broncos

Thank you, Rod!

Jeromey Balderrama

RodSmith

Today one of the greatest players to ever wear a Broncos uniform has retired.  After giving his heart for over 12 years, his body just couldn’t take it anymore and forced Rod to sit out the full season last year.  After two hip operations, Rod had no choice but to call it a career.

Thank you Rod, for everything that made you great.  You embodied perseverance, from starting out as an undrafted free agent, being signed to the practice squad and ultimately becoming a valued member of the receiving corp, ultimately becoming the leading wide receiver through Broncos history.

Despite all of the success you’ve attained – the records, the Super Bowl rings – he’s remained humble.  At an age of flamboyant receivers such as T.O. and Chad Johnson, Rod arguably contributed more to your team than either of those guys, yet remained humble.  In a strange way it seems fitting that your retirement received very little coverage outside of Broncos Country.  You won’t get the media love-fest that Favre’s retirement had, but you’re going out classy nonetheless.

I heard that Smith is being offered a TBD role in the Broncos organization, I hope he sticks around the team for a long time to come.  We’d be lucky to have him.

Broncos schedule released

Jeromey Balderrama

If you’re an NFL junkie like me, you probably realize that today the NFL finally released their schedule for next year. The Broncos schedule can be found on their site.

The reception has been pretty decent as I read the blog. Mile High Report puts it best:

It looks pretty good; good time for the bye, not too many long roadtrips, KC at Arrowhead NOT in December, no “murderer’s rows” of tough opponents:

However, there’s one thing I’d like to add – NO HOME PRIME-TIME GAMES. I’m a little mixed about that. On one hand I love going to football games at night, experiencing the lights and knowing that you’re on national TV. On the other hand, you basically get no opportunity to tailgate (especially if it’s on a week night), the weeknight people working there are usually backups and things are slow from buses to concession stands, and the drive home late at night is a big pain.

The Broncos will still be on 3 times in prime-time – all away games. However, there’s no Sunday Night Football, unless flex-scheduling later in the season changes that. I think this may reflect the fact that the Broncos haven’t made the playoffs in 2 years, and many are predicting another tough year for the orange and blue. Let’s hope the network hacks are wrong.

Off to the closing now, wish me luck!

Why I’m glad I’m not a Raider fan

Jeromey Balderrama

Last year was definitely a tough year for the Broncos.  Going 7-9 and basically unraveling at the end of the year was pretty hard to swallow.  Right now the Bronco faithful are just praying that we can get back into playoff form in 2008, especially before the "free agent bloodbath" on the horizon.

But I still love the Broncos, and I’m proud to be a Bronco fan. 

It could be worse. I could be a Raider fan and have to come home to this every night:

OldAlDavis

It could be worse, Bronco Country.  At least we don’t have Skeletor or the Crypt Keeper running our team.

(Favre) Oh Please…

Jeromey Balderrama

Sorry for keeping my football hat on longer than I should, but this is also too good to pass up.

If you didn’t hear, Brett Favre retired.  I respect him as a player and what he meant to the Green Bay franchise (especially since we Broncos have the myth, man & legend of Elway), but my eyes are starting to roll to the back of my head when I see this on ESPN:

OhPlease

Oh please.

Look, he retired – he didn’t die!  While this was mildly surprising – especially since he was a self-thrown interception away from being in the Super Bowl – this was the same thing we’ve been hearing for the last 4 years!  You know how the news media has their little vignettes on-deck for old guys they think are going to die soon – I bet sports writers had these graphics and stories sitting in the queue, just a click away from being published.

Favre had a great career.  He has the all-time TD’s record (as well as the all-time Interceptions record, but Favre slurpers forget that).  He took some pretty bad Green Bay teams and made them competitive, and he did bring enthusiasm and fun to the game.  He did wonders for Green Bay and deserves all the Cheesehead accolades.  While I celebrate Favre’s achievements, I can’t help but bring up things that prevent me from jumping on the Brett Bandwagon.

  • His Starting Record: He’ll be hailed like Ripkin for starting so many consecutive games. However, I think that Favre let that record get in the way of his better judgement.  In 2001 1999-2000 he had injured his thumb, which only sent Green Bay further spiraling down.  It was obvious he wasn’t helping his team by being out there, but Favre wouldn’t take himself out and because of the hype around the record no coach would take him out either.  This reared it’s head again in these last few seasons, notably this season during Week 13 when he separated his right shoulder.  Favre probably shouldn’t have played week 14, and while they won (it was the Raiders), he risked injury in a game that he probably shouldn’t have played in (again, it was the Raiders).
  • Constant Retirement Contemplation: For the last few years we all tuned in for The Days of Our Packers, where Brett Favre went through his soap opera of whether he felt like he should come back again.  All players contemplate retirement – I get that – but there were two things that bugged me about Favre’s contemplation: 1 – It was so damned public – It bothered me when he sat around in interviews wondering out loud whether he should come back and said that he’d wait and see if the Packers would make good moves.  To me this came across like he was holding his team hostage, being a GM from the sidelines.  “If you guys make good enough moves, maybe I’ll honor you with my presence for another year”.  2 – He made his decisions far too late. With the exception of this year, Favre didn’t arrive at a decision regarding retirement until the summer, preventing the team from making any free agency moves or draft preparation.  Had the Packers known sooner they could have better groomed a replacement for Favre appropriately, instead of gambling with the Aaron Rogers pick. Even this year, the Packers are too late to make any pushes for free agent veteran QB’s, all the best are already off the market (not that it was a great QB year anyway).  Now they have to deal with the problem that is Aaron Rogers.  This leads me to my next point…
  • Hurting Aaron Rogers. This same “consecutive start” probably hampered Aaron Rogers’ development from seeing any real game action.  There were a few meaningless games the Packers played in 2006 that would have allowed the Packers to evaluate Rogers, but Favre still had to start those games,dare they not break his coveted record. Granted, Rogers did end up getting hurt both of those seasons, but at the time a Rogers evaluation would have been prudent.  The Packers took a gamble and drafted Rogers to groom as successor to the Favre QB regime, but due to the Retirement Soap Opera they never were able to solidify their QB strategy.  Now they’re faced with Rogers’ rookie contract expiration and have to make a decision whether to keep Rogers and put up big money for an essential unknown.  Favre isn’t directly to blame, but one can’t deny that he has contributed to this circumstance.
  • “The Gunslinger” . The only difference between being called a “Gunslinger” and “Bad-Decision Maker” is luck & a ring.  Without his Super Bowl Championship, Favre would essentially be Jake Plummer.  The fact that Favre won his Super Bowl relatively early in his career enabled his apologists to brand him “the Gunslinger” who “gambles and takes chances” – whereas Plummer is “erratic” and “makes mistakes”.  This enabled sports writers to continue slurping him and ignore the fact that Favre also holds the record for career interceptions thrown.

Again, don’t get me wrong: Favre is an amazing player and the NFL is worse off without Favre playing – but let some time pas so people can ignore the above before branding him “the legend”.  I believe that history will consider Favre a great quarterback, but overshadowed in the 90’s by Elway, Marino & Young, as well in the 2000’s by Payton Manning & Tom Brady.

As for Packer fan: Take it from a Bronco fan – you don’t realize how good you had it until it’s gone.  A QB as legendary as Favre and Elway only comes to your franchise once in every 30-50 years.

Walker joins the enemy

Jeromey Balderrama

Hilarious news tonight on ESPN:

Wide receiver Javon Walker, released by the Denver Broncos on Friday, agreed to a deal with the division-rival Oakland Raiders on Tuesday, a source told ESPN.com’s Michael Smith. The terms of the deal call for Walker to receive a six-year, $55 million contract that includes more than $16 million in guarantees and pays him roughly $27 million over the first three years of the deal.

JavonWalker

I bet that this is the look Javon had when he realized that he just sold his soul to the land of obscurity – known as Oakland.  Good riddance Javon, good riddance Raidahs – you two were made for each other.  Enjoy each other’s misery.

At the start of the 2007 season, I really liked Javon.  I really wanted to support him after what happened with Darrett Williams, and was looking forward to him going into the NFL season healthy and eager to see what he could do.  I supported him at the start of the season, then when he got hurt really early on in the season.  While I did tell my Bronco friends “Man it sucks that he’s hurt”, I never criticized Javon for being hurt.  He needed to take care of his business.

However my sympathy for Javon stopped when he slowed back into playing but started complaining about not getting the ball enough and not being a bigger part of the offense.  It was obvious he was jealous of the attention Brandon Marshall was getting on the field.  I had no idea where this whining came from. What did he expect, that once he was hurt that we’d shelve the offense and say “Oh well, let’s not have anyone else try to step up and score points.  We better wait for Javon to come back and save us all”.  Javon, you missed the majority of the 2007 season, of course it sucks, but you can’t criticize the Broncos offense for moving on. 

As our playoff hopes diminished I had was looking forward to what a healthy Walker could do with Brandon Marshall next season.  You could see a Chad Johnson/TJ Who’sYourMama similarity in the offense for next year.  All that flushed down the toilet when Javon whined about being in Denver at the end of the season and demanded a trade to another team that would feature him.  He tried to apologize a few weeks later, but it was pretty hard to un-ring that bell.

As I said, Walker and the Raiders were made for each other. Let me count the ways this is bad for both of them:

For Javon:

  • Way to go be a big fish in the small talent pool that is the Raiders.  After complaining about not being utilized enough, signing with a team that managed to flush Randy Moss’ talent down the toilet. As soon as Moss busts out of Oakland he becomes arguably the best WR in the NFL for 2007.  And this is a good thing for Javon because…
  • Way to play for a team that has no semblance of being competitive and just taking the money.  Granted the Broncos didn’t make the playoffs last year, but at least we contended for playoff spots in December.  The only thing the Raiders contend for is a top-3 draft pick.

For the Raiders:

  • Nothing says “Smart Spending” like throwing $55 million at a guy who has had 2 major knee surgeries in the last 2 years, and hasn’t played a full NFL season in 3 years.
  • Nothing says “great chemistry” when you combine whiney Walker with malcontents like Jerry Porter, combine that with an essentially Rookie Quarterback and you’re bound to have fireworks on the sidelines.

Well, this will make Raiders games all-the-more interesting.  This isn’t Eddie Kennison, but it’s definitely Kennison-esque.