So What?

Please allow me a few paragraphs of a baseball story from a few years back to demonstrate the value of two little words I think the Broncos could benefit from hearing right now.

A few years ago, when Lou Pinella was managing the then-dominant (at least in the regular season) Seattle Mariners, he displayed, with the smallest of gestures, one of the greatest signs of leadership in a pressure situation I’ve ever seen.

The Oakland A’s were pushing against the Mariners – a few games back heading into the late days of September. It was a tie ball game, in the bottom of the eighth inning. The A’s had managed a decent crowd this evening and they were cheering on the green and gold.  Mariners reliever Arthur Rhodes was on the mound and A’s third baseman Eric Chavez was at the plate. There was one out and runners at first and third.

Rhodes dealt and Chavez hit a hot grounder right back at him. Rhodes instinctively turned to fire the ball to third…only to realize that was the one bag no one was at. He looked home only to see the runner crossing the plate. Everyone was safe. The go ahead run had just gone ahead. The game wasn’t over, but what a bonehead play!

As an A’s fan, I was delighted. The A’s had finally broken through. They were going to now take Sweet Lou’s Seattle boys down. Rhodes looked over at his manager – then came the moment:

The camera cut to a close up of Lou. He shrugged as if to say, “so what?”.

That moment still sends chills up my spine. He wasn’t giving up. He wasn’t saying, we’re through. He wasn’t saying it didn’t matter. What he was saying was, so what? We’ll get it back. They had that much swagger. They had that much belief. Lou was wise enough to know that, regardless of what had happened, the next play was the thing. He imparted this on to Arthur Rhodes. Rhodes got the message and got the next two batters out. The damned Mariners won the west that year.

I say all this to offer a nice big “So What?” to our currently embattled and still beloved Broncos. So they’ve lost three in a row. So what? They play the Chargers this week at Invesco. So what? Regardless of how either team got to this point, they’re now in position to lay it all on the line. The Broncos have the advantage of already having beaten the Chargers once. They know they can. 

They’ve been in pressure situations before, too. They must have confidence in their core – from the never-give-up game in week one vs. the (now very potent-looking) Bengals, through the complete game efforts against the Cowboys and Patriots, there is something that lends toward belief in these players hearts.

They know they will be in pressure situations again. It’s time to let the past go and deal with right now. All they (or any of us have) is right now. The goal is the playoffs. The manner of getting there is to win the west. The way to do that is to take the season series from the Chargers with a victory this Sunday.

Here’s to hoping the Broncos shrug off yesterday and show up today.