surtain shared a bunch of interesting nuggets with the former Patriots wide receiver, but this specific clip is making the rounds on social media.
Surtain detailed something most of Broncos Country didn’t know. Payton gives the players gifts occasionally before games, including baseball bats and against the Bills an oxygen tank.
Sean Payton really gave all the Broncos Oxygen Tanks 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3ytykSdj6p
— Games with Names (@gameswithnames) March 25, 2026
That’s kind of wild and seems to fit Payton’s quirky personality.
Sometimes, it’s engraved bats with the opponent’s name and date of the game. And ahead of the Bills coming to town it was an oxygen tank to remind them it was going to take all four quarters.
In this case it actually took nearly five quarters. Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian picked off Josh Allen in OT before Bo Nix got Denver in field goal range to win it. Unfortunately, Nix broke his ankle on that final drive and couldn’t play the following week in the AFC Championship.
Still, this is great insight from Surtain and a peek at the kind of stuff that Payton does to motivate his football team.
With Buffalo in town, it worked, as Denver had slightly more oxygen left in the tank than the Bills during crunch time when it mattered most.