DENVER — As the Denver Broncos lost a football game on Sunday that all but meaningless in the grand scheme of things, fans headed for the exits. Some of them were mad, some of them were unfazed—numb to the losing at this point—some of them were glad the team improved their draft position, almost all of them were ready to move on to next season.
As they debated whether the Broncos should take Josh Rosen or Sam Darnold in the draft, running back C.J. Anderson was at his locker, uniform still on, with his head in his hands.
As the conversation shifted to luring Drew Brees in free agency, C.J. Anderson was at his locker, uniform still on, with his head in his hands.
As they sat down as the local watering hole or parked their car in the garage, C.J. Anderson was at his locker, uniform still on, with his head in his hands.
With 12 minutes remaining in the game, it was an Anderson fumble that derailed a Broncos’ drive with potential to tie the game or take the lead. The Bengals took the ball at the Broncos 44-yard line and took the ball down for the eventual game-winning score. Anderson was devasted, gutted, heartbroken.
After many of the Broncos left the building and now-fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy spent more than a few minutes trying to console the red-eyed running back, Anderson finally changed out of his uniform and into his street clothes. His head? Right back into his hands.
With multiple members of the media peering over at his locker, debating whether or not to attempt to interview the wretched runner, nobody would have blamed him if he had picked up his things and headed out of the building. After all, two of his seemingly-more-composed teammates had just cut through a group of media waiting to talk to them like a hot knife through butter.
Not C.J., though. Eventually, he was approached and in a move that demands respect, he attempted to put his emotions into words.
“I didn’t make the play,” he said, wiping the tears from his face.
The game didn’t cost the Broncos a playoff spot, it wasn’t against a rival, it wasn’t the Super Bowl, it didn’t even have a particularly gut-wrenching finish. None of that mattered to a man who had worked his tail off all week alongside his brothers and felt like he had let each and every one of them down.
McCoy tried to assure Anderson that it wasn’t all on him, something that can certainly be said to McCoy himself as he cleans out his office on Monday, but there was nothing you could say.
“I hear Mike, but I’m not feeling that,” he explained before revealing the turning gears in his mind. “If I don’t do that then A.J. [Green] doesn’t score, who knows how the outcome turns?”
“That’s just on me, man,” he concluded as he began to lose his composure once again. “That shit hurts, that shit hurts. I put my heart and soul into this.”
In a season full of accusations of quitting, not caring and just being flat out soft, Anderson’s postgame demeanor should serve as a reminder to all; you don’t care more than they do. Nobody does. For every player on the Broncos’ roster, this is more than just a game or some Sunday entertainment, this is their livelihood and giving it everything they’ve got all week only to lose six in a row hurts. A lot.
