Broncos dedicated playoff win to ‘Kup’

This image of Denver Broncos guard Chris Kuper (73) suffering an ankle injury January 1, 2012 is not for the faint of stomach. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

In the spirit of yesterday’s BT Profile — in which he’s maintaining a sky-high 97% approval rating — Chris Kuper was featured at the team’s official site today. The editors caught up with Kuper on his road to recovery and dropped this nugget: the injured veteran was the inspiration behind the team’s pregame speech against the Pittsburgh Steelers Wildcard Weekend.

Just before kickoff of the Broncos’ Wild Card win against the Steelers, defensive end Elvis Dumervil brought the offensive and defensive linemen together.

“We’re missing somebody, his name’s Chris Kuper — let’s do it for Kuper,” Dumervil shouted, breaking down the huddle with a “Kuper on three.”

“It was huge, man,” Dumervil said of Kuper’s injury. “He’s one of your key guys and leaders — that hurt. You know if he was out there, he’d give it all he’s got. And so I just kind of brought that up and let the guys know, ‘Hey, this can be taken away from you any day,’ and I think a lot of guys were inspired by that. We went out there and played for ‘Kup.’”

There are a lot of nuggets on Kuper’s recovery in the article — his four-to-six month recovery window appears to be “right on par”; he’s been able to focus more on upper-body strength; he and his wife had a baby boy just two weeks ago (congrats on that Kup!); he’s back at the team facilities at this point.

“Just having him walking around, the character – he has that smile, man,” Dumervil said. “He has that sense of humor, so just having ‘Kup’ in the locker room makes everybody feel good.”

It’s not often a right guard is held in such high esteem on a team’s roster, but Kuper breaks the mold in more ways than one. Here’s hoping his recovery sees him 100% by training camp, as planned.

Kuper on Road to Recovery [DenverBroncos.com]