Peyton Manning didn’t take too many losses on the field. Adam Gase gave him one off of it, sacrificing one of the biggest moments of his life to do so.
Dan Pompei documented just how dedicated the newly minted New York Jets coach is to his craft in his latest feature for The Athletic. Among the obsessive traits Pompei chronicled is the fact that Gase keeps detailed files and reports on every single day he has had as an NFL coach. One anecdote from those files, occurring back in 2013, made it into the final story.
At that point in Gase’s career, he was working as the Denver Broncos’ offensive coordinator alongside Manning. Gase would meet weekly with Manning at 2:00 p.m. every Tuesday afternoon. The most understandable of reasons appeared to prevent Gase from attending one week: Gase’s wife Jennifer was set to deliver their child, Wyatt.
The Gases had the cesarean section operation scheduled at 10 that morning. Jennifer delivered, but said Adam wasn’t up for sticking around.
“They pulled the baby out of me and said, ‘It’s a boy,’” Jennifer told Pompei. “They didn’t even put my organs back and sew me up before he’s like, ‘You good?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’” He said, ‘All right then, I’m out.’ They said, ‘You want to cut the umbilical cord?’ He said, ‘No, I’m good.’”
Manning was shocked to see Gase kept their weekly appointment.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Manning said upon arrival. “Didn’t your wife just have a baby two hours ago?”
“Yeah,” Gase replied. “But did you really think I was going to let you win this one?”
Gase has since been the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and will make his debut at the helm of the Jets on Thursday night. The team opens its preseason slate against the New York Giants at their shared MetLife Stadium home.
True to his unapologetic love of football, Gase showed no qualms with a four-game preseason slate, a claim unheard of in today’s football day and age.
“I like the fact that it gives a chance to evaluate,” Gase said of the quartet, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “That fourth preseason game, all those guys that get to play, we get value out of that. We’re not trying to see if we can shorten the game up. We’ll probably try to throw it like 60 times.”
Sounds like a guy who, at the very least, is dedicated to his craft.
