DENVER — To be a football coach is to be willing to cut off the cable and electric service at one place, and start it back up at another.
Even a successful head coach like Sean Payton moved eight times as a coach to five different colleges and three NFL teams before he became head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006.
Still, getting dismissed as a head coach -- the ultimate job most coaches aspire to -- must sting a little more than packing up as an assistant to a fired head coach. Vic Fangio didn't want to return to the Broncos as Payton's defensive coordinator this year in part because his dismissal as head coach following the 2021 season was still fresh.
Vance Joseph had a little more time. He was the Broncos' head coach in 2017-18, his teams went 5-11 and 6-10, and he was fired with two years left on his contract. He moved on to become defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals for the next four seasons, then returned to Denver in February to take the defensive coordinator job under Payton.
All coaches are prideful. All have egos. All can be a little stubborn. How was Joseph able to put all that aside and return to the Broncos after it ended in so much disappointment four years ago?
"For me, it was never that,'' Joseph said. "It was a fair process. It's a league of winning. So if you don't win there's going to be change. It was never personal for me. I came here and I worked my butt off and it didn't work.
"I'm back now and my focus is to play great defense for Sean and to win games."
Joseph, 50, would have been the Cardinals' defensive coordinator for a fifth season in 2023 but the team hired Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to be their head coach the day after the Super Bowl. That meant Gannon would be in charge of Arizona's defense, leaving Joseph with an opportunity to interview elsewhere.
He had a chance to become defensive coordinator for the NFC-champion Philadelphia Eagles and possibly one other team, but he wanted the Denver job for multiple reasons.
One, it appears Joseph eventually would like another crack at becoming a head coach -- he interviewed for a couple head coach openings this past offseason -- and working for Sean Payton figures to only help his chances.
“I think coach is one of the best play callers in NFL history,'' Joseph said of Payton. "The personal groups he uses on an every-down basis is really tough to match and figure out where he’s going next. He understands defenses very well as far as fronts and coverages. He’s always attacking what you’re doing best.
"So going against coach there’s been some good days, there’s been some bad days also. He’s always ahead of the curve as far as your next move. He kind of saves plays for big moments in a game that you hadn’t seen in a month. Maybe a year. They kind of pop out. In the fourth quarter he pops them on you. He’s a great play caller. It’s tempo, he plays with it, calls plays with it. It's unique.”
Another reason Joseph wanted back with the Broncos is he's always had ties here. A former University of Colorado quarterback who came off the bench for an injured Darian Hagan to lead the Buffaloes to an improbable comeback win in November 1991 at windy Oklahoma State, Joseph and his wife Holly held on to their Denver-area home even after his job took him to Arizona.
“I had a few choices after leaving Arizona,'' Joseph said. "But Denver being home, it’s a great place, great fan base. We have a home here still. So for me it was home. Outside of working with Sean, it was a perfect spot for me.”
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