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Denver Broncos Coach Gary Kubiak Hospitalized After Losing To Falcons

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 01:33 PST, Oct 10, 2016

After losing to the Atlanta Falcons during Sunday night’s football game, Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, 55, was hospitalized after developing “flu-like symptoms,” according to Patrick Smyth, who is the team’s vice president of public relations.

The 23-16 loss to the Atlanta Falcons took a toll on the team, including wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who said, “As a team, we’re trying to get better and better.

“This is our first loss in, what, seven weeks? Eight weeks? It is what it is. At the same time, as much as we win, we’ve got to be able to adjust when we lose. We got our butts kicked today. We’ve got to take the butt-kicking and move on.”

However, their sentiments quickly shifted when head coach Kubiak was rushed to a local hospital just 45 minutes after Sunday night football game. Kubiak developed flu-like symptoms and was transported from the stadium to a “local hospital as a precaution.”

“Prayers out for Coach Kub,” said Broncos’ safety T.J Ward in a Twitter post.

This marks the second health scare the Broncos coach encountered in three years.

In 2013, Kubiak, who was the Houston Texans’ head coach at the time, suffered a stroke and collapsed at the Reliant Stadium while walking to the locker room at halftime during a game against the Colts.

Reporter Michelle Tafoya, who was reporting at the football game, stated that Kubiak was in obvious pain and had trouble opening his eyes. At one point, he tried to sit up but had to lay back down.

Tafoya added that “Kubiak was talking as he was taken off the field.”

Kubiak was rushed to a local hospital in “what was called precautionary reasons,” according to the Denver Post.

The coach later returned to the game, but it was reported that he was released from his position shortly after and became head coach of the Denver Broncos in 2015.

In February of last year, the NFL coach spoke about his previous health scare, stating that he “thinks after going through that and talking to a lot of doctors there in Houston and those type of things, it made me change a little bit as a coach and how I go about things.”

Kubiak went on to say that he “knows exactly why it happened because I go back and I know what I was doing and what I put myself through and trying to do too much and kind of ran myself into the ground a little bit, so I’ve tried to do things differently.”

“I still love the work, so I’m going to be up early in the morning working the hours, but I also try to go about it in a little different way, not to try to take on everything myself and understand that I have good people with me and I think it’s helped me.”

He added, “That was a scary time. I probably ran myself into the ground and I think I learned a lot from that.”

After learning the NFL coach was hospitalized following the teams’ 23-16 loss to Atlanta Falcons, several Broncos fans took to Facebook to express their concerns for the coach, saying “get well soon” and sending their prayers.

“Everyone knows Kubiak made some bad decisions today,” Jared Winkler wrote on Facebook. “Keeping our RG in too long, going too much for the deep plays. But it’s okay guys. We recap, we learn, we move on, we beat the Chargers. I hope he feels better soon and hope all is good.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVyUCEVbUQI

Marcus Theison on Facebook said, “I’m not the one for excuses but this could be the reason we lost. Our coaching put up no effort at all to come back and especially in the 4th. Broncos just looked off on both sides of the ball.”

“Unsure if the sickness was weighing Kubiak down and he couldn’t think straight during the game but man bad game. Go Broncos. Get well Kubiak.”

Kubiak remains hospitalized, undergoing a series of tests.

It has yet to be determined when he will return.

[Featured Image by Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Images]

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