Broncos head coach John Fox, dressed sharply in a suit and a tie striped with team colors of blue and orange as he addressed reporters upon his team’s arrival to its Jersey City hotel late Sunday afternoon, was rattling off the litany of things the team has overcome en route to Super Bowl XLVIII when he casually mentioned he “went away for four weeks.’’
He sounded almost as if he had gone away for a respite.
But Fox’s hiatus, which was forced when he collapsed during the team’s bye week on a Charlotte, N.C., golf course with an aortic valve problem, was no vacation. He underwent emergency surgery, rehabbed and returned to Denver to coach his players after missing just four games.
“It was like a player being injured,’’ Fox said Sunday. “It was expected to be four to five weeks and I made it back a little early. I had a plan and we executed the plan.’’
The team’s first concern was for Fox’s health and not when or if he would return to coaching, quarterback Peyton Manning said.
“The last thing we thought about was when he was going to come back as our coach,’’ Manning said. “The highlight was later that week in the team meeting we had him on the big screen on a FaceTime chat and he didn’t really know how to use it. His face was very close to the phone.’’
Fox said his heart valve condition originally had been diagnosed when he was the Giants’ defensive coordinator and the plan was to have the procedure done after this season.
“I’d have been looking to do it next week had it not happened nine weeks ago,’’ he said.
The Broncos went 3-1 in Fox’s absence as defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio took over as interim head coach.
“He’s a great leader,’’ Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said of Fox. “And I think it really showed more when he wasn’t there, because guys understood that we still got a job to do. He preached that from his hospital bed how much we needed to hone in on what’s in front of us and make sure we take care of business.’’
Asked about what a win in this Super Bowl might do for his “legacy,’’ Fox said, “I hope to do this a lot longer … and I like to wait until the body of work is done.’’