When you go down a list of NFL coaches looking for guys with a playing background, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton isn’t the first name that comes to mind. Most of us thing of Payton as a guy who learned his coaching jobs from Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells with the New York Giants, after which Payton went on to establish a HoF resume of his own with the New Orleans Saints. 

But the current Broncos coach does have something of a playing legacy, and it’s pretty unusual. In a piece written by Peter Carline of The Athletic, Payton talked about his time as a quarterback in England with the 1988 Leicester Panthers. 

Not exactly the name you were expecting, right? But the English team regularly filled the city’s Saffron Lane velodrome with 4,000 fans while playing on artificial grass in the middle of a wooden cycling track. The roster featured doormen, builders, lorry drivers and a future Rugby World Cup-winning captain, and in that fateful ’88 season, all they needed was a quarterback. 

“The owner of the team had reached out, Barry Wardle,” Payton told reporters in England on Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s game against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I can remember my mother saying, ‘All of your friends are getting married and they have health insurance, and what are you doing?’”

Payton played his college ball at Eastern Illinois, where he racked up 10,665 passing yards to finish ahead of the likes of former quarterbacks Dan Marino, Joe Montana and Jim McMahon in NCAA Division I history. 

The Denver coach did get to the NFL as a replacement player for the Chicago Bears in 1987, however. With the regulars on strike, Payton completed 8 of 23 passes for 79 yards, and his three-game stint for the “Spare Bears” ended in a loss to the New Orleans Saints in October.  

As for his time with Leicester, Payton has talked about the impact it had on his coaching career. He also became quarterback coach and offensive coach after when the team struggled, and Payton discussed the transition in his 2011 autobiography, “Home Team.” 

“I especially took to the coaching part,” he said in that book. “Working with the Brits during our evening practices. Trying to teach them things I knew about the game. Seeing actual improvement. I got real satisfaction out of that and seemed to have some talent for it.”