Don’t know much about Vic Fangio other than his coaching background. But after reading his remarks after Sunday’s postponement of Broncos-Patriots, I’ve decided I like the cut of his jib.
While some of his players raged on social media about practicing all week for a game that wouldn’t be played and losing a bye week to boot, Fangio kept it sanguine.
“All of this stuff is going to seem unfair when you’re initially hit with it,” Fangio said via transcript released by the Broncos. “We’ve prepared for a game and the game first got moved for one day but now it’s getting moved totally. So, yeah it’s going to seem unfair and you’re going to ask, ‘Why are we doing this?’
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“My message to them and to anybody is that we were inconvenienced by this — but it easily could have been turned around where we had the positive test and the Patriots were inconvenienced by it,” he said. “I’m happy that the positive tests weren’t in our building but I’m under no illusion that at some point we might have a positive test or two and be the cause of a game getting moved down the road.
“We’re all in this together,” said Fangio. “The entire league is. We compete like hell on Sundays to beat each other but ultimately we’re all in on this thing together. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault or who has the positive tests, we all just have to deal with it.”
There’s no shortage of coaches who’ll throw themselves on the floor and commence kicking and screaming over the slightest inconvenience. I get being competitive, but – in my opinion – if the guy in charge can’t take some adversity without having an aneurysm, that just invites excuse-making by the rank-and-file.
Speaking with Peter King for his Football Morning in America column, Fangio said he was watching to see who dealt well with the inconvenience and who didn’t.
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“In a weird way, I’m really happy it’s happening for our team. It identifies the whiners — who are the whiners. Who can’t handle adversity? Who gets hijacked by inconveniences? We don’t want those guys. We want people who deal with this without the whining, who take this inconvenience as an opportunity to get better.”
The tenor of the Broncos and the Patriots will be interesting to observe as this week plays out with the specter of the virus popping up again – for either team – always looming.