By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Obviously, it was a blow when Michael Wilhoite found out in mid-January that he was losing his job as linebackers coach with the Los Angeles Chargers as part of a staff shakeup.
Michael Wilhoite, outside linebackers coach for the Denver Broncos, talks with his fellow camp coaches during last Friday's Big Kev Give Back Camp at Washburn University. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Former NFL linebacker Michael Wilhoite, who played quarterback at Highland Park, participates in a passing drill during last Friday's Big Kev Give Back Camp at Washburrn University. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And nobody has to tell the former Highland Park and Washburn University standout how fortunate he was to land a job with new Denver head coach Sean Payton as the Broncos' outside linebackers coach barely a month later.
"It's been like that my whole life and I can't explain it in any other way than God,'' said Wilhoite, in town last Friday for the Big Kev Give Back Camp. "That's just him putting me around the right people and giving me the right words and ways to communicate with people, so I'm just thankful and I feel blessed that I've had the opportunities that I've had and I am where I am right now.''
Wilhoite, the former 49ers and Seahawks linebacker, did his best to keep a positive attitude in the wake of his firing from the Chargers after two seasons, realizing that it was just part of sports.
"It's the same thing as Michael Jordan getting cut,'' Wilhoite said. "It's the same thing as Sean Payton losing a job. Jon Gruden's been fired, Tony Dungy's been fired, but what I know is that with the great ones there's growth. You learn and you improve and you see things differently and that's what I'm focused on is the growth I can make from one place to another and how I can be better at everything that I did and impove the things that I didn't do well.
"It can't be that I go from one situation to the other and I don't learn anything and I still think that I know everything and I still think that I'm right. You can't do that. There's got to be growth there and I have growth, and it's humbling.''
Payton gave Wilhoite his first opportunity as an NFL assistant with the New Orleans Saints in 2019 and 2020 and Wilhoite's departure from the Chargers coincided almost perfectly with Payton accepting the job as the Broncos' head coach and filling his coaching staff..
"He's a real leader, a real head coach,'' Wilhoite said of Payton. "Nothing against any other head coach I've been around because there's been a bunch of good ones I've been around, but that's the beauty of him and that's why I am enjoying where I'm at with him right now.''
And while he's excited for his first season with the Broncos, Wilhoite said he has absolutely no bad feelings towards the Chargers.
"It was a great experience,'' he said. "There were great people there, it was a great situation there, it just didn't work out for me. No harm done.
"I wish all those guys well. They'll do great this year. I look forward to playing them and it will be good to see them, but at the end of the day, business is business and everybody's got to do what best's for them.''
