‘It’s my dad’s life and my life’: How the NFL has shaped the bond between HC Vic Fangio and his daughter

[Miles]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A day before Vic Fangio started his first training camp as the head coach of the Denver Broncos, he guided his car down a street near UCHealth Training Center as his daughter posed a question.


Cassie Fangio wanted to know how her 60-year-old father was feeling. After 32 years as an NFL assistant, he was about to begin his first season as a head coach.


“Are you nervous?” his 22-year-old daughter asked him.


He quickly waved her off. No, he said.


But Cassie, who grew up around the NFL and has spent the start of training camp with her dad and the Broncos, can’t say the same.


“Oh, yeah,” she says after a recent Broncos training camp practice. “I’m very nervous to see what my dad is going to be like on TV and just in charge of the game on the sideline. It’s going to be a change for sure, but I’m excited.”


It’s been a long time coming for both Vic and Cassie. Fangio spent 32 years as an NFL assistant or coordinator before he got the opportunity earlier this year, and he had come to terms with the fact that he might never be destined to earn the top spot.


“It’s obviously something I’ve thought about throughout my career at various times, but I was comfortable enough in my own skin that it didn’t have to happen,” Fangio said at his introductory press conference in January. “I was happy with being a defensive coordinator in the NFL for close to 20 years. If a good situation ever arose and I matched what a certain team was looking for, I’d be all in. I believe I’ve found that here and I’m all in.”


Before he accepted the Denver job earlier this year, though, Cassie wasn’t sure if she would see her dad take the next step in his career.


“I mean, he’s not the youngest guy around," Cassie says jokingly, "so you kind of thought maybe it would never happen."


When it did, his daughter’s reaction was reflective of the work he’s put in during four decades of coaching football at all levels.


“When I first found out, I was pretty much in tears,” Cassie says. “This is what he’s worked for and it’s what my family and I have always wanted for him. He deserves it so much. I see how hard he works outside of the office. He’s the last one to leave every night. He deserves it, and I hope he enjoys it because I know it’s going to be stressful, too. But I hope he enjoys it.”


As he starts his head coaching career, it’s clear he’s enjoying the moments he can spend with his daughter before she heads to Texas for her first job out of college. When the Broncos aren’t on the field for practice, the future U.S. Army nurse and her dad are nearly inseparable.


In the morning Vic and Cassie eat breakfast together. During practice, she stands on the sideline and watches as her father directs some of his first training camp practices. They grab a quick lunch when the morning’s practice wraps up, and she’s around to talk when her dad gets home after a long night at the office.


“It’s been great,” Fangio says Wednesday. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having her here. She’s starting a new life here and becoming a nurse in the Army soon, so both myself and her mother’s chances to see her are going to be slim and none for a while, so anything we get, you cherish.


“We’ve eaten most meals together every day and I see her at the house late at night every day. She hangs out in my office when there’s some dead time for her. So it’s been great. I’ve cherished it.


“It’s a bonus — and we all like bonuses.”