It is plainly obvious to me that your intelligence and knowledge is far superior to my own. My ego doesn’t mind however. ;-) This post is one of the most eloquent sports-related writings I have ever seen. And I am not ashamed to admit I had to look up a few words in there, simply because I had never seen them before.

I rec’d this one as it will surely go down in MHR annals as one of the best posts of all-time.

And you need to stop making me homesick…I was born in San Diego you know. :P

I decided to rock the Ed McCafferey Jersey today. The world is a beautiful place, and I got a raise today. It seems that your poetry is icing on the cake. Thanks bear! My day of jubilee needed some elegance!

Did you happen to catch B Dawk after the game on the sidelines shouting emotional thank you’s to the stands? My heart leapt when I saw that. That’s the moment this post evoked for me. Fantastic.

Bear. You are among my most favorite writers here. Please don’t get upset. A troubling trend is happening here. The trend of being overly impressed with big words and flowery language. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I did not like this post.

This is the best appreciation piece I’ve ever read for those men who sacrifice their bodies and their souls struggling through frustration, anger, jubilation, hope, despair in matter of minutes following the high, low of a game.

Brilliant.

and in the evening the way the light shimmered on the lake was breath taking with Marshall mountain in the backgraound. I took a picture of that scene. When I arose in the early morning hours, I got out of the camper with a cup of coffe in my hand and strooled down to the lake. I noticed there were simularities in the lakes appearence that early in the morning. The same shimmering dancing colors with the mountain in the back. When I processed the film I couldn’t tell which picture was in the evening and which one was in the early morning. It’s hard some time to figure out the break of night whether it’s evening or dawn. Only our minds recognize it. It brought me back to a time, a time when I was young and I worked for something like 30 hours straight on a job. I finally went to bed around 10 o’clock that night. I slept all night and all day into the evening hours. When I awoke it was 7:30 pm. When I looked at the clock I was thinking it was 7:30 in the morning. I wondered around with a cup of coffee thinking it was morning, but the only thing different was it was getting darker. What a weird and strange feeling my mind had. Anyway thanks so much for the muse bear, I liked it very much and appreciate everything you bring to this great force of SB*Nation.

I can understand the sentiments regarding some, because I felt them during the opening paragraph…I thought bear was going over the top and I expected that it would end abruptly and Bear’s normal writing style would reassert itself.

What I didn’t expect was for Bear to tie it all together into a perfectly inspired piece of work. Which also led me to look up a few words I had never seen before if only to understand any nuances I may have missed while reading it the first time.

I also learned that Bear plays down his own intelligence some. Not that I thought he was stupid or did I think he was anything less than a smart dude, but he has shown me that however intelligent I thought he was – he is more. :) I guess that’s why he’s a doc….

Oh and none of you have to worry about me posting something like this… I’m already at the top of my game. hahaha

Extremely eloquent – I think you nailed what it means to play in the NFL.

that won’t leave, unless, until, pen and paper are one. However after years of struggles,
alas, time has quieted the urgent, and insistent voice. I never became the word/smith,
in this life, perhaps it is only ripples upon the shores from a previous life.
However, I can, and do acknowledge those who have mastered their craft, you my friend,
and others on this site are a breath of fresh air.

Very Rec’d

I always love your picturesque descriptive style of writing! My heartfelt thanks for the thoughts and the entertainment.

Thank you BroncoBear for that piece of simple courage. Courage to write something like that on a football blog, and the simple part because what you describe is an essence of life and why these things aren’t talked about more is beyond me. Stats are cool but frankly I dont know many people who watch football for stats. It’s the emotion, that charge, the fire of competition, of man against, it just speaks to people. Always has since the dawn of man. This piece does a wonderful job of relating that human aspect. GREAT job and thank you. Someone above stated that he thought some of the writers here were getting too wordy and, even though I myself am a writer (though not professionally because I saw through the sex appeal of the starving artist a long time ago), I understood what he meant. Some of the posts have come across as someone trying to write a great piece, rather then someone just writing it. Yours was absolutely one of the better sports writings I have ever read and part of it comes from this moment just “moving through you” as you put it. That’s where the good stuff comes from. The greatest thing an artist can do (and the hardest) is just get his/her self the hell out of the way and let the creativity just flow through. Sounds easy, it’s not. You did a wonderful job of getting out of the way and because of that you were able to capture and express a moment in your life that carried weight. Again, excellent job.

The Pad and Pen, I had a vision of a man sitting on the beach with an umbrella drink, plucking away on a laptop. I was beginning to think that, “the sand is going to get in between the keys!” It’s funny how the beach, whether at sunrise or sunset, brings out the ponderer in each of us. The above commenters are right, when it flows, stay out of the way and let it flow. That was beautiful Bear.

Awesome post. You are a great writer.