On Monday afternoon, Robin Fox released a statement about her husband’s surgery.

It was boilerplate stuff, thanking fans for support and well-wishes after John Fox, the Broncos coach, underwent aortic valve replacement surgery in North Carolina. Who knows if Robin Fox even wrote the words, or if it was someone else in the family, or someone helping the family. It doesn’t matter, either.

You see, before Saturday, I didn’t know Robin Fox’s name. I saw John Fox at Dove Valley four times a week, and at the stadium every Sunday that the Broncos played. I watched him crack jokes and avoid going into detail on players’ injuries. I watched him be the consummate NFL coach, a man I’m coming to respect more every week of my first season on the beat.

I never thought much about his home life.

One day in the locker room, I overheard a conversation between a media member and a member of the Broncos’ public relations team. The media member was asking if John Fox might be able to do something on a Tuesday, because after all, Tuesdays are days off — for the players at least.

The PR person responded that Tuesdays are still busy days for coaches, that they don’t get home until late. Another day of work, while everyone else catches a breath.

I never thought much about how irritating it might be for Robin Fox to wait and wait and wait on late nights.

Then I heard Robin’s name while trying to figure out what was going on Saturday afternoon when news broke about Fox being taken to a Charlotte hospital, then again on Monday, when she issued the statement. Now I keep thinking about this woman and the other wives of NFL coaches who have to help their husbands handle the stress of coaching.

Asked on Monday whether there might be any way for the NFL to legislate some kind of hours limit for coaches, John Elway — the son of a football coach — laughed. They wouldn’t listen, Elway said, and that was that. These men are married to their work, and when it all goes to pieces, there are women and families there to pick it up, to write statements, to relay status reports.

We talk so much about how hard this job is on coaches. What we sometimes forget is how thankless it must be, at times, for their loved ones. Then there are days like Saturday, and it’s impossible not to be reminded.

I’m not writing this because I’m a woman or because I understand what Robin Fox must be going through. I don’t. I’m not married. I don’t know if I ever will be. I think I have more of a clue what NFL coaches go through on a day-to-day basis than I do what their wives experience.

I’m writing this because anyone who has to release a statement to the public about his or her partner’s health deserves a little bit of attention, a pat on the back, a moment of recognition. I hope Robin Fox gets hers.

Joan Niesen: jniesen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joanniesen



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