There is a classic film clip of Vince Lombardi taken on the sideline of a game with the Packers back in their dynasty days muttering a now immortal line.
‘What the hell is going on out here?’.
With that single sentence, Vince summed up the feelings of Bronco fans this offseason better than any commentator ever could.
- A head coach is fired who had rode a reputation built on two Super Bowl titles a decade ago but stayed a couple years and a couple dozen awful personnel decisions too long.
- He is replaced by an unproven offensive minded head coach, despite the team being in desperate need of re-vamping a defense that the old coach had destroyed like a home owner destroys a home by continuing to build on unnecessarily.
- The new young head coach immediately alienated his young, immature but talented quarterback by floating the idea of trading him
- The young, immature quarterback turns into Veruca Salt and becomes the centerpiece of what could have become the 21st Century version of the Herschel Walker trade
- One of the future first rounders received for said quarterback is traded away for an under-sized playmaking second round cornerback despite several un-addressed needs at linebacker and defensive lineman
- The top wide receiver on the team, wanting a new contract, decides to hold out from coming to mandatory off-season workouts. Actually, I take that back he did come. He came, asked for a raise from the owner and then went home when he didn’t get it. I may try that tomorrow morning instead of going to work myself.
- And now that wide receiver is demanding a trade because of some combination of wanting more money and bizarrely a mis-trust of the team medical staff.
I say again: What the hell is going on out here?
I wish I had some deeper point to all of this rambling. I really don’t. I just wanted to re-cap the Broncos offseason in print and see what it looks like.
You know it is bad when Alex Rodriguez looks at the Broncos and says ‘wow, they are having a rough offseason’.
You know it is bad when even Al Davis seems to have better control of his organization (sadly the same can not be said of his bowels).
I am at a loss. Looking specifically at the soap opera that is Brandon Marshall, what in the world happened?
How many people would walk away from $2 million when they have a bad hip and a history of off-field troubles? I understand that he has only a year left on his contract, feels he is one of the top receivers in the game and wants to cash in before the end of the Collective Bargaining Agreement potentially impacts how much he can earn. Really I get that. But since the last time we saw Marshall on the football field – he has had hip surgery (from which he hasn’t fully recovered) and been arrested (again). So, now is the time to demand a raise or a trade? How does that make sense? Who is advising him – Matt Harrington?
While young players (and their handlers) overestimating their value is not anything new, the strangest part to all of this has to be his dis-trust of the medical staff. Where did that come from? Did one of the trainers give him the Bird Flu?
The part about all of this that is going to annoy me is that everything I have read makes no mention of Josh McDaniels having a role in this, yet I can absolutely guarantee there are going to be a lot of idiots out there that pin the blame on him.
Remember kids, never let facts get in the way of a pre-disposed opinion.
So what now? Well, I guess it depends on what the Broncos can get for Marshall. Losing one slow, injury and incident prone receiver who dropped too many passes isn’t going to be what keeps the Broncos from the Super Bowl this season. Even if he is one of the best in the game, as he believes – just ask the Bengals.
But if played correctly, what they get back could at least put them back on the path.
What the hell.
