A joyous Jerry Rosburg thrilled to help the Broncos earn a win in last game

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!

The Broncos earned a win for interim head coach Jerry Rosburg on Sunday afternoon at Empower Field at Mile High, a thriller over the Chargers, 31-28.

And while the 5-12 season isn’t what anyone expected, at least the team showed signs of life after the Christmas Day meltdown in Los Angeles against the Rams that ultimately got Nathaniel Hackett fired. Rosburg brought the Broncos some much-needed respect back, and they played hard for him.

After the game, Rosburg started his press conference with one of his famous opening speeches. We’ve only heard them for about two weeks, but he likes to address the media with his thoughts before taking any questions. This one didn’t disappoint.

“It’s a beautiful day in Denver, Colorado,” Rosburg said. “I just got done talking to the players and coaches and staff in the locker room… I’m really happy for them. I was hoping we could come back to the center of that locker room and share the joy of meaningful accomplishment and we did that. We came together and celebrated. You saw smiles, you saw hugs, you saw an incredible display of unity.”

For a team without a lot of reasons to smile in 2022, this was a nice end to a miserable year. Nothing went the way fans expected, particularly after the Russell Wilson trade. And even though two games is a small sample size, it’s fairly clear Hackett was a massive problem. Denver scored 55 points in two contests without him.

For Rosburg, the experience as interim head coach, even if it was brief, was worth it.

“That’s why you do this. Joy is hard to get. You have to work through something with one another and figure out how you’re going to get one another, and then you get there, and it’s a whole different thing than having fun or being happy. It’s just incredible. It’s hard to describe the feelings I have for those guys,” Rosburg said.

While that statement is a little hard to interpret, Rosburg is saying “having fun” is totally different than winning. The Broncos may have had fun at their easy practices with Hackett, but they did very little winning.

As for his future, Rosburg was non-committal. He said he’ll show up to work on Monday, and see what happens. Rosburg was retired before the 2022 season, so it’s tough to say if he’ll go back to that or stay on with the Broncos in some capacity.

For now, though, let’s hope he enjoys this one. He helped finish a lost season in a way Broncos Country can be proud of.

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