A Terrific New Book Gets Inside the Broncos!
Is this an instructive post about the Broncos? Maybe not.
Is it instructive about pro football? Maybe not.
But I get a real kick (no pun) out of a Wall Street Journal writer getting to go to Broncos Camp (the first time a writer had suited up with an NFL team since 1963). Yes, as a kicker. It was back in 1996, but the book is out now ("A Few Seconds of Panic" by Stefan Fatsis. Copyright 2008 by Stefan Fatsis. Published by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc).
You can get a sneak peak here. It's a tension filled moment where the writer has to kick a FG to get his fellow payers out of practice early. A different excerpt (inside the mind of Coach Shanahan) can be found here. It's the best, most in depth look at Coach Shanahan I've ever read, and it's only an excerpt!
I'm not one to advertise on MHR (it's an ugly practice for any writer to do so), but a book about the inside workings of the Broncos would be priceless for any Broncos fan. Christmas is too far away, and Independence Day is a couple of days away (at the time of this writing). So I'm going to ask my wife for this book for, oh, I don't know, Labor Day maybe? It looks like a terrific read.
This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR
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9 comments
Comments
Those are a couple of great links.
Thanks HT for the heads-up on this book. Let’s see, I have a birthday coming up; maybe the missus will get the hint.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Emerson
by firstfan on Jul 2, 2008 11:58 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
The Greatest Broncos Of All Time....By The Numbers - #9
Stefan Fatsis
"It's all over Fat Man"
- Tom Jackson to John Madden 1977 AFC Championship Game
by DesertBroncoFan on Jul 2, 2008 12:24 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
LOL!!!!!!!
Good one! You should get a prize!
"Greater is an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep" Defoe
by Steve Nichols on Jul 2, 2008 12:25 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
you mean better than Treadwell?
by broncfanstuckinsd on Jul 2, 2008 12:43 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
His book looks better than Treadwell's kicking.
Yes, I would give the nod to Fatsis (whose e-mail is available at the WSJ if you want to talk to him about hs book).
"Greater is an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep" Defoe
by Steve Nichols on Jul 2, 2008 12:55 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Good One DesertBroncoFan!!
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Emerson
by firstfan on Jul 2, 2008 2:59 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
looks like a good read
I like the insight on Shanny
by broncfanstuckinsd on Jul 2, 2008 1:25 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Thanks for keeping things rolling HT!
I am slowly working my way back into a schedule now that I am home. First thing is always to get caught up on my Broncos reading.
Two things, both from the “Mind of Shanny” bit, jumped out at me:
“This is basically the fourth time they’ve been introduced to the first three days of camp,” Shanahan says. “So when we go to camp and start with the first practice on July 28, it’ll be the fifth time they’ve gone over it. They can react and don’t have to think.” The coaches then will be better able to evaluate each player’s ability, physically and mentally. No one can complain that he hasn’t had enough time to learn the team’s practice routine and playbook.But Shanahan also tells me he already has a good idea of who’s going to make the 53-man roster. Based on performance and salary, he and the coaches and front office assess the team after each three-day camp. The long camp and the preseason games are the final data points. That essentially means that 30 or so players have little or no chance of making the club. They will suffer through training camp with little hope, barring someone else’s injury, of playing for the Denver Broncos in 2006. They just don’t know it.
I thought this was interesting and would make a good subject for discussion once my birthday present arrives this year (july 24th is the start of training camp). Imagine, they are 99% sure of who is going to make the team, right now.
The other part that jumped out at me was the final section on dumb punter. While unfortunately the journalist had a rare opportunity to speak to Shanny and he chose a topic that was destined to be old news someday, he did a halfway decent job of spotting the important premises inherent in the situation, including Shanny’s attitude towards recidivism (Walker, Henry, et al.) It raised questions for me about the current “character movement” the Broncs have undergone, and leads me to believe that since William’s death, Shanny has been asking himself some tough questions about how teams are built. The switch form Sundquist to the Goodman’s seems to be motivated primarily by two differing ways of looking at people.
Good find HT!
Mountains, forest, sea: these render man fierce, but yet do not destroy the man.
by Jeremy Bolander on Jul 2, 2008 5:28 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs

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