Football: Isn't is supposed to be fun?

So i guess the trendy thing to do at the moment is write something that shows that you have been behind Tebow throughout all of this, and to throw EFX under a small bus for not realising it sooner. Well in this post I want to try to avoid doing that and I will also try an avoid whether Tebow will or won't prove critics wrong / whether or not his unique style can stand up to the wrath of the nfl, because we are all going to get our fill of that over the next two weeks. 

Instead what i would prefer to talk about is the emotional aspect of this game and what makes us follow a sports team or support a player or cheer for a play. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I just want to enjoy the game, I don't want to over analyse everything, I want it to be fun, I want to get excited and shout and cheer at the screen and win or lose I want to feel like I had some emotional investment in the game! That is for me what makes watching sport fun. At times this years watching our team hasn't felt like that it's kind of felt dead and I don't really know how to describe it but something wasn't right.

Then the Chargers game happened and i felt life coursing back into the team and the hearts of it's fans. But unfortunately (I'm looking at you refs), we didn't win and losing isn't really that fun, however, for some reason after the game it didn't really matter that we had lost. I was happy because it was an exciting/enjoyable game that was fun to watch and that is the reason why we watch this sport is it not? Of course it would be even better if we won as well but if we can't win I at least want the feeling like it was a close exciting match and we tried our best and fought hard. Because when your losing and it is not exciting and there is no hope, then honestly it becomes pretty painful to watch.

So I'm just going to get straight into it and then at the end I'm going to brain storm a couple of other things at you guys that I have been thinking about and I hope you are patient with me and can help me along the way as well. Join me after the juumm.....

So some of you may know, most won't because I haven't posted in a while, but I'm a Broncos fan from the UK (The country not the Uni of Kentucky). In relative terms I haven't been an NFL fan or a Broncos fan for that long, I've been following the Broncos since 2007 and the NFL in general since about 2004-2005, before that I didn't know much about the NFL only a vague recollection of thinking it was cool when I was younger (in the 80s). The reason why I'm posting this is because of the reason I became a Broncos fan which probably differs from most of you guys who have been Broncos fans since you were little.

I was in a unique position, I really enjoyed the sport and I thought that I needed to pick a team to support. I watched lots of different games and had brief flings with other teams but I eventually settled on the Broncos, mainly because they were really exciting to watch at the time and had a high powered offense that could score lots of points. Of course I knew pretty much nothing about the ins and outs of the game I just saw a shiny thing and was mesmerised. 

Since then as you all well know, being a Broncos fan has been a pretty crazy roller coaster, Shannahan's firing, McD's hiring, the Cutler fall out, Brandon Marshall going insane, the good, the bad and the weird draft techniques/picks, the downfall of our running game, the video taping scandel, the painful realisation that this could be a multi-year rebuild and don't forget Travis Henry's 11 children and jail term for cocaine trafficking! Oh yes I forgot Tebow as well.

But anyways, through all of that I had built a pretty strong fan relationship with the Broncos, and last year I kind of felt like it was ripped away from me a little bit after I watched the Broncos lose live at Wembley (first time I have seen them live), and also repeatedly get blown away by every team and their granny.  Shortly after that McD was fired and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Tebow played three games and anyone that wasn't blind by prejudice could see that he had lots of potential and that in some ways he elevated the play of his team mates as well, you got a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling that things were going to work out.

But then the season finished and the horrible lockout period began, then when they came back there was no time for anything and we were sold this idea that Kyle Orton gave us the best chance to win. Well. We have since found out that is not the case, but I don't know about you guys, but after watching every play that Kyle ever made as a Bronco, whenever he was in the game and we had to come from behind or make a difficult 3rd down, or even just score a TD, I knew deep down that he just didn't have it in him and it was really very depressing, and that is when Football stopped being fun, it was like watching a train wreck. Sure there were a few good plays here and there, but you always had that sinking feeling (even if we were ahead) that somehow some way we would find a way to mess things up. It wasn't all on Orton either, it was a team thing, something was missing!

But I hated thinking like that, my roots as a broncos fan have been built on this site, I try to look at things objectively while staying positive, but there was really not that much positive about an Orton led offense. Of course we had Champ, Doom, Dawk with Moore and Miller developing well this year but I don't know about you but I just felt like the team was flat, they had no mojo.. someone help me out with some other appropriate phrases.. 

Then last game Tebow was thrown into the line up and the team came alive, and so did the Broncos fans, and even the not Bronco fans thought it was a pretty exciting match. I saw Moreno chest bump Tebow after his score and even he looked like had found a reason to fight again. Put in simple terms, Tebow's passion and will to win brings it out in others and gives us fans something to get behind!

I can see it being like a snowball effect for the rest of the season and even if we can't pull our record back to something respectable like 10-6 I can at least see us going 7-9. The Dolphins should be a win, it will be the first NFL game where a team has honoured an oppositions starting QB before a game, it will be hilarious and they will be so disheartened they won't even turn up. Then I would say we will win 4 of the next 6, hopefully, KC, SD, Min and Chi. Then one of the next three shouldn't be too hard and it could even be more at that point if we have built up a head of steam, so I guess I will say between 7-9 wins.

This brings me to my next subject which is college football, I love the draft and the excitement of new players and getting better as a team. For the last few years i have been keeping an eye on some of the bigger college teams and watching so of the big match ups, this year i have managed to watch a couple so far. But, honestly, I am really very clueless and i was hoping that some of you guys could fill me in on the story lines this year, whos good, who was supposed to be good but isn't, who to avoid.. Which players to watch for next years draft.. etc. Every year I get sucked into on or two players and then they get picked by our rivals, which i guess is relatively inevitable, but this year I have my eye on Trent Richardson so far, dude looks like a beast - stong, fast, agressive.. he mauls people and I wan't him on our team, I wanted Toby Gerhart two years ago and got no joy, but i'm hoping for the best this year. Is there anyone else you guys would recommend that I look out for or make a point of looking into?

Lastly I just wanted to briefly touch on the recent news about the possibility of two games in London and the NFL 'crazy' plan of making 1 team a makeshift home team, what do you guys think about these plans and ideas and could you ever see it working out. The only way I can see it working out is if they expand the league and make a couple of new teams, I really doubt many of the UK fans would accept being force fed which team to follow, I certainly wouldn't ever consider not being a Broncos fan any more! How did you guys feel last year when the Broncos played at Wembley, did you like the idea or think it iwas stupid? Would you be happy with more games over here? (even if they were Broncos game) Did some of you come last year and enjoy our great British hospitality? ;-)

OK that's about it.. hope there is some semblance of sense in there for you to make out!

Go Broncos!