Broncos Find Respite From MSM By Proving It on the Field

Those who know me are well-versed in my love for the Broncos. From the early days of my remembrance, the Broncos wore those majestic orange jerseys and as the likes of Charlie Jones, Dick Enberg and even Pat Summerall called the action for NBC and CBS in those days, the illustrious John Elway often led us to thrilling victories.

As the years passed, the Broncos remained consistent winners (for more information on this, you might want to read my previous column, God Bless Mr. Bowlen) but after we experienced a major paradigm shift from Shanahan-Josh McDaniels in the offseason, of course the MSM crucified us, but the Broncos are not nailed to a cross at this juncture of the season.

The reason is simple: the Broncos knew their fate better than the "experts" and have proceeded to make fools of the majority of the MSM.

The beauty of all sports (except for Division I-A college football, the BCS is illegal, but more on that another time) is that teams, players and coaches can determine how successful they are simply by playing well and in the words of Scrooge McDuck: being smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies.

Obviously, the Broncos thus far have had superior intelligence (thanks to Coach McDaniels, Brian Xanders and Mr. Bowlen) and superior toughness (thanks to Brian Dawkins, Elvis Dumervil, Ryan Clady, etc.) Often, most of us fall short of our goals because we believe negative hype about us and subsequently throw in the towel.

It was easy for the Broncos to fold with all the pressure surrounding them this offseason, but the integrity of McDaniels in being true to his convictions has won him 53 proselytes who take the field every week: among them Brandon Marshall.

Obviously, we will continue to be successful because that is our nature and players like Kyle Orton, Dawkins and Correll Buckhalter simply do not have a losing disposition, much to our delight.

In Kansas City, our good friend, Michael Lombardi of the NFLN and National Football Post has reported on the Chiefs' struggles. One error Kansas City committed, in Lombardi's opinion, is allowing Todd Haley to verbally lambaste and embarrass the players on the Chiefs' squad.

As one who has been around the militant lifestyle more than I care to admit in my 27 years of life, I've come to the conclusion that the "lighting a fire under people's butts" approach really sucks and only makes things worse.

I have never seen McDaniels bombard one Broncos player this season, even though we have made a fair amount of mistakes thus far. Such behavior would only make us less likely to succeed.

So, as we go to 7-0 (I hope) against the Ravens, it will be because McDaniels has effectively assessed our performance and kept morale at a high level.  This is something that helped Indianapolis enjoy what is currently a 120-46 record in this decade with Tony Dungy replacing much of the negativity Jim Mora Sr. left in his wake at Colts headquarters.

Thanks again for reading and let's keep things positive as we cheer our beloved Broncos on to victory at Charm City this weekend.