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The Denver Broncos are the greatest team on
God's green earth
Tuesday - January 17, 2006
A Dallas Cowboy's
lineman, when referring to the awkward opening in the roof of
Texas Stadium, once said, "It's so God can watch HIS team
play."
Many a Carolina basketball fan will
point out that it's no coincidence that God made the sky
Carolina blue - He's a Tarheels fan.
Both annecdotes are cute, sure, but
let's be realistic - God loves all teams equally - even the
lowly Arizona Cardinals. He made his Green (sometimes
astro-turfed) Earth for the enjoyment of all teams to compete
on for ours as well as His enjoyment on Sundays. It is on this
Green Earth that the Broncos have dominated while others have
fallen. A feat that I'm certain hasn't gone unnoticed by He
with the best seats in the House. I can't speak for God when I
talk about the Broncos, but I can't help but notice that, at a
mile high, they are closer to his Holiness than any other team
in the league.
Blasphemy aside, there is an explanation
for my own fervent love for the Broncos. It all began in 1983.
My family had relocated to Colorado Springs. I had been more of
a baseball fan than a follower of the NFL. At the time, we had
no home baseball team to pull for and I couldn't watch the
Orioles on TV in that market. Fortunately, there was football
and this new quarterback that everyone either loved or hated;
John Elway. So I got into watching and Denver became my team.
Little did I know that it would be a lifelong commitment that
would endure some of the lowest low points of any franchise
outside of Buffalo, New York.
As a kid, I loved the ugly orange and
blue uniforms and the marquee stars on the team known
collectively as "The Thee Amigos" or "The Orange Crush". After
a few years, Denver began looking like a contender, riding
largely on Elway's arm. The was "the drive", a miracle comeback
drive against the Browns that led Denver to the Superbowl
against the Giants. They lost that one 39-20.
The following year, they were favored
highly against the Redskins and Denver jumped out quickly,
scoring on their first play. The Skins responded with the
greatest offensive performance in a single quarter - putting up
35 points in the second to win 42-10. Two years later they lost
55-10 to San Francisco. It wasn't a good time to be a Denver
fan.
The next 10 years would bring hope -
like when Elway drove from their own 1 yard line with 60
seconds left to beat the Oilers and advance to the AFC
Championship; disappointment - like when a promising Denver
team started the 1994 season 0-3 and never recovered; and
failure - like when a heavily-favored Denver team was upset by
Jacksonville in the first round.
14 years had passed since I'd first
watched my team, best summed up by bastardizing the lines of
James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams:
"The one constant through all the years,
Jon, has been Denver-failure. America has rolled by like an
army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard,
rebuilt and erased again. You've passed through elementary,
middle, high school, and most of college. But Denver-failure
has marked the time."
I think the failures marked Elway's
years, too. 1997 changed everything. With nifty new uniforms, a
strong running game, luck, and the guts of Elway, they upset
the heavily favored Packers to win Superbowl XXXII. It was a
sight I never thought I'd see: Denver, World Champions. They
backed it up by beating the Falcons the following year. Then
Elway retired, and rode off into the sunset a
winner.
In the years since, there's been new
hope and disappointment in Denver. The NFL has rolled by. The
Broncos have been rebuilt and erased again. But, to be honest,
I haven't minded. My boyhood team won me my Superbowls - and
they did it in my final years of college, while I was still a
kid.
This weekend, the team of my childhood
will face off against my dad's childhood team, the Steelers,
for the first time ever in a championship game. We'll sit in
front of the TV, cheer our teams on and, yes, pretend like our
very lives depend on the outcome. But these aren't the teams we
grew up with, the players we idolized, or even cities we've
lived near in years. The truth is, I just look forward to
watching a good football game with my dad. A game like this is
rare, but when it's over, the world and life roll on... like an
army of steamrollers.
Posted at 04:25 PM < Just Another Brick in the Blog
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