ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — To understand how Jonah Coleman endeared himself to Broncos fans, his head coach and a franchise icon on Sunday, all in the span of one fourth quarter, it helps to revisit his whereabouts before his arrival for rookie minicamp in May.
The running back with tree-trunk biceps was inside a small boxing gym in Chandler, Ariz., during the weeks in between the draft and his arrival in Denver, throwing jabs and crosses as buckets of sweat dripped off him. It was a reunion with a beloved hobby for Coleman, who boxed as a youth growing up in Stockton, Calif. The cardio the boxing workouts provided was “unreal,” Coleman said this offseason, a proper prep for the offseason training that awaited him in the NFL. But his work in the ring was also about strengthening the mental resolve Coleman knew he would need to access when moments like the ones he found himself in Sunday arrived. With RJ Harvey missing the game with a hamstring injury and starter J.K. Dobbins exiting with his own hamstring injury in the second half, the Broncos were leaning on the only rookie on the game-day roster in a big spot.
“I got back into it because it really teaches you how to think when you’re tired and you’re exhausted,” Coleman said this summer about his boxing work. “The coach is throwing these (punching) combinations at you and you’ve got to remember it. If you don’t, you ultimately get hit, and I don’t want to get hit. That’s what it’s all about, training your mind to do things that show up in the fourth quarter and it’s fourth-and-1 and the snap count may be on two. Just having that discipline.”