Football coaches are often celebrated for a maniacal devotion to the demanding nature of their jobs.
New York Jets head coach Adam Gase is no different, and his devotion to the craft was profiled in a story for The Athletic. The entire piece is filled with some eye-opening anecdotes, but one of the tales borders on uncomfortable.
Gase and his wife, Jennifer, had a baby boy on Oct. 1, 2013, when Gase was still on the Denver Broncos coaching staff. His weekly meeting with then-quarterback Peyton Manning was scheduled for that day, and there apparently was no way Gase would miss the powwow with his starting QB.
From The Athletic:
The file for Oct. 1, 2013, is particularly interesting. Every Tuesday when he was in Denver, Gase met with Manning at 2 p.m. Except this Tuesday, when Jennifer was delivering Wyatt by cesarean section.
Gase told his wife to schedule the operation for 10 a.m. “So they pulled the baby out of me and said, ‘It’s a boy,’” Jennifer says. “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.’”
At 2 p.m., Manning was stunned to find Gase waiting for him in the meeting room.
Manning: “You’ve got to be kidding me. Didn’t your wife just have a baby two hours ago?”
Gase: “Yeah, but did you really think I was going to let you win this one?”
?
Coincidentally and in fairness to Gase, there also are multiple stories about how he comforted the families of players and coaches in certain times of needs, so it’s not like this is supposed to paint him as some sort of monster.
Gase is applauded throughout the story for his knowledge and work ethic and so on and so forth. And it obviously has helped him ascend to the heights of his profession where there are only 31 other men tasked with running the on-field operations for an NFL team. But this seems slightly aggressive, to say the least. Then again, Gase’s wife is no stranger to this lifestyle, as she grew up with her father — current Jets outside linebackers coach Joe Vitt — bouncing around from job to job as he’s now on his 10th different team in his NFL career.
So if it works for them, great, but it’s still maybe just a little bit weird.
