Good thing there’s a ridiculous amount of football on today, I have a literal mountain of laundry to do and it can keep me company.
I’ve been a Broncos fan since the season of The Drive, but I didn’t actually get to go to one of their games in person until 1998. What game was it? Super Bowl XXXII. I won a drawing held by a radio station that included the tickets, airfare (on Western Pacific LOL), and a hotel. The only person who could go with me on short notice that actually cared about football was my older sister, so she went with me. We got there Saturday afternoon and didn’t have to go back until early Tuesday morning. A car wasn’t included, which was a minor problem because the game was in San Diego but the hotel was in Fallbrook (about 45 miles away). I was 22 at the time and couldn’t rent from most of the rental places, but we did find a local place that had really old cars to rent. My choice was either a clapped out ‘92 Suzuki Swift or... a Daihatsu Charade. I ended up taking the Swift because the Charade was a stick and my sister can’t drive a manual. The Swift did the job, but clearly needed wheel bearings and it almost overheated on the way to the game. At the game, our seats were in the section in front of the press box. This was right in the height of the dot-com bubble, so most of the people in our section had gotten tickets from their company and didn’t actually give a shit about who was playing. Kinda sad, really. My sister and I were the only ones in our row wearing either of the teams’ shirts, and the only other people in our section that I can remember in jerseys were about 8 or 9 rows in front of us. It was two guys in Packers jerseys sitting right next to two guys in Broncos jerseys. They spent the whole game giving each other crap, but having fun doing it. The game itself was fantastic. The last three Super Bowls that they were in were so bad and so lopsided that when they won the AFC Championship game I actually felt like, “here we go again”. When Elway did his helicopter run, it was right in front of us. That was the first time I thought “holy shit, we might actually have a chance to win!” When John Mobley batted down Favre’s 4th down pass to ice it, I jumped up and down so much and so suddenly that I strained my right hamstring. It was the most awesome feeling ever, though, especially after all those losses.
As far as today, early early game is probably going to be terrible (Lions vs. Chiefs in London), but I’ll still watch. Final score will probably be something like 3-2. Or a 5-5 overtime tie. Who wins? Does anyone care?
We get 2 early games here in Denver, Giants at Saints or Cincinnati at Pittsburgh. I hate watching Steelers (and Ravens) games so I’ll probably have the other game on most of the time.
Only one afternoon game for us, but it’s interesting. Seahawks at Cowboys. I doubt the Cowboys have a chance. Like one of the sports radio guys here likes to say, Matt Cassel can’t play dead in a western. Then again, they are in the NFC East, the division that nobody wants to win. Maybe they still have a chance to win it.
PatBateman, don’t feel too bad. Your Texans are only a game out of first place! It’s not unthinkable for the Colts to lose to Carolina on Monday, in fact I think they probably will.
And then tonight. Ok, as much as I’d like to hype this as much as everyone else has, let’s be real. One team has an amazing defense and a QB that keeps throwing picks at the worst possible times. The other team allowed Philip Rivers to go 43 of 65 for over 500 yards. At home! Then the Chargers proceeded to have their doors blown off by the Raiders. They’re both unbeaten, but definitely not perfect. I think the Broncos will edge it out, mostly because it’s at home but also because that’s what’s been happening all season. If this were at Lambeau I’d say the same result with the Packers winning instead. It’ll be interesting, but I think everyone knows that the best team in the league is not playing in this game, as much as it kills me to admit it.
What games are you watching?