Broncos hiring Pete Carmichael

I have no proof of anything, but I've had my suspicions that the hierarchy changed quite a bit after Tom Benson died and Payton wasn't down with being so far down the list of people in control. He was used to having near daily interactions with the owner. He obviously didn't have the same history or relationship with Gayle and things went back to norms that most organizations have. The first real grumblings about Payton wanting to leave were around a year after Tom passed away and I don't think it's a coincidence.

Tom was a shut-in eating nothing but red wine and ice cream for a very long time. There were no daily interactions. If Payton was having daily contact with Tom, it was only to talk about what flavor of ice cream he liked best. Lauscha and Loomis were running the daily operations of the team for many years prior to Tom Benson's death.