Dear Tim,
Hi man, hope you've been well since we saw each other last. I'm not seeing you on television as much as a few weeks ago, not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. Hopefully it is more good than bad. I still can't get over that play you had in the fourth against the Jets man, that was pretty incredible.
To be completely forthcoming I am writing you more out of concern than to just catch up though. I am more than just ecstatic that you and the Broncos have been able to make it this far into the season. I know that fans of yours like to point out that you took a team that was 1-4 and turned them into a playoff team. You led Denver to a 7 and 4 record man, congratulations!
Honestly though, we both know that 7 and 4 down the stretch has more to do with the team than you. During the first five games the Broncos lost three of those four by a combined total of 11 points. The other... Well, that was the Packers, no one was beating Green Bay at that point.
What you did do when you came in against San Diego was inspire passion and I still say that you, Matt Willis, the team and the fans were robbed. Back to passion, something I've learned in my brief time on this earth is that passion swings both ways. What goes up must come down am I right?Thinking about you and the team during that streak I often found myself reminded of that scene in The Social Network where Mark Zuckerberg says, "The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing."
See that, you were Zuckerberg and the team was Facebook. Except maybe in the eyes of the fans you were probably Facebook and the team was more like Zuckerberg... I don't know, it doesn't matter. I am getting off track and that track was just passing my point about passion.
Do you remember in 2008 you were at Florida, hoping to do something the Gators had never done in history--go undefeated? Well, by game four the team had lost to Ole Miss remember? It's important that you lost, but what is more important is what you said after the game.
September 27th, 2008, "I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this. You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God Bless."
That's the passion that I think the fans are craving. The kind that I saw at the end of the Jets game, the Miami game; the kind that has gotten you out of at least five games this season with a win.
Now fans, they're blaming the play calling, the receivers, the coaches, some are even blaming you. You have to be honest with yourself though, you can only blame you. If the play coming down from the headset is wrong, audible; if the option is called, read it; if your primary receiver isn't available check down! If a receiver drops a pass, throw it at him until he catches it.
These men on the opposite sideline are laughing at you. You're praying for strength, they're only praying for your downfall. They're having the time of their lives trying to get inside your brain and rip your head off and you're just letting them.
You know better than anyone that, you got the team into this mess; no one predicted that the Broncos would be playing at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. Now they are and there is hardly a soul in the world that expects your team to win. With a win Sunday though, there isn't much standing between you, the team and immortality. Somehow I am guessing that you would have it no other way.
Well here we are now friend, entertain us. I'll be there Sunday, so will thousands more and if you thought you had a nation behind you when you were at Florida, wait until you see what Denver can bring. We don't have anything to lose. We weren't even supposed to be here GB².
Sincerely,
A Fan