In the midst of a tough season, Wednesday's practice gave new life to one Bronco

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Before Denver Broncos’ rookie De’Angelo Henderson took to the practice field on Wednesday afternoon, he was already preparing to leave.

The sixth-round pick out of Coastal Carolina meticulously laid out a change of clothes in his locker and made sure his car keys were right there ready to go. He needed to be prepared for a quick exit.

Eventually, ‘Hop’ made it out on to the field—his mind understandably in another place—but he wasn’t there for long.

After just about 30 minutes of practice, Henderson’s girlfriend, Natalie, called Broncos’ director of player development Ray Jackson to let him know that No. 33 had to go. Jackson called head athletic trainer Vince Garcia and Garcia sprinted onto the field.

“He ran a 4.2 40 over there to let me know,” Henderson explained. “I was running a 3.8 the other way.”

De’Angelo was about to have a baby boy.

“Drive safe, try not to run any red lights or stop signs!” Running backs coach Eric Studesville yelled to Henderson as he booked it off of the field.

“I tried not to,” Henderson said with a laugh.

“I don’t think I did.”

“Maybe one or two.”

Henderson made it to the hospital safe and with time to spare.

At 7:05 pm  De’Angelo Henderson Jr. was born, weighing in at six pounds and 15 ounces.

“It was a feeling that you can’t even really explain,” the rookie back shared of looking into his newborn son’s eyes. “You just really see your destiny in somebody else’s eyes. You find out a whole new ‘why.’ Why you want to live,  a whole new way you want to live your creed and just do things a certain way just for a simple human being that just got here.”

He paused, smiled and shook his head in embarrassment of his giddiness before exploding with emotion.

“Ahh! It’s just so great and so awesome just to look into his eyes and see his innocence and his purity,” Henderson added, his volume matching his excitement. “He’s not aware of what’s going on in the world, it’s just, ‘Hey dad, hey mom, what’s goin’ on?’ It was great.”

The Broncos may be in the midst of an eight-game losing streak, but De’Angelo Henderson is most certainly a winner this week.