Mile High Report
On Saturday, when Mike Decicco and I recorded our Something Something Broncos podcast, I was ranting and raving that the national media not giving Denver its rightful due as the top seed in the not just the AFC, but the entire NFL. We all watched as teams below the Broncos in the standings were made regular season Super Bowl darlings. To listen to the narrative is to believe that the Las Angeles Rams were the most dominant team ever assembled… until they tumbled to the 6 seed.
My podcast cohort (and chicken pot pie enthusiast), Mike, asked why it was so important for the media to recognize the Broncos as the team we all know them to be. Since we’ve recorded, I have had some time to reflect on what he asked. Why is it so important?
Truth be told, the Broncos are always in this position. With only a couple of exceptions, Denver has always been this anomalous outlier, not part of either coast and yet painfully relevant. Much to everyone’s chagrin, that ‘dusy old cow town’ became a football city and Coloradans have been fighting for the respect just handed out willy-nilly to teams that don’t deserve it like the Dallas Cowboys or, in this year’s case, the LA Rams. Can you imagine if Denver owned the benefit of the doubt like those teams?
I get it, it’s hard to come up with new narratives. It’s much easier to recycle storylines from previous years. Nobody mourned the Chiefs elimination from the playoffs more than the lazy national media types. Without any obnoxious Kelce family antics or Taylor Swift, their football world has been turned upside down and it’s entirely the Broncos fault. I’m sorry you have to generate new thoughts and feelings on things not the Chiefs.
With the Los Angeles Chargers resting many of their starters on Sunday, I told Mike it was important for the Broncos to come out and stomp their guts. This can’t be a repeat of the Chiefs game on Christmas Day. Letting a team resting its started and with nothing to play for hang around is unacceptable when it’s for the first overall seed, an all important bye, and homefield throughout the playoffs.
This Sunday the Broncos need to win decisively against the depleted Chargers. Run up the score. Embarrass them. It’s time for the Broncos to make a statement to the rest of the league that, yes, they’re for real and, no, they’re not the one-and-done team from last year. The Broncos need to make it impossible for the national media to fawn after any team with fewer wins. Denver needs to make those mental gymnastics of placing a 11-win team over a 13-win team all that much more uncomfortable.
Why?
…because we are the Denver Broncos are the best team in the NFL and it needs to stay that way.
