As Gary Kubiak talked from the podium Tuesday on his first official day as Broncos head coach, his face weathered appropriately, like an old coach’s face should look, I kept wondering — how will this end?
Will this man, this NFL lifer, rewrite a playbook to fit Peyton Manning, and thus write a storybook fit for apountry?
Or will his dear friend John Elway fire him?
That’s the reality, right?
It was the smarmy sports agent Bob Sugar in “Jerry Maguire” who said: “It’s not show friends. It’s show business.”
The Elway-Kubiak friendship got the guy back in the building. Now it’s up to Kubes to stay in the building.
“That’s what I want to be a part of — (high) expectations,” Kubiak said Tuesday at his introductory news conference.
It’s hard to blow one of these introductory news conferences. Sea of smiles. Family in the crowd. Old-time media members reminding him of the good old days. As such, Kubiak, wouldn’t you know, said all the right things with all the right inflections.
On his wife: “Rhonda has always let me chase my dreams. She’s always said, ‘Go get after it,’ so we’re going to get after it again here, hon.”
On quarterback Peyton Manning meshing with his offense: “It’s easy to build a playbook for him, I mean, he’s been the master at it for many, many years. We’re going to do what the team does best, we’re going to do what the players do best. We’re going to run the Denver Broncos’ offense, not Gary Kubiak’s offense.”
On Pat Bowlen and the Bowlen family: “It would be a dream come true for them to hold that trophy again. He’s a very special man in my life.”
But perhaps the most-telling line, to me anyway, was after the news conference, when Kubiak was asked about Elway.
“He’s the boss,” Kubiak said.
There was a on Monday, featuring Elway and Kubiak both in the front seat of a car, each clutching onto the steering wheel. The Broncos mascot is in the backseat, and the bubble over its head says: “Well, this should be interesting.”
Look, I have faith in Kubiak, in his ability to adapt his offense to Manning, in his ability to turn C.J. Anderson into a household name, in his ability to decide which buttons to push as a teacher and as a motivator. And most importantly, in his ability to live up to Elway’s expectations.
“John is the most competitive human being I’ve ever been around,” Kubiak said. “Whether you’re playing cards or pingpong, it doesn’t matter.”
John Fox couldn’t live up to it.
Elway believes Kubiak can.
This one’s on John.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
