Anderson's mom inspires apology for curt words to media

Let's give a big Mile High Salute to C.J. Anderson's mama.

Thanks to her, he apologized to the public for the way he answered questions from the media after Monday night's game.

"I apologize for my actions. I was very frustrated. I was frustrated with my play. A lot people probably said I played well. I was frustrated in my play and I should have told you guys to come talk to me 10 minutes after [that]," Anderson said on Wednesday. "I should have never done that and I just want to apologize to everybody over here because I know you guys have got a job to do."

Not that he really needed to apologize.

ICYMI - the running back who actually was one of the better performing Broncos on Monday night according to statistics, answered every question with almost the exact same, curt retort: "We played terrible."

But by the next day, he had issued an apology via Twitter:

I apologize 4 my actions towards the media yesterday. I was very frustrated in the way I played. I'm not that type of guy #neveragain

— C.J. Anderson (@CjAndersonRB9) December 23, 2014

He told reporters after practice Wednesday that his mother inspired the apology.

"I just felt like that is the type of guy I am. My mom and my grandma raised me a lot better than that and you shouldn't disrespect someone else's job because of what you're going through," Anderson said of the reporters who were asking for a post-game response. "At the end of the day, you have to take the good with the bad and you have to be a professional."

Though it's true reporters often get a bad rap when just trying to ask questions for a quote, Anderson's responses were a refreshing change from the clichés after a loss - "We just didn't show up today," "You have to give credit to the other team," "They were the better team tonight" blah, blah, blah.

"We played terrible" was a pretty accurate assessment of that game.

But as many of our mothers have no doubt reminded us, it's not what you say, it's the way you say it.

So it was also refreshing to have a player recognize that his public behavior may not have been the most professional - even if not all that offensive.

The best part? Anderson's mom didn't even have to tell him. He just knew.

"She said, ‘You said what you said and you've got to live with it.' She knows I'm not that type of person and she was just like, ‘There's only one way to clear it up. ...Next time maybe you can tell them, Give me five, give me 10 minutes,'" Anderson said. "That makes sense, and I'm young and I'm learning so it's just a learning experience."

Although Anderson added a touchdown and contributed 138 of the Broncos' 396 offensive yards, his frustration was over missed opportunities.

"There were some run-reads that I missed out there," Anderson acknowledged. "The big boys, when they got the job done, I didn't get the job done behind them. It was kind of uncharacteristic of me. I was frustrated and after some of the negative runs. I was frustrated and it's my fault, and I stopped trusting them and I shouldn't have done that. I just feel like I played terrible."

So after getting mad and lashing out, Anderson apologized, regrouped and pulled out his first notebook from when he joined the Broncos in 2013.

"I actually read through all of that yesterday so I can get back on track and just try to get back to the fundamentals," he said.

Kudos, Mama Anderson. C.J. is already sounding very professional.