Joy… and pain.

After a bittersweet Saturday afternoon at Empower Field when the Broncos moved one win from Super Bowl LX yet lost quarterback Bo Nix for the rest of the NFL playoffs, what is it they always say?

Sports are the thrill of victory and the agony of a broken ankle?

Or something like that.

The nothing-comes-easy Broncos have a new detour on the road to Super Bowl LX. And the suddenness of Sean Payton revealing Nix won’t be a part of the drive stung like whiplash.

Ninety minutes after Nix’s Broncos showed their heavy mettle in a 33-30 overtime win over the Bills in the AFC divisional playoffs, Payton returned to the press conference stage with breaking news that broke Broncos Country hearts: Nix is out for the season with a broken right ankle.

“Not good news,” Payton began.

Why do we love these games when sometimes they hurt so bad?

“This team all year has lost key players and will rise up for the next challenge,” Payton said.

The Broncos host the Texans-Patriots winner in the AFC Championship Game at 1 p.m. Sunday. Bring your “Stiddy” jersey. 

Instead of shedding a tear at the loss of Nix, his hand-picked quarterback who ended the season of Josh Allen and the Bills, Payton threw down his prediction: “Watch out.”

Payton has never met a challenge he wouldn’t at least try to tackle. So here’s the next one: Win the AFC title with backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, whose most recent time as an NFL starter came when Payton benched Russell Wilson at the end of the tumultuous 2023 season.

The Broncos will be home underdogs to either the Patriots or the Texans.

But is there another coach in the NFL you’d rather have trying to prove he’s a football genius?

“He’s ready. He’s ready,” Payton said of Stidham, a 29-year-old whose fifth career start will come in the AFC Championship Game. “I said at the beginning of the season: I’ve got a ‘2’ that’s capable of starting for a handful of teams. I know he feels the same way. So, watch out. Just watch.”

If you’ve followed Payton much, you know the swaggy Broncos coach would be playing bogey golf and still press on the back nine. His combative nature suggests this is the kind of challenge he’ll force the Broncos to embrace.

Nix is scheduled for surgery Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama, with Dr. Norman Waldrop. After learning the severity of the injury, which he sustained on the second-to-last offensive snap of overtime, Nix revealed to Payton that he’d suffered a similar injury in high school and college.

Payton’s response: “I didn’t realize that. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have drafted you.”

Jokes aside, Nix was spectacular in his first home playoff game at Empower Field at Mile High. Downright spectacular. He finished with almost identical stats to Allen, the reigning MVP who took a beating and will be sore Monday.

—Nix: 26-of-46 passing, 279 yards, three touchdowns, one interception.

—Allen: 25-of-39, 283 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions. 

The play that shook Mile High was a 26-yard touchdown from Nix to Marvin Mims that gave the Broncos a 30-27 lead with 55 seconds left in regulation. 

“Bo is very comfortable in the moment,” Mims told me after.

Payton is most comfortable when someone says he can’t do something.

Like win the AFC with a backup quarterback.

“This is what it is,” Payton said, feeling sorry only for Nix. 

Their penchant for combat is one reason the Payton-Nix football marriage will either go big or one will find a new home. Each man’s competitive drive burns hotter than 1,000 suns.

Likewise, the Broncos quarterbacks are “really close,” as Payton said, and a big part of the reason is their willingness to poke fun at one another. Same goes for Payton, who rewarded Stidham with a $6 million contract for the 2026 season precisely because things like this happen in football.

“He’s experienced,” Payton said. “He’s played in games.”

And there’s another thing — maybe the thing — that drives Payton more than anything else.

The 62-year-old wants so badly to be the first head coach to lead two franchises to Super Bowl titles. Not even mentor Bill Parcells can raise that trophy. The Broncos would be his second title team.

Finish the deal with a backup quarterback they call “Stiddy” and the folks in charge should waive the waiting period for Hall of Fame entry.