Why Von Miller’s trip to the Pro Bowl got him more excited to work with his new head coach

ATLANTA — To the outside world, the Pro Bowl serves at the NFL’s underwhelming All-Star game, but to the players, it’s something more.

For those selected to the game, the Pro Bowl serves as somewhat of an annual conference for upper echelon of NFL players, a meeting of the minds, if you will. It’s a place where players can discuss league matters, contract negotiations, learn some tricks of the trade and pick eachtoher’s brains on whatever may be on their minds.

This year, under the bright Orlando sun, as Denver Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller took in his seventh trip to the Pro Bowl, he kept hearing the same sentence.

“You’re going to love him.”

“You’re going to love him.”

“You’re going to love him.”

It seemed everywhere the unofficial Mayor of the Pro bowl turned, he was hearing those words from all sorts of different personalities.

Whether it was Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Kyle Fuller, Eddie Jackson, Mitch Trubisky, Tarik Cohen or someone else, Von was hearing it from all angles.

The person all those Bears were talking about, of course, is new Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio.

Fangio, who most recently served as the defensive coordinator in Chicago, was deemed “The Mob Boss” and “The Evil Genius” by his players there, and Von’s been hearing great things ever since the Broncos announced the hire.

“Coach Fangio has coached all of my buddies,” Miller explained. “From Aldon Smith to Khalil Mack to Richard Sherman and everybody raves about him, so I’m excited for him to coach me, as well.”

When Miller got to the Pro Bowl, the talk picked up.

“Everybody says ‘You’re going to love him,’” he explained. “Some of the Bears players were [in Orlando] and they were like, ‘Man, you’re going to love him. I hate that y’all took him. You’re going to love him. You’re going to love him.’ So I’m looking forward to it.”

Miller, who has been texting with Fangio since they met when the new head coach was introduced, will have to wait until April to see his coaching style for himself, but it’s safe to say he’ll be heading into that experience with high expectations.

And, of course, the expectations will be mutual.

“I do really believe as good, as Von as played in his career, and he has done some really, really good things, he can play even better,” Fangio said at his introductory press conference.

Maybe the high expectations will be for the best. Iron sharpens iron, right?