Broncos Reach Mountain Top. Colorado Wants More

I sincerely wanted to feel ecstatically euphoric about my Denver Broncos winning Superbowl 50, but I have to be honest.  It was somewhat anti-climactic for a fan who has seen this all before.

Not so much the championship thing. Of course we've seen that part before, assuming you are of a certain age that is.  My youngest kid is heading downtown to see the big parade today because she was too young. I've done those parades, and the only thing really cool about them is the unified joy surrounding the reason you came out to celebrate in the first place.

The rest of it is sweaty, smelly and slightly claustrophobic if you suffer from such things.  The last parade brought out 650,000 revelers. This one promised to be worse...or better, depending on how you look at it.

When you combine the depression of accepting that the most unified moment of fellowship that we consistently enjoy as a nation- NFL football- has finally come to and end, I found myself more interested in searching out all of those crap talking naysayers who messaged their doubt throughout the entire season.  Even though I knew for certain that most of them were resorting to the bitter taste of whiskey to sooth their angered souls- the same whiskey that tasted extra sweet on the lips of the victors- I searched for someone who would swallow their pride and eat crow all in one failed swoop.

Nothing.

 I really hoped to find one guy who taunted all of Broncos nation with his incessant demeaning comments because no one wanted to bet him via Facebook, proving (in his mind) that no Denver fans actually believed that Denver would win.

At last posting, he's refusing to pay up to some of those same fans except an Uncle in his family who probably was the only person who had a hope in hell of collecting in the first place.

When we won it all, I thought about this "bet taunting" joker and how I could stick it in his face for doubting that my city has the stuff of championship form.

Who dat say we gonna lose another Bowl?

Did he and other Broncos naysayers have justifiable cause for the ridicule they level on this team?

In reality, my Denver Broncos are the most justifiably ridiculed champion that ever competed on the highest stage.  What we are known for is what most hate us for in the end.

We Are Over Achievers By Choice.

In Colorado, we climb 16'ers just because they are there.  No, really.

We hurt our muscles and blister our hands to reach the summit of a mountain, only to imagine in our minds the next mountain top.

Before the Broncos won, the Avs showed
them how to get it done.  Parade and all.

In Colorado, we've seen mountain tops on many occassions.  A few times, we got there only to discover that someone else reached the summit first.  Does that take away from our ability to climb or our thirst to be first?  On the contrary.  Our experiences- good, bad and ugly- have made us into the great state that we are.

We've won championship titles in every sport from lacrosse to soccer to hockey. Olympians live here just to chase after thin-aired mountain tops like we do for hobby.  We bike, we hike, we run, ski and golf all year round in this blessed state.  And though our cost of living has risen commiserate to the population boom that comes from being us, we complain and keep on moving because somewhere in that mountainous western backdrop is a spirit that inspires our passions, watches over our region, and occassionally appoints us to trials that only climbers can endure.

Columbine and the Aurora Theater were traumatic missions for a state that has now established the blueprint on terror mitigation, but our Superbowl blowouts at the hands of black quarterbacks were trauma of another, unrelated sort.   Did the butt kicking from those last two brothers set the third one up to take us for granted?  It certainly helped to remove the stigma on the black quarterback, making Cam the first black quarterback favored to win the Bowl.  We played an important role in each of those episodes. Were these traumas simply divine burdens of being us?

Hard to know for certain. What I do know is that I am Colorado, which means I am chissled and shaped by the impact of all of it.  I am Colorado, which means I ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon so that I can sooth the pain of loss and terror while remembering the importance of being diligent and aware of both.

Losing wasn't really too scary for me and those of my kind. We've seen the mountain top even when we've arrived too late.  In our NFL journey, we've summitted as many times as any team in the league, along with losing more times, losing with the biggest point deficits, and now we even have the worst quarterback rating EVER for a team that won the game.

On the other hand, we might have also won it with the best defensive performance in the history of the final game while using the best regular season quarterback in the history of the game,  backed by the best front office guy who remains in the conversation as the best quarterback to ever win as well.

You may not appreciate the results that we've achieved given the wealth of chances that we have had to do it, but you have to respect the wealth of chances.  The Denver Broncos are often in the mix and are threatening to remain in the mix for years to come.  Some might choose to focus on the failures, but even they can't deny the chances.

In Broncos nation,  we reveled in the moment for the first few hours of victory

By morning time, the only post Superbowl posts I could consistently find were "When will the Rockies and the Nuggets" do the same?

Yep.  You got it.

In Colorado, we are already seeking new mountains to climb and new parades to plan, because We Are Colorado.  That's just what we do.

Russell Wilson's On A Pathway Towards Greatness And The Sky Is The Limit

Sorry Denver.  I love my city and my Broncos, but the next time a black quarterback goes up against the Denver Broncos in a Superbowl, I am betting the farm on that team and that quarterback.

As Russell Wilson lead his Seattle Seahawks into battle against the Broncos, he was repeating a championship journey of a brother from another generation. Back in the day, Doug Williams took the Washington Redskins into a Superbowl battle with the Broncos in which his team was also not favored to win.  He won by a similar landslide.

Doug Williams interviewed after winning the Superbowl

Unlike Wilson, who played well but not great, Williams had a career day in a come from behind thrashing of the Broncos and John Elway that ended 55-10.  In addition, Williams passed for 340 yards, 4 touchdowns and was named the Superbowl MVP.  Doug Williams went on to coach at his alma mater, Grambling State University, so I can guarantee you that he would have taken that win no matter who captured the MVP.  What Williams is unlikely to diminish is the importance that his monumental achievement had on the future of the black quarterback in football.

The legend of the black quarterback has roots that deserve their own respect.  Russell Wilson was a black quarterback winning the Superbowl again over My Denver Broncos.  But this time, he was also just another player on a really great team that just so happened to be black.  This time, that was a good thing for the team and for the quarterback who did not have the legacy of black QB's anchored on his shoulders like Williams and others did before him.

Is Russell Wilson The Tiger Woods of Quarterbacks?

Next time, he will.

Next time, Wilson will become the recipient of a microscope that already assumes what it will find long before he is squeezed between the glass plates.  Next time Wilson will be judged on how long next time takes for this special team full of special talent.  Presumably, he is the most special of them all.  Next time, the pundits will say prove it.

If Pete Carroll is the legendary mastermind that his college resume says he is, next time should be more of the same; a total team effort that makes you clueless as to who the final MVP should be. Winning, especially winning repeats, are never quite that easy.  Free agency will eventually become a financial boon to the Legion of Boom, so Wilson will see his role evolve as they do.  The way Wilson sat down a highly paid free agent acquisition as a rookie tells us all what kind of quarterback he is.  His Tim Tebow sound bites at the end of games tells you a little about his character.  Are we seeing the beginning of a football legend?

In his second year as a quarterback, when he was supposed to be experiencing the sophomore slump, Russell Wilson is a champion.  He joins the elite fraternity of Superbowl winning quarterbacks who sit in a special glass house away from others who never won it all.  Yet, his youth and his potential have opened a path in the crowd for him to enter the luxury box of Superbowl winning quarterbacks.  Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, Steve Young.  These guys will always gain mention in the conversation of all time greats because multiple championships allow them to dangle their ring littered hands in order to lean the argument their way.

Russell Wilson will easily join these guys some day.  What scares us is how many others might he surpass as he builds a dynasty in Seattle?


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