Locking Out Redemption

Editor's note: Since I couldn't get my column together on time, my husband decided to take this opportunity to get something off his chest. Enjoy!

I bleed orange.

I am a Denver Broncos fan. I loathe the Raiders. If I was that creepy kid from that Twilight Zone episode, I would wish the Kansas Chiefs into a cornfield. I wish evil, unspeakable things upon the San Diego Chargers.

I'm not sure exactly when I became a fan, but growing up in Colorado,  it was inevitable. Perhaps because the Broncos were lovable losers, comically inept like I was when I first started playing the  game. The first time I intercepted a pass in a neighborhood game, I got spun around and ran the ball back the wrong way. I joyously celebrated what I thought was a score for my team only to turn and see my teammates groaning and shaking their heads while  the opposing team laughed.

The Broncos and I were destined for  one another. Every year, my hopes would soar in September  as a new season started. Most years would end in  heartbreak, but for two glorious seasons we were the best in the league.

I bring this up  to help explain the frustration and anger I feel about the NFL's labor dispute. For those of you not following the issue, I'll sum it up this way — billionaire owners are arguing with  millionaire players over how to  slice a $9 billion revenue  pie. Instead of negotiating a new  contract, the two sides are engaged  in a battle that includes  lockouts, injunctions,  and lawsuits.  There  is a real  possibility that games will be lost. Maybe even an entire season will be lost.  

The situation is especially frustrating for me because it's delaying something my team needs desperately right now  — redemption.

Let me set the stage for you.  After the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1990s,  they made a decade-long slide into mediocrity. Then, just when we thought it couldn't get worse, along comes head coach Josh McDaniels to destroy the team and take away our self-respect in just two years.

The evil Josh McDaniels.

It wasn't just the losses, of which there were many. It wasn't the terrible personal moves, also many in number. No, it was the horrible atmosphere he created — one that contributed to players and coaches making headlines for all the wrong reasons. There was a suicide, an arrest  for sexual assault, and a star player arrested not once, but  twice for DUI,  and then the final humiliation — a cheating  scandal in which one of McDaniel's friends videotaped the practices of an opposing team, a violation of league rules. It's not clear if McDaniels was in on  the cheating, but he did know of the incident and did not  come forward.

Not only were we losers, but now we were cheats to boot.

McDaniels was shown the door. John Elway,  the man who gave us so many thrills and our  two championships as a player, came back, this time as an executive to run the team. John Fox, a man who turned a horrible team  into a good one once before,  was hired to  replace  McDaniels.

There  was hope.

Then came the labor dispute.

With wars in the Middle East, earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, and financial despair rampant just about everywhere, my thoughts and prayers are scattered about the globe. But each day, I add one  more prayer — Let the us have the opportunity to rebuild our Denver Broncos, our pride, our image, our self-respect. Let's have a shot at being good again. Give us a chance to get the stadium rocking once again.