As I sat on my friend's couch in Brooklyn amidst six friends who are all die hard fans of the Denver Broncos (two happen to be from Ohio and had no connection until they moved to New York City) watching the game on Monday night I had not noticed what some had. I did not hear what fans inside the stadium (and some players) heard within the stadium. The chants for the teams arguable third-string quarterback Tim Tebow and apparently neither did John Fox.
Maybe us in New York were more focused; likely on the same thing that John Fox and most of the players were focused on-- the game. What was going on, on the field. I don't know many fans in Denver (in the stadium or not) who had noticed that Elvis Dumervil had been out or that Knowshon Moreno wasn't returning; to us he'd likely been pulled due to ineffectiveness, not because of injury.
I saw a map one time, this map charted fans all around the United States and who those fans predominantly cheered for, there were a bunch of little tiny circles in the Upper East Coast-- the New York Jets, New York Giants, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles down the coast more tiny circles for the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Redskins. Moving west from there, there was a Cincinnati Bengals next to the Cleveland Browns circle, a Green Bay Packers circle and some Minnesota Vikings circle above St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs circles.
Then a gigantic circle that took nearly one third of the map, went as high as the top of Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota, as far east as Iowa, Ohio and Missouri dipping down into Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and parts of California. That circle belonged to the Denver Broncos. Now that I have been an East Coaster for ten years, you know we like to refer to those exact states as, 'Fly Over,' states, but I know better. See the guys here think Atlanta is somewhere near Iowa and they'll be damned if you don't live near California.
I listened to a replay on a station based out of Denver of which I will not name, because honestly the traffic that this site gets may overtake their servers if I send them a link. Regardless the host decided to degrade the fan who was behind the Tebow billboard, he started off the interview by announcing where the young man was from. Kentucky. It all went down from there, see, I get where the host was going, because I could probably make a better point than him. I am an isolated outsider. I was here in NYC at my favorite place to watch the Broncos games (Sidebar in Manhattan) last season when the usual 90-100 of us (Denver fans) were packed in with what must have been at least an extra 150-200 fans (mostly women) who were sporting mostly Florida Gator number fifteen jerseys.
Baffled they were at the fact that Tebow may not play, absolutely flabbergasted, he was a first round pick after all and who sits a first round pick? Well new fans, welcome to Denver.
Back to the original interviewer, see had he tried to make it more about the fact that new fans came on board because of Tebow, I may have understood him (which I felt was where another much more qualified talking head/former Bronco tried to take it), yet he for whatever reason decided to make it more about the fact that this fan did not live in Denver.
So please my friends, allow me to say that just because you do not have access to a twenty-five thousand dollar a year salary in a radio job do not allow yourself to feel as if this man put anybody in any place to feel inferior. Sure the two ex-Broncos made him feel like he had won, but he hadn't, he had lost. Who really lost was the radio station and all of those out of state/out of touch fans who would have subscribed to listen to the stations radio broadcasts instead of NFL's Sunday Ticket. See those of us out of Colorado tend to make a lot more than twenty-five thousand dollars and can afford several luxuries, such as enjoying various venues to indulge our favorite team.
What made that disc jokey (that's what he is) feel like he could put anyone in his place? Is it because he interviews players on the air? That's great, I was interviewing players on the air when I was more than half the age of this drive-hour DJ. I don't even listen to the station, nor their podcasts or archive, whatever it is they have. I just saw the hooplah and couldn't believe that someone could be so ignorant this far West. Yep, I was wrong.
End rant.
So here is what we lost in the fire fans and I warned everyone of it way back in June. Tebow's likely not going to be ready and in fact, if Josh McDaniels (who was fired, get it? Things we lost in the fire? Never mind) was such an incredible idiot who had a horrible nose for players... You know where I am going. I am not anti- or pro- anyone on the Broncos this year. As we head into week two, five of ten or so of the only players I would want to keep in a complete revamp are sitting out or injured!
We must unite amongst this civil war if you will between the traditionalists and those that have been juxtaposed must end. We must concentrate on football and we must bring back that 12th man to Denver if we are going to stand even a fighting chance at doing anything this season. The team cannot be worried about playing in Denver, they have enough to worry about, they have enough to concentrate on. Don't let the enemy be the team you as so passionate about, let the enemy be the team that we will unleash on at full volume!