My Year without the Denver Broncos

I will not be a fan of the Denver Broncos in 2007. There, I've said it....

Many of you know that I grew up in the Denver area and have been a rabid Denver Broncos fan for over 20 years. I was there for Morton to Moses, Norris Weese, Randy Gradishar, the strike year, the bad and then great Elway years, the championship games against the Browns, the Mile High Salute and Jake the Snake. When I moved out to the SF Bay Area I was still a Broncos fan, against the rabid and ridiculous tide of the 49ers (or 40-whiners) fans. I was still there after the 55-10 SuperBowl debacle - and I survived in the heart of the 40-whiners territory.

Although, I must admit over the past few years I have not committed myself as much as I had in the past to the team as both work and home kept me busy on the weekends. And, of course, I can't watch every game here as I used to back in Colorado. That being said, every week I would scan the game listings and see if by some luck of the draw the Broncos would be a nationally televised game or even on Sunday or Monday night and then attempt to plan my weekend accordingly. Even if I could not watch the game, I checked the score via the web nearly hourly.

For the Broncos, 2005 was a great vintage. They went 13-3 and had a good shot at the SuperBowl but lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. And then came 2006.... I was set for another great season and hoped the team would go further than in 2006. Things started off great, but faded into the second half. Even that seemed fine to me, I've been through tough seasons as a fan before and I could endure this one too.

Until the last game of the season. The Broncos simply had to beat the hapless 40-whiners at home in Denver and they would stumble into the playoffs. The game was televised on a Sunday afternoon and I was ready. I cleared the deck of all plans and got into game mode. Needless to say, things went badly. The Broncos (as my friend Mark always says) "played down to the level of their opponent" and lost in overtime (Rick Wallace, if you are out there, I owe you $5).

As the shock of losing the game set in, I realized that I had just spent more than four hours of my life rooting for my team and they had disappointed me again. I know fans should be fans forever and never waver, but it was at this moment that I decided that I would not be a Broncos fan in 2007. No Sunday afternoons watching games, no checking of scores, nothing. I'm going cold turkey.

Well, sort of. If the Broncos are playing in January 2008, you can count on me being there. And, somehow, My Yahoo! page still shows Broncos scores. In fact, I did happen to notice that in their first pre-season game this week they beat the 40-whiners. Not like I noticed or that I am a fan or anything.... :)