I've been meaning to make this post - or at least a variant of it for six to seven months now, but I work a lot of hours and I don't have the time to contribute as much as I'd like. I enjoy the site and the generally intelligent discourse here. I signed up on the day that the news broke of Shanahan's firing - I happened to see it at NFP and the shock prompted me to register at a blog site for the first time in my life. I was a little surprised at the McDaniels hire as I thought the biggest hole was on defense, but was also somewhat intrigued as I remember the enthusiasm and imagination that Mike Shanahan brought, first as a very young QB coach from Florida and eventually the only head coach to help bring not just one, but back-to back Super Bowls to the franchise I'd been following this team since I was seven years old listening to Bob Martin do the play-by-play on KOA and trying to win each week's "Pigskin Playback" at game's end - games featuring the likes of Mickey Slaughter and John McCormick and Pete Like, Cookie Gilcrest, Bob Saputo and Billy Van Heusen. And then we signed Floyd Little and the franchise really sort of took that first step of legitimacy. It was at about this time that I, along with some neighborhood buddies got a job with the stadium concession franchise selling Pepsi's at the old Mile High. It was the only way any of us would ever get to see a game live and we were smart enough to work the east stands, where the crowd sat in the sun and Pepsi sales were brisk enough that by the middle of the third quarter or so, we felt we'd made enough money to pull up an empty seat or even an aisle to watch the rest of the game.

Finally, my senior year of college (more on that below), Red Miller came in and took John Ralston's and Fred Gherke's eyes for talent and led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl - another step on the legitimacy ladder. I left the country to work for the next six years, but returned just in time remember sitting in the sparsely furnished living room of a duplex in Houston, by myself, as a graduate student and watching "The Drive" and thinking this Elway guy might just be as good as everyone expected him to be. This was followed however by my hosting a couple of Super Bowl parties where I worked really hard to outfit my humble digs with multiple TVs linked to long cable runs with splitters and the requisite munchies and beverage - only to be left the object of pity or ridicule depending on the class of my guests. Luckily, I learned my lesson and wasn't even in town for that debacle in New Orleans. Of course, deliverance finally came one late January afternoon or early evening against the favored Packers in San Diego. The five guys I watched the game with didn't quite know what to make of my leap to the ceiling at the final gun and the tears streaming down my face - you had to have earned the stripes to understand the emotion of that moment.

This all brings me back to the firing of the "Coach for Life", the hiring of the incredibly young Josh McDaniels and then the Cutler fiasco. You see, I was pretty intrigued with the potential of the guy. He had, at least in some ways, the mobility and arm to be something really special - if he'd just grow up a bit. I was bothered by the combination of the way he carried himself and his naive arrogance, but figured he might eventually "get it". He just didn't have Elway's fire - that weird look that John would get when the game was on the line and he knew he had a better than even chance of pulling it out at the end - never mind what led to those 4th quarter predicaments in the first place. Man, he was fun to watch because he was the embodiment of the combination of "you never know what might happen" and "nobody else alive could possibly have pulled THAT throw off". Cutler was also fun to watch and I for one was pretty depressed and distressed about the announcement that Pat Bowlen wasn't getting his calls returned and we were actually shopping the guy. I mean, what the hell was going on with this once proud, and stable franchise? It seemed the Baltimore/Elway karma had finally come full circle.

At about this same time, my alma mater, Colorado College, announced that due to financial challenges, they were dropping the football program. I arrived there in 1974, a few years after a little known defensive end named Ed Smith graduated and ended up playing for the Broncos. We were a Division III team with no scholarship money, but I was recruited to play in the defensive backfield and had the time of my life. We generally played a couple of Division II schools each year and as we were relatively small and quick compared to our opponents, we ran the single wing and prospered. We were low budget and generally flew to just one away game per year. The rest of the games were against teams from Nebraska and Kansas and we traveled by bus. We'd play night games out there and then Mel, our driver, would work the CB and get us back to Colorado Springs before sun up. In 1975, we were ranked #7 in the nation and went to the NCAA playoffs only to lose to Millsap's College 28-21 in a see-saw contest. My football career ended about halfway through my senior year playing Chadron State in Chadron, Nebraska when a freak accident broke my fibula and tore all my ankle ligaments.

Colorado College has been playing football since the 1800's and boasts the Hall-of-Famer Dutch Clark and NFL Films guru, Steve Sabot, among its football alumni. Washburn Field, the football stadium on campus, is situated such that the home crowd is taking in the game as Pike's Peak stares down from the opposite side of the field with the changing leaves and autumn air contributing to a college football atmosphere unrivaled almost anywhere. It's also the oldest college football field west of the Mississippi River. But the current school administration, without a peep of warning, flushed this legacy down the toilet. There was no talk of financial challenge at the reunion I attended last fall. There was never an appeal to football alumni or otherwise in an effort to preserve the program. The announcement was made so late, that almost no one from the current team was given a chance to arrange a transfer. While I acknowledge that a college education hardly requires football and that the financial challenges over the past year have been extreme, to say that the situation has been mismanaged, would be one of life's major understatements. In fact, there are at least three Division III schools introducing football programs this year.

So, this combination of pro and college football upheaval left your humble author in a very depressed state. But regarding the Broncos, and the loss of Cutler (who by this time I was viewing as mentally ill), I finally woke up to or "re-realized" what makes football the ultimate game in my eyes - it's the ultimate TEAM game. Perhaps the loss of one guy - one who could be pretty fun to watch, might in fact, be traded for a team - so far, so good. And at the same time, some energetic CC alumni have now established The Washburn Foundation - aimed at re-establishing the proud football program at CC - for those that want to learn more about CC's football history and possibly support quality small college football, go to www.washburnfoundation.org.

About five or six years ago, some friends in Denver and others spread across the country, conspired to meet at Mile High each year to take in a game. I'm coming up to "Mecca" this weekend to continue the pilgrimage, that tradition and catch the game as well as lend some support to the CC football effort. It's a throwback weekend - and while I'm all for throwback, I sure wish we weren't throwing that far back - those socks are going to be tough to overcome. For all you folks that wish it, I'll be channeling your energy inside that stadium as you're gathered around your TV or trying to watch an Internet feed or listen to the radio - believe me, I know exactly what each of those is like. For those that have managed to stay with me all the way through this post - thanks! It's been a hell of a ride thus far - let's roll!  Go Broncs!