Back in the early 1970s when Broncos Head Coach John Fox attended Castle Park High School in Chula Vista, Calif., he was coached by Jan Chapman.
Today, Chapman had a chance to watch Fox do some coaching of his own at Dove Valley.
Chapman, who has coached football for nearly 40 years, said that he saw qualities in Fox as a player that made him think that Fox would make a good coach down the line.
“He really studied what we were doing,” Chapman said while watching Fox lead the Broncos practice on Wednesday. “He understood everything we were doing. I just thought, if that’s what he wants to do, he will do it.”
Fox played tight end and safety for his high school team during his sophomore and junior seasons while Chapman was an assistant coach.
The two reconnected when Fox worked as the San Diego Chargers secondary coach from 1992-93. Chapman served as the statistician for the Chargers during those years and said the pair talked daily during their time in San Diego together. They stayed in touch when Fox continued on his coaching path.
“It’s very refreshing because he is such a great guy,” Chapman said. “He’s so easy to talk to and I just love the guy.”
Chapman said that Fox’s leadership qualities made him a well-respected player among his peers and coaches.
“He was a quiet leader,” Chapman recalled. “He wasn’t a loud, boisterous guy at all. But he was a leader.”
Chapman remembers Fox as an extremely undersized player who excelled thanks to his toughness and effort on the field.
“He was only 150 or 155 pounds in high school, and that may have been giving him some,” Chapman laughed. “Then he went to junior college, did well in junior college, walked on at San Diego State and started for them. He played hard. As little as he was, I couldn’t believe it. He was tough. He was super.”
-Stuart Zaas
Tags: Head Coach John Fox, Jan Chapman
He is a grea coach and I’m glad to have him!
Yah im with you cat, think he is a very good coach myself, but dont ask Carnage about him lol
LOL there are plenty of people here who hate him, but he like basically rewrote our team last year to fit a kid who is illfitted to play QB, can’t help but love his effort.
Cat, hes also with a club that will spend alittle money, carolyna didnt give him anything. Fox is a peoples person, hes almost a counselor also, dealing with that many personalities, which is a goodthing rt. When you have someone as a coach that doesnt treat everyone the same, only good things will happen as weve seen. Cant treat everyone the same, cuz of different personalities have to use different approach with everyone, to get the best of what you have, as a teacher you know exactly what i mean.
From 05 to 2010 I was a Big rig driving Instructor for CR England, every person I tought was completely different, not only when learning, but if they had any other issuses in their life at the time they were trying to grasp the shifting tech, they would be completely lost. So as an Instructor I had to find common ground with everyone of them, and , thats what coach Fox does it seems like.
I agree with you 100%. He also let’s stuff go. He is serious about this “you better stay in shape” thing thought. You have to know they’re going to stay in shape, only 53 men make the team.
And being a teacher, I know that it’s important that you treat everyone fairly, but that does not mean that everybody is treated the same way.
I don’t know how we fell four spots in off season power rankings, but now we are 14 instead of 10 according to nfl.com. Here is the little blurb:
“If Peyton Manning is healthy, this is a top-10 team. Denver has a pair of talented young receivers in Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker who should flourish with an accomplished quarterback delivering the football. The Broncos also boast one of the AFC’s best offensive lines. Denver made the playoffs last season with a (mostly) stout defense and timely offense. Things will look much different in 2012.”
Everyone has different learning abilities, and, ways that they learn, so getting mad or upset at an individual only gets them frustrated and then they dont even want to try. But I know this is the NFL and these guys have been thru hell and back to get here, so their pretty much use to the abuse lol, but constructive crytisium with a smile on your face works well.
I however am good with it… Now that I think about it, it’s better if they doubt us.
Yah, I dont want to go into this season, with, superbowl or bust, just to much pressure from the get go. IMO 2013 is going to be the superbowl run, once PM , and , the recievers , and, OL have all gotten on the same page is when we will win. I do think though, that, we will be rt their for the AFC divisional title we will see, so , much can happen through out the yr, injury wise, to anyone on any team, not just the NECK lol.
Yes!!!!! I’m with you. I don’t think the Johns expect SB or bust, neither does the team. I certainly don’t. I just want to win at home again.
Well, its been a pleasure talking with you Cat, Bronc to you later, have a wonder night, and , the same to all Brono Country and Play nice were all in this together.
Hey Miller, Cat!! How right you are Miller a great coach is able to look at different ways to communicate and get a point across. I believe JE did a great job of putting experienced coaches on the team. Cat, I’m hoping they will under estimate the Broncos at least for the first couple of games because it won’t be a secret after that. The new Mile High will ROCK like it has never rocked before…this year.
Thanks Horsepower, a good example of a coach that isnt doing all that great, Haley, all he does is yell, and, call his players out on national tv rt. The steelers are in a bad situation rt now, cuz I know Big Ben isnt all that happy rt now. So if he does somethng wrong like a misread or something, because its a new offense all heck is going to break loose it pitt, and , its not If its when, mark my words bro.
Wow! Looks like interesting stuff happening at the Patriots as well.
Havent got the update their yet
I know you were on your way out Miller so, i’ll let you go. I was laughing when i got in on the end of that conversation.
Why were you laughing bro
Belly gave the team the last day of camp off and told them to not take playbooks home over the summer.
I was ready to jump in the Blog and you were ready head out. I’ve done that a couple of times now. lol
Belly LMAO, rt on HP1, ill catch up with you soon.
Anyway, chat with you later got to get back to work.
i dont believe teams will underestimate us horsepower, the addition of manning will make people extra ready and may have the opposite affect. they may overestimate us, which sounds wierd but if we are good as i think we will be, we’ll win anyway. but the broncos sneaking up on people? i dont believe so. and ya millertime i know what you mean about haley, and rothy is not having a good time in that offense so they may flop in the 1st game against us. easy win and i like it especially against the steelers. i wanna kick their butt again badly.
and i gotta post and run, try to be back later….
Horse… What is with Belly doin that anyway? Even I think about my job in the summer…
Miller, I agree about Haley. I actually like how Ben keeps saying he is refusing to change the way he plays QB… Haley’s an idiot. Ben is not my favorite player, but what he does has been workin pretty good for them over the last few years. At least Tomlin is a fantastic coach.
I am convinced that Belly sends his protégés out to destroy up and coming teams anyway…
http://www.nfl.com/videos/new-york-jets/09000d5d829d4f7e/Tim-Tebow-playing-running-back-at-practice?campaign=Twitter_videos
You can hear Rexxy explain this in the next video – but the Jet’s are setting up to trick and gadget the NFL to death.
Great coaches are generals not teachers. Assistant coaches and trainers can be teachers. Personal opinion is that Fox is only ok, as a general, he would be better off as an assistant.
Wanna know why I think it might work???? John Elway is a general!!!
DB, how come I’m not shocked by you not liking Fox as our coach?
Dude, I get enough of Tebow on the news, you really got to post it here? I hate Rex Ryan, I’m not sitting through his interview, sorry.
Well my dearest Ms. Cat,
I could analyse for you the reasons why – but I don’t suppose you would like that either.
Tough on the Tebow postings. I’ll post what I feel is interesting to me. There is no obligation or expectation form me, for you to view it. LOL
BTW – old Rexxy is already beginning his transformation into a decent human being. It’s kind of fun to watch.
Cat – you should know that there is no animosity toward you because of the fact that we disagree on most things. Not at all. Rather I find it refreshing.
On the Bronco blog I am not considered an authority. On here I can post stuff ‘just because’ and because ‘I feel that way’ and not because I have written a peer reviewed paper on it. Nobody here feels like they have to listen to me or agree with me. People can call me names on here and I am just one of the guys. I get a real kick out of you referring to me as ‘dude’.
So, please don’t take offense. I should hate it if the blog relationship changed.
Getting beyond the questions about Manning and the O-line.
I’m still wondering about the receivers. I never did find an acceptable reason for the drops last year. (We could post many that hit receivers in the hand or chest that were dropped – and I still can’t accept the theory having to do with the ball spinning the opposite direction.)
Just wondering.
Could it be that getting rid of Royal solves about 50% of that problem – but Decker dropped quite a few as well. Just speculating that maybe someone else will step up and become Manning’s favorite target. Manning doesn’t throw to guys who drop passes during the season.
Just wondering.
Daddy, I agree a lot with you on most things,but,Rex transforming….”CMON MAN” I also wondered why all the dropped passes and finally decided it was the shock of actually seeing a pass make it to them and just got overly excited. lol
Making posts because I was getting bored – I have admitted to doing a little ‘trolling’ before! LOL
Well, I’ve kept tabs long enough today. Gotta go give vitamins to all my new plants and keep working on my watering systems.
Take care!
db i disagree with your assessment of fox and coaches in general. they can absolutley be teachers, look at dick vermeil, he was a teacher, and fox does well as a coach because he gets the best out of the people and players around him. thats whats important. haley was a general and he failed miserably. the fact he’s a teacher not a general is irrelevant. i do say tho that alot of the best coaches have been more general than teacher but you cannot say that because he’s a teacher he’s better as an assisstant imo. i mean thats a fact!
and the recievers drops can be explained by this- imagine the reciever and what he’s taught. he’s taught to run to a spot, turn around and the ball will be there (this is 90% of it). he doesnt even have to think about the catch, its muscle memory, route and catch, route and catch… then he starts thinking to take it to the house through the secondary. okay thats whats happened in his whole career, right? go to a spot and when he’s the primary or 2nd he usually gets the ball on point. now imagine he runs those routes that the coaches tell him ‘expect the ball here’ and every time ‘here’ happens theres no ball, and instead they see tebow scrambling and they have to go into ‘get open’ or ‘run block’ mode, which no reciever wants to do for 70% of a game. (they do that like 10% of the game usually, if that). well that reciever is not going to be that ‘in’ to the game after awhile doing that and theyre attitude and demeanor changes to ‘ok here we go i turn around and nothing happens and tebow will be running’ and ‘i guess i’ll just get ready to block or get open for this guy and hope i dont get killed’ and then your recievers are not on point or even close to it because the way theyve always played the game has completely changed and they hate it. so you’ll get some interuptions in concentration and when the ball gets there maybe some suprise and they have to do something they never did before, and this is important, they have to think about catching the ball. that always just happened because it was muscle memory with a route but now they have chaos going on and ‘do i get ready for the ball or do i run or do i tackle when he throws an int and when the ball gets there its not automatic anymore. and you get a drop. and thats a fact too!
A head football in the NFL (NOT FOR LONG) coach must possess strong communication and problem-solving skills, and be highly organized and innovative. He needs to have the ability to motivate and delegate, and understand how to improve both individual players and the team as a whole. He should also own good analytical skills, as he spends a lot of time observing obstacles (and opponents) and how his team can overcome them.
Fox has all the skills. And JDR has the same. Good times comming for or team.
ILMSDB
FTR
whats up ftr? good post i agree. its more about doing the important things than the way theyre done i think. of course theres some that have their odd style and it works but the basics of a good coach are pretty consistent.
JDL is on the field sometimes during 11 on 11 drills coaching up his players. Love that kind of coach. I did the same as a pop warner coach and I seen great improvement.
Just saying:
LMSDB
FTR
LBF:
Hands on coaching!! Bro hows the back?
FTR
ya and you gotta look at someone like jim harbaugh. he takes essentially the same team mike singletary had and they get completely different results on the field. and its about how you are with your players and more importantly putting them in the place they will do their best. of course singletary was a horrible coach and when they hired him i was glad cuz i hate the 49ers!
LBF did you see 07 poped in for a bit. Bay starting to get the itch also. Hope they pop in more often!
FTR
backs back to 100% ftr and my wife is now loving the tiger balm too! she works on the computer all day and her neck aches alot and she started using it and she loves the crap out of it!
I am still looking for B/F/E aka Buzzin to check in.
FTR
ya ftr i actually just went back and read and it was like deja vu! i loved seeing 07 and its always good when bay opines on here. those were good blog days but its getting back to that now. i sure hope bay and 07 start posting regular. cat reminds me of her too and i bet theyd be great on here together. 07 if your reading then hey hope your doing well and cmon back and post! and bay i think may be working his way out of retirement, hope so!
whatya think about my opinion on the wr drops last year ftr? agree or disagree?
LBF
Good to hear. That stuff works on everything! Takes some time but it’s the best!
FTR
thunder are doing their usual slow start. i guess now their gonna do their 3rd qtr dominance and take it in the end again. man they are consistent if anything. i bet there fans just dont even worry about the 1st half no matter how far they get behing cuz they know theyll just come back and win in the 2nd half