Strange.

I not only envy life-long Bronco fans, but also life-long sports fans. I hated sports until I was about 12. I’m 17 now, and wish I would’ve tried out for safety on my HSFB team when I really had the chance. I would’ve loved to play corner, actually, but my hips don’t move at all : (.

I’ve lived most of my life in Kansas City. My mom’s family is from here, and they all live together (literally) in a small town about an hour outside KC. They’re all diehard Chiefs fans. My uncle has a Chiefs replica helmet signed by all the Chifs on their 2000 team that he bought on eBay for $900 after my dad and I used his old, unsigned one for BB gun target practice.

My dad’s side is all Broncos. After my grandmother immigrated to Denver from Wisconsin, she became the Broncos #1 fan. She watches all the games like a hungry dog; she reads all the papers; every time I call her we end up talking for 45 minutes about Jay Cutler. If she knew what a computer was, I gurantee she’d be the biggest poster on this blog.

My aunt is the same way. In fact, I might just tell her about the site and get her to join.

My dad bleeds orange and blue, but as he has the attention span of a small rodent, he would never fit in here. He just can’t seem to remember the names of the players.

So there was a war for most of my childhood over whether I should be a Broncos fan or Chiefs fan. Every Christmas I was inundated with gifts for both parties (my favorite was a Broncos blue and orange football I got in 1996. I thnk I still have it.) Every Sunday, I was carted to different rooms of the house. My mom would make me watch a few plays of the Chiefs game, and my dad would drag me to his room to watch the Broncos. It was like this for several years.

When I was about 10, I decided that I’d had enough fighting and side-picking, and I would just be a fan of both teams. Since I was young, I did not realize the implications of that statement, and therefore was confused when my maternal grandfather, who for the rest of this post will be referred to as Jimpa, laughed at me. I went this road for three years, rooting for both teams, but the majority of my fandom was reserved for the boys in orange and blue. I idolized John Elway, and I always rooted for the Broncos when they played the Chiefs.

Skip this paragraph if you’re faint of heart. When I was thirteen and going into eighth grade, I made what I still consider to be the worst decision of my life. I was young then, oh so young, so don’t hold this against me but… I decided that all along I had been a closeted Chiefs fan. (Shudders for several seconds.) For the first month of that season I rooted for the Chiefs. I think the main motivation for my…atrocity… was because all my friend were Chiefs fans and I was tired of being picked on, but nonetheless I committed such sacrileges as buying a Tony Gonzalez replica jersey. I even went as far as to say that the nasty Chiefs cheerleaders were hot. Vomit. Though they have gotten better over the last few years.

Then one day my dad did the thing that is the reason that I’m here right now instead of on Arrowhead Pride.It was such a small thing, but its results were cataclysmic. He dug up a video that my grandmother had purchased at King Soopers in 1992 called John Elway’s Fourth Quarter Comebacks. He asked me if I wanted it, and I shrugged and left it on my shelf for a couple of months.

Around that time I learned that John Elway was to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. I had a mix of emotions as I thought about my former hero, and I decided that, to learn more about him, I’d watch that old video. When I did, I fully realized for the first time how awesome he really was. That led me to realizing how lame-ass the Chiefs were. And my football life was turned upside down.

Holy crap, I just previewed my comment and it is effing loooooooooong. So I’ll wrap up. After that day, I became a Broncos fan. Jimpa was mad; my dad was joyous, etc., etc. Then one day I found MHR and set such records as “longest comment ever posted” and “first guy to have a comment turn green.”

A simple question begets a simple answer:
Excellence in execution.

I don’t understand why anyone would root for any other team. What a waste of time.

I didn’t become a diehard fan until I moved out here to the East Coast. I noticed them and cheered for them, but I didn’t live and die with them until I got out of the comfort of Denver where everyone was a Bronco fan and into contact with fans from a lot of other teams.

It was my experiences with a Steeler fan before and after the AFC Championship game that led me to truly begin to be devoted. He knew his team backwards and forwards. It was listening to him talk about how the Steelers were going to destroy the Broncos that made me really care personally about the outcome of the game. I wanted the Broncos to win so bad by the end of that week, and then they went out and lost. For the first time I actually lost sleep over the result of a football game. After that I began to devour Broncos news. At first all I wanted was revenge, but somewhere along the way I became a diehard, obsessed, border-line psycho fan.

Well there, (in slightly over dramatized fashion) is my journey to La-la-land.

:-)

He basically just made me get drunk on Orange Koolaid, and orange crush, and anything else orange and blue.

I serve blue hawaiins and screwdrivers to guests on game day / night. Orange and blue!

I was raised in the high plains of Utah—kinda east of the Park City region—where (at our house) we only got one tv station—NBC—and on occasion we could pick up ABC. I’m not even sure if the station was from Salt Lake—the transmitter could have been on a SW Wyoming or NW Colorado Mountain—I was too young to remember (or maybe too young to understand) anyway……

NBC picked up the old AFL (I think around 1961 or 2)…..the Denver Broncos were my first experience with football on TV. Back then highschool students would get bused from miles around to Park City. The school played in an eight man football league and my family would occasionaly drive to Park City and watch the game. It made for a great Friday night—I’ve loved football for as long as I can remember—I thought it very cool that a Rocky Mountain State had a pro football team. When you’re born in the Rockies—and camping is your vacation—you become part of the Rockies.

After watching Denver for a year my family moved to Bountiful (just north of Salt Lake) and we suddenly had like three (maybe even four) stations to watch. I soon discovered Dallas Cowboys. As a kid it made sense to me to love the Cowboys—you know—Cowboys/Broncos—Broncos/Cowboys—made sense to me.

I know none of you will understand this but I think I love Dandy Don Meredith as much as I love John Elway. If it had been just ten degrees warmer—history would be different….. “GET OVER IT MIKE”………………‘ok’..I’ll try…….. I think this is where my hate of Green Bay started!!! ……years later……….. Helicopter Run!!!!!!!! Sweet Revenge at last!!!

Over the years I followed the Broncos faithfully—just hoping something better than the last year would happen. Little became a hero, Taylor a hero, anything or anyone that helped us win the occasional game became a hero to me—other than that I was a Cowboy fan. I think that’s why I hate Pittsburg—too many unusual bounces/receptions—or both.

Then came this Red Miller guy—an offense guy that puts together a defense instead. Not really sure if Red put it together or if he inherited it and it melded under him—but it started when this Red guy moved in (unless it started the year before the Red—I didn’t follow things that close back then).
Anyway it started with an 8-8 season and I thought’ “HOLY COW WE WENT EIGHT AND EIGHT THIS YEAR!!!”

Then this Craig Morton guy comes to be our QB. Not as good as Roger the Dodger—but its rumored he could drop a pass on a flying moth and not damage the wings or antenna. This he started to do—on a regular basis in an open Haven. ENTER ORANGE CRUSH !!!

I better end this—this is way too long a comment. Its funny when your first true love wins out. I’ve always thought it a bitter bitter irony that the two teams I loved at the time were pitted against each other. If Denver and the ‘Orange Crush’ had won that Super Bowl I would probably still like Dallas……..now I can’t.

broncos fans who grew into their fandom and became obsessed. I thought I was a rare kind lol