Celebrating the Broncos season

The season is over for the Denver Broncos.  The Indianapolis Colts recorded an unexpected, but impressive, victory yesterday over the Broncos in Denver by a score of 24-13.  I tip my hat to the Colts for coming into Denver’s stadium and winning.  The score wasn’t really even as close as the final score indicated.  Indy deserves to move on to the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots; the Broncos obviously do not.

Many Bronco fans have (understandably) been upset about this outcome.  But lost in this disappointing result is the fact that Denver once again had another good year.  Denver was 12-4; they won the AFC West, and they earned a first-round bye and #2 seed in the AFC.  That’s not a bad season by any stretch of the imagination.  Someone said that Denver Bronco fans are spoiled; this person was right.  The expectations have been set so high that some fans don’t stop and appreciate that the team did still have a good year.  Here’s some perspective: both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans only won two games this year.  So thank you, Broncos, for an exciting year!

Because of the high standards that I mentioned, today, the Broncos and Head Coach John Fox “mutually agreed” to part ways (by the way, I’m not a fan of that term; for all intents and purposes he was fired, at least as I see it).  I really want to thank John Fox for all he did in his tenure in Denver.  Consider this: the Broncos won the AFC West in all four years that Fox coached the team, and he helped Denver return to the Super Bowl last year.  Fox was an impressive 46-18 as the Broncos coach.  I, for one, am very sad to see Coach Fox depart.  He deserves a lot of praise for his era in Denver.  Therefore, I say thank you, John Fox!

Last but certainly not least, I want to thank Peyton Manning.  I am not a prophet, so I could be wrong here, but if someone were to ask me what I think Peyton is going to do this off-season, I suspect that he is going to retire from the game.  My perspective is that Peyton Manning’s legacy will be one of the greatest quarterbacks to have ever played.  What he was able to accomplish in his career was astonishing.  He was sensational in chapter 1 of his career with the Colts; he was just as sensational in chapter 2 of his career with the Broncos.  It was an absolute joy, pleasure, and delight to watch him play quarterback at such a high level for so long.  Thank you, Peyton!

Kevin