In 1992, the Broncos were coming off of a season in which they had gone 12-4 and had lost to the Buffalo Bills 10-7 in the AFC Championship game after John Elway hurt his leg and was replaced by Gary Kubiak, well before ‘Koobs’ went on to become a head coach incapable of winning 10 games.

That offseason, head coach Dan Reeves concerned that John Elway’s play was deteriorating with age decided to use the Broncos first round pick on what Reeves believed was the team’s most obvious need – a new quarterback. In the first round, Reeves drafted Tommy Maddox, a young (leaving school after his sophomore year), talented but raw quarterback.

Anxious to see what his new toy could do, Reeves got Maddox 4 starts in the following year after an Elway injury. The Broncos finished the year 8-8 and Reeves was shown the door. Maddox would follow him a year later.

In 2006, the Broncos were coming off of a season in which they went 13-3 and lost the AFC championship game 34-17 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ignoring a glaring need on the defensive line that was ultimately the biggest contributor to that Steeler loss (and no one will tell me otherwise), Mike Shanahan used his first round pick to address what he viewed as the team’s biggest need: a new quarterback. After all, Jake Plummer had only thrown for 3,366 yards, 18 TDs and 7 Interceptions the year before (not to mention that 13-3 record). Shanahan traded up in the first round to draft a young, cocky, big-armed quarterback named Jay Cutler.

With Shanahan’s heavy praise for Cutler ringing in his ears from the first day of training camp, Plummer looked and played scared. Despite that the Broncos started the season 7-2. But after two consecutive losses, Shanahan was anxious to see what his new toy could do, so Plummer was benched and Cutler took over. The Broncos finished 2-3 and missed the playoffs. Plummer retired that offseason to live in the mountains of Idaho, play handball and spend time with his former Bronco cheerleader wife (or as I call it, living the American Dream).

Shanahan and Cutler muddled through a 7-9 and 8-8 season before Shanahan was shown the door and Cutler cried his way to Chicago after new coach Josh McDaniels made a boo boo on little Jay’s delicate feelings.

In McDaniels first year, the Broncos started 6-0 with wins over the Patriots, Cowboys and Chargers. After an epic collapse in which his team lost 8 of their final ten games, giving up an average of almost 30 points in each loss, McDaniels decided that quarterback Kyle Orton (3,802 yards, 21 TDs, 12 Ints) was the main problem and traded back up into the first round to select cult leader and walking professional question mark Tim Tebow.

The following year, realizing how raw and unprepared Tebow was to step in and play, McDaniels signed Orton to an extension. But the team started dreadfully, going 3-9 in their first 12 games, giving up an average of nearly 28 points per game and McDaniels was shown the door. Shortly afterward, a shoulder injury gave Broncos leadership an excuse to put Orton on the bench (3,653 yards, 20 TDs, 9 INTs, in 13 games) and give Tebow a chance to play. Looking like the overwhelmed rookie he was Tebow played decent (82.1 passer rating) but the Broncos lost 2 of 3.

This season, knowing that no one wants him to be on the field (except the coaches and execs that have made a living in football for the past 20 years), Orton has looked more shaken than Plummer in 2006. It was only a matter of time, once the team started losing that he would be yanked for Tebow.

Well, it finally happened yesterday. With Tebow mounting a 4^th quarter comeback that fell one mad, scrambling hail mary short of a win, it’s his team now. Orton might as well start shopping for homes in Coeur d’Alene.

Will a game plan built on Tebow running the ball 1.5 times for every one of his pass completions continue to work once it is no longer a surprise? I don’t know. It could – it certainly did during Tebow’s stellar college career. Will he grow into a mature passer, capable of sitting in the pocket and reading through his progressions? Do the Broncos even want him to grow into that or does that remove some of the Tebow-essence that makes him seem so god-like to his acolytes?

Apparently over the next 8 weeks we will find out.

I certainly won’t make the argument that Orton is as good as Jake Plummer and it is sacrilegious to even utter his name in the same sentence as Elway. But there is an all-too-obvious pattern of putting all of the blame at the feet of a quarterback.

In the past when the Broncos have shoved aside a known-quantity at quarterback for the next big thing, it has been a coach-led decision. This time, it was done in spite of the coach. This was purely about appeasing an irate fan-base and finding out what that first-round investment has actually bought. This morning the fans that began chanting Tebow in the 2010 pre-season wake up feeling like they are the ones running this team. They are finally in control.

But maybe the fan base should pause for a minute and reflect on the fates of those others that focused blame on the quarterback despite glaring problems elsewhere.

Coaches can get jobs with other teams – Reeves took Atlanta to a Super Bowl and Shanahan may actually turn the Redskins back into a respectable organization.

What are fans going to do if the decision they made for the organization backfires?

Tonight it’s being widely reported that the Nuggets have completed their (way too) long discussed deal to send Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks.

By my count, this is at least the 3^rd time in the last 2 years that the city of Denver has lost a high profile athlete that basically forced his way out of town.

At this point, I am starting to feel like one of those desperate women on The Bachelor who gets sent packing after telling the bachelor about her 4 cats and how she got a tattoo of his name in a giant heart on her lower back while he was out on a date with 3 other women.

Is my problem that I love too easily?

Maybe not quite as extreme as those sad nut-jobs on The Bachelor I at least feel like some high school girl dumped by her boyfriend. What did I do? Could I have done more for him? Why aren’t I good enough to be loved?

I should probably just console myself with the latest Justin Bieber song.

However, there is one major difference between Melo and those that have demanded out of the Mile High City before him.

I am not mad at Melo.

Melo didn’t want out due to some childish over-reaction to the business of pro sports (see: Cutler, Jay). He didn’t want out due to some over-inflated view of his own greatness (see: Marshall, Brandon). Melo wanted out because (1) he wanted to play for his hometown team, (2) his prima donna wife wanted to live in a major market and (3) he didn’t like the direction of the Nuggets franchise.

All of those are justifiable reasons by themselves. Even #2, as lame as it is, is reasonable. Any married guy knows life is easier if the wife is happy and when plastic surgery addicted professional sluts across the US get TV contracts (see: Real Housewives of anywhere), it seems reasonable that a former MTV VJ married to a NBA star could get her own show.  

Together these reasons made it inevitable that Melo’s child would not drive a car with a Colorado ‘Native’ bumper sticker on it.

What separates Melo in my mind from the others is the way in which he went about leaving Denver. He didn’t whine and pout. He didn’t make a nuisance of himself in practice. He went to work and did his job amidst great upheaval and uncertainty. Even just yesterday, when he knew that the Nuggets were close to trading him, he said he planned to play for the Nuggets in their next game against the Grizzlies.

I can’t fault a guy for wanting to work where he wants to work. If my life-long dream were to work for a competitor of my current employer (who has been great to me in time with them), and it was well known they were actively recruiting me, wouldn’t it be my choice to go work with them? And while weighing the offer, would it shock anyone if I wasn’t the perfect employee for my current boss (heck, I should be doing work right now but am not – and I don’t have any other job offers. Though I am listening). Melo, continued to show up to work for the Nuggets. And he may not have played quite as well as his usual self, he was still fully invested in making this Nuggets team a success.

Need an example? A couple weeks ago, the Nuggets beat the Mavs on a last second shot by Aaron Aflallo after Melo fouled out of the most entertaining basketball game I have ever attended. When Aflallo’s basket went in, a player on the bench who no longer cared would have casually walked off the court. Instead, the TNT cameras caught Melo yelling, running across the court and pumping his fists like he had hit the shot himself.

Melo’s heart was in New York long ago but it is a credit to him for not only continuing to show up and play his best for the Nuggets but also making his intentions clear. It may hurt a little now, but isn’t it better to lose Melo and get something in return rather than have him shiv us in the kidneys this summer like LeBron did to Cleveland last summer?

LeBron treated free agency like a selfish child would: thinking only of what makes them immediately happy; unable to think through the impact on others.

Melo approached it like a man. He did what was best for him, what was best for his employer and he continued to show up and do his best in the interim.

The Nuggets took everything in New York north of Wall Street that wasn’t nailed down in this trade. As I tweeted, the optimist in me is trying to convince the pessimist in me that this will go down as the NBA equivalent of the Herschel Walker trade that built the Dallas Cowboys 1990’s dynasty.

The pessimist in me just wants to kick the optimist’s ass.

I am, of course, disappointed that Melo didn’t want to finish the job he started: turning Denver into a real basketball town. Before Melo arrived, Denver’s basketball history consisted of David Thompson redefining ‘mile high’, one playoff series win over the SuperSonics and the movie Amazing Grace and Chuck (starring one of the greatest Nuggets of all time as a professional basketball player…for the Celtics. Sigh).

But, when probably the 2^nd best current player from Colorado is Louis Amundsen, did he ever have a chance? Colorado is a football state, period. Chauncey Billups’ career at George Washington High is just the exception that proves the rule.

When it wasn’t clear how the Nuggets new management planned to get this team into the upper echelon of the Western Conference, Melo decided it was time to head back to the mean streets of his youth. I can’t blame him for looking around the Nuggets roster and seeing a bunch of high-priced players too often injured or lacking motivation to put in the consistent effort required of a NBA champion.

Stuck in a foreign world (he bought a house near my parents in Littleton, quite possibly the exact polar opposite of his hometowns of Brooklyn and Baltimore), and seeing his job as a dead end, he made the quite logical decision to try and go back to the world he knew growing up.

I want to be mad at Melo. I want to imagine next year when the Knicks come back and beat the Nuggets in Denver by 30 points I will boo and scream at Melo. I want to imagine that I will spend the next year writing hate messages at Melo to rival what Scott Raab has directed at LeBron in the last nine months.

I want to be angry. I really do.

But, right now I can’t be.

I am sad.

I am sad it didn’t work out. I am sad that the 2009 Western Conference Finals will be the closest thing the Melo/Chauncey Nuggets got to bringing a championship to Denver. I am sad it came to this. I am sad that Denver’s opportunity to play home to one of the 5 best basketball talents in the world ended in pain for everyone involved.

Good luck Melo. I will probably still cheer you on in the Eastern Conference – I really don’t like a lot of your new ‘rivals’ – but I will always wonder, “what if”.

I know we could have had something special.

We are now approaching hour 48 of CutlerGate and it is time to get beyond reacting to what Jay Cutler did or didn’t do at the NFC Championship game on Sunday. In fact it is about time to get beyond reacting to the reaction to what Jay Cutler did or didn’t do at the NFC Championship game on Sunday.

I can claim no holier-than-thou ground on the reaction to Cutler not playing in the 2^nd half due to a (we now know) sprained knee. I jumped on the joke making bandwagon just like the next guy. I made twitter jokes about finding a dedicated camera trained on Cutler on the Lifetime network and that Phillip Rivers had officially just won their long-running feud.

I also said Cutler’s face looked like Kristin Cavallari just told him she still loves Brody Jenner. But that was before he hurt his knee, so it isn’t relevant. Though it still makes me chuckle.

But you know what? I would do it again. I feel that I am allowed.

I am an irrational fan. A fan that was both deserted and then insulted  by Cutler. If anyone has a right to make jokes at Cutler’s expense, it is a Bronco fan.

What has been most interesting about all of the fall-out from Cutler is the breadth of negative reactions to Cutler.

This isn’t a media-only story. This isn’t solely the case of the media lashing out at a player who wouldn’t accommodate them and they decided to portray him as evil (see: Bonds, Barry).

The negative reaction came from all corners: media, former players, current players. It seems that hating Jay Cutler is the only thing that we are united about as a country.

I half expect Obama to take a shot at Cutler tonight in the State of the Union and receive a long-sustained bi-partisan standing ovation in response.

Now, whether Cutler could return to play is up for debate. I have never suffered a 2^nd degree knee sprain, so I can’t speak to whether he could play. I sprained one ankle in a football game in high school and kept playing but then sprained another in college so severely I was still limping weeks later.

I can’t shout from the rooftops that he absolutely had to play since it was the NFC Championship. I don’t know what he felt like.

And, let’s face facts. He was having a bad day already. Would he have played any better with a questionable plant leg and the pain in the back of his mind on every snap? If you ask me, playing Caleb Hanie was the best thing to happen to the Bears on Sunday.

Setting aside, trifling things like facts though, I am more interested in the root of the widespread villification of Cutler. Why did everyone so immediately jump on and shred Cutler? To me, there is only one answer:

No one likes Jay Cutler.

Not exactly groundbreaking I know, but let’s think about the ramifications of this.

This wasn’t just the media taking down a player that isn’t cooperative.

This wasn’t just former players that will always believe players were better and tougher in their day.

This wasn’t former teammates taking an opportunity to take a shot at a player they learned to not like while sharing a locker room.

This wasn’t rival players that play him each year and have lost to him.

This was everyone.

Look at the cross-section of people that took high profile opportunities to dig at Cutler.

Maurice Jones-Drew. He has played 2 games against Cutler. Neither since 2008. And his Jags won both games.

Derrick Brooks played once against Cutler in 2008.

Darnell Dockett has played twice against Cutler.

Deion Sanders and Mark Schlereth have both been retired for years.

Yet, all of these people went out of their way to tweet their disgust at Cutler, immediately with no more information than you or I had that point.

They all immediately decided that Cutler was punking out on his team and responsibilities.

Why?

Because no one likes Jay Cutler. He comes across as arrogant, unfriendly and, probably most daming in the NFL, uncaring. His disinterested look on the sidelines; his head-down, mumbling style screams that he isn’t a leader.

Not just fans and the media see this. Players do too. They also talk among themselves. Brian Urlacher and other Bears may be the only people defending Cutler today, but let’s not forget even King Narcissus himself Terrell Owens once broke down in tears about ‘my quarterback’. Sometimes the press conference is as important of a performance as anything on the field.

It wasn’t that long ago that Cutler had ticked off Urlacher before he had played his first game as a Bear.

Cutler has done an admirable job of making enemies throughout the NFL. Just as importantly, his off-putting personality also keeps people in the media from playing a role as his apologists as they would for other players that maybe weren’t the most popular in their own locker rooms (see: Favre, Brett).

Cutler has created the perfect storm: he has nobody that likes him and then got himself caught in a controversy.

Bonds is a good comparison to Cutler (less the record setting, awe-inspiring performance by Bonds). After years of being a jerk to pretty much everyone, Bonds had no friends left when the PED scandal fell at his feet. Thus, Bonds, to this day, is Cruella DeVille, making a home run bat out of syringes while other players like A-Rod are slapped on the wrist but largely given a pass over time for their (more concretely proven) PED use.

So no one will ever know whether Cutler should have kept playing (and more importantly if that would have improved the Bears chances of winning), but one thing we have learned is that Jay Cutler needs to listen to more Stevie Wonder.

Knowin’ you can always count on me
for sure
that’s what friends are for

In good times
And bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for

- That’s What Friends Are For

One down, one to go.

Schadenfreude Sunday is in full effect. Jay Cutler imploded worse than even Bronco fans could have thought. I didn’t expect much from Jay, but I didn’t expect him to be so bad that he will be facing a quarterback competition next fall.

I half-jokingly said that the Bears should offer Cutler in trade to the Redskins. But is it really that crazy? Caleb Hanie came in and looked more confident and effective in the 4^th quarter of an NFC title game than Cutler looked most of his career. Let McNabb come in as a back-up and finish his career in his hometown. Reunite Cutler with the only one in the country that still truly believes in him, Mike Shanahan. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Everywhere but on the field of course.

Anyway, congratulations to the Packers. Some of us have known since before the season that the Packers were the best team in the NFC, but now there is little doubt left.

There is also little doubt I will be cheering on the Pack in the Super Bowl. As discussed Friday, I am not a fan of either AFC team, so I am a member of Cheese Head nation for the next several weeks.

More than cheering on the Pack, I am really looking forward to all the beer and sausage I now get to eat.

So, now is time to find out who the Pack will be playing. For the fourth straight year, I am sitting down and blogging a live running commentary. I am forgoing Twitter for the next couple hours and going all in here.

Time to head out to Pittsburgh for the beginning of the game.

- During pre-game, James Brown interviewed the E-Trade baby. That won’t be going on JB’s career highlight film. In fact, I’m not going to lie. I think I saw him die a little.

- On the bright side, the E-Trade baby made the 2 best jokes of the pre-game show. Not sure whether that says more about me or the writing on the show.

- In the intros they just used the term ‘gunslinger’ when talking about Big Ben. Between Ben and Favre, will we ever return to a time when that phrase doesn’t have a sexual connotation?

- Some stadium P.A. guy just talked over Jim Nantz’s introduction of Martina McBride’s singing the national anthem. Does he know who Nantz is? That announcer is a dead man.

- Braylon Edwards shaking his head and looking a little sad during anthem. Almost like he already knows he will have a horrible game-changing drop later.

- Has any player ever gotten more out of not being good enough to start in the NFL than Steve Tasker?

- Jets kick-off – it is official now. No turning back and finding a likeable team to get in here.

 - Jets have a guy whose last name is pronounced ‘poo-ha’. Even Albert Pujols makes fun of him.

- A short run and then a bootleg pass by Big Ben to Hines Ward gets the game’s first down. They didn’t show him, but I bet Ward was smiling about it.

- For the record, if announcers don’t have to say ‘Roethlisberger’ then I certainly don’t have to type it.

- Big Ben runs his own triple option, pitches to Mendenhall but gets hit in the thigh and gets up limping. College ladies take note of his weak spot for future reference.

- The Steelers are running through the Jets defense like Rex Ryan runs through a buffet line.

- Ryan challenges a diving catch by Heath Milles at the 3 yard line. People say that black is slimming. Those who say that have not seen Rex Ryan in his black sweater vest.

- Is Mike Mayock, Rich Eisen, and Deion Sanders doing a mock-draft for a cola more embarrassing than James Brown interviewing a CGI baby? Need to go to a replay official, but initial ruling on the field is that, yes, it is more embarrassing.

- Catch is over-turned, Miller bobbled it hitting the ground.

- Big Ben’s thigh is bothering him. Jay Cutler thinks he should probably sit down for awhile and let Charlie Batch take this one home for the Steelers.

- In spite of Ben’s sore thigh, he runs for the first down. Cue, the overly-dramatic music and outlandish announcer praise. Somewhere Jon Gruden just wet himself a little.

- Mark Sanchez just wiped a booger on Mark Brunell’s coat on the sideline. Excellent counter-point to all of the pre-game discussion of his growing maturity.

- Steeler center and former UF Gator Maurkice Pouncey is helped off the field. Where are the healing hands of Tim Tebow when he needs them?

- Mendenhall with the touchdown from the one-yard line after a 9-minute drive. For a great defense, the Jets are having a tough time tackling. 7-0 Steelers.

- Jets finally get the ball and Sanchez’s first pass is knocked down. Maybe residual booger residue made the ball stick too long in his hand.

- The Jets running game is going nowhere but Sanchez completed a clutch pass and has gotten 2 penalties. Sanchez passing the Jets to a win over the Steelers with the help of the refs? That seems like a more unlikely sentence than ‘Caleb Hanie is the best quarterback on the Chicago Bears’.

- A give-up wide receiver screen pass on 3^rd and 13 ends the Jets drive. Mike Martz is trying to figure out why they didn’t run a reverse.

- The first Pro Bowl was played 40 years ago tomorrow. That means 40 years ago today, some player was trying to find an excuse to not play in it.

- End of the 1^st quarter with the Steelers still up 7-0. Rashard Mendenhall 25% of his way to an AFC Championship MVP award.

- Unnecessary roughness call on a Jet defender when he pops Emmanuel Sanders after Sanders drops a ball. Cue Twitter to blow up on both sides of NFL hard hit debate in 3, 2, 1…

- Refs call for a measurement before a 4^th down for the Steelers. Ball at least a yard short. If the refs couldn’t see that from the sideline, they really should resign.

- 4^th and 1, the Steelers throw a screen pass to Mendenhall who bats it up in the air and it’s intercepted. Mike Martz loved that play call.

- Jets run an end-around on first down and lose 4 yards. I am starting to think Martz is consulting for both of these coaching staffs.

- 3^rd and long and a Jet wide receiver drops an easy catch. But in a nice change of pace it was Jericho Cotchery, not Braylon.

- Nantz just told us The Economist named Pittsburgh, America’s most livable city. I disagree. If that were true all of the obnoxious Steeler fans everywhere would move back.

- Mendenhall with a long run down the sideline. If only he were born in Dallas and had decided to retire this year, he might be getting more love.

- Pass knocked down on 3^rd and 1, so the Steelers take the field goal. 10-0, 6:51 to play in this half.

- Forrest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo are in a new lawyer TV show? Her character from Reality Bites would be so disappointed in her taking an office job

- Three and out for the Jets. They might want to look at Caleb Hanie in the offseason too.

- Sanders with a long catch. SMU Pony Pride! Revis Island seems to be a much smaller story this year. Maybe because the Steelers have 4 or 5 interchangeable receivers.

- Dump pass to Mendenhall in the flat and he stumbles to the 5 yard line. Yet another drive inside the ten. Ho-hum.

- Big Ben scrambles around the corner for a touchdown. He hasn’t been given more space to move since the last time he encountered a sorority at the mall. 17-0 Steelers.

- On 3^rd and long, Sanchez gets popped from behind and the ball squirts out. Returned for a TD by William Gay – now waiting on refs to decide if we need to watch the second half or can turn to the Nuggets game.

- Goodell calls down to the review booth and tells Ed Hochuli to make it an incomplete pass. Roger is tired of American Idol being the highest rated TV show. Ed Hochuli flexes his biceps and calls it a TD anyway. 24-0 Steelers, 1 minute to play.

- If I am the Nuggets I call the Knicks right now and try to work out a deal for Melo. All of New York feeling very vulnerable at the moment.

- Jets finally move the ball but stall out at the 25-yard line. Nick Folk sneaks a field goal through. 24-3 Steelers at the half.

- Rex Ryan looks so upset with the way his team is playing that I think his water just broke.

- Time for one of my favorite games: guess the 2^nd half line. My guess here: Jets -6. Over/Under line: 20.5

- And Pregame.com rules: Pick’em on the spread and Over/Under line of 17.5. I was way off but by that logic I guess I should take the Jets and the Over.

- Brad Smith fumbles and slips on the 2^nd half kick-off before getting tackled at the 10-yard line. Nice, succinct summary of the Jets today.

- The Jets finally with a big win! Originally charged with a timeout but it is overturned and they get the TO back! Moral victory for New York. Seems like they should take what they can get today.

- Two plays later, Sanchez connects with Santonio Holmes on a bomb for a touchdown. I think we have all seen enough of the Jets to know that they wouldn’t quit. They are coached by Rex Ryan, he never knows when to quit. In the dining room at least.

- The guys wearing full suits, overcoat and gloves, in a semi-enclosed room with heaters pumping just told us it isn’t that cold in Pittsburgh tonight. I am sure the guy in Section 314 whose feet are numb right now will be greatly relieved.

 - Jets run into the Steelers punter on 4^th down and give the Steelers a first down. Probably don’t want to do that down by 14. Expert Analysis!

- Big Ben pulls out early and drops the snap. There is probably a non-sexual way to read this sentence but I choose not to.

- Next play Big Ben throws a deep interception. How disappointed are Nantz and Sims? They just called him Roethlisberger. That is like when your parents use your middle name.

- This game has gotten sloppy. After the interception, the Jets have a three and out, and then the Steelers drop the punt but it rolls out of bounds. In other words, it is looking like every other Jets game this season.

- Another scramble by Big Ben for a first down. If Ben can be a Super Bowl winning QB, why can’t Tebow be successful in the NFL?

- Yes, this game is getting so slow that I am mentally talking myself into next year’s Broncos team being the surprise of the league. I should probably stop drinking now.

- And as soon as I compare him to Tebow, Ben gets sacked twice. Ok, I get it – sorry OLASTT, I will never blaspheme again. All hail Tebow!

- Wait, Survivor is still on? Every TV executive in the country should be fired for being complete failures. Next thing you know they are going to try to sell Janeane Garofalo as a crusading attorney…oh wait.

- Nice drive by the Jets, but they need points and are facing a 4^th and 1. If Martz was their coach they might run a statue of liberty here

- Shonn Greene running over the Steelers defense to inside the ten. He is running like the Iowa Hawkeye that he is. Of course, most other Hawkeyes only run like that when the cops are chasing them.

- Big goal line stand by the Steelers. There hasn’t been a denial like that in Pittsburgh since the Pirates tried to convince their fans they have a legitimate chance at competing for a division title. That was a lot of time spent by the Jets (8 minutes) for no points.

- Another fumbled exchange by Big Ben for the safety. I never thought I would see Ben have such a problem keeping his hands on someone’s ass. 24-12 Steelers with 7 to play.

- CBS shows that Diet Dr. Pepper commercial with Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas guzzling a whole bottle. Say what you will about her singing, she sure can swallow.

- Ben Roethlisberger approved that last comment.

- Nice response drive by the Jets after the safety. Too bad Mark Sanchez only plays well in the fourth quarter. If they could ever get him to show up before the 4^th, the Jets would be really good. 24-19 Steelers with 3 to play.

- Kudos to the Jets for making a good game out of what could have been awful. And they did it with their first string QB

- Ben with a scramble on 3^rd down, and then a pass to Antonio Brown for a game clinching first down. That is why every other team hates Big Ben. That and his being a sexual predator. But probably more of the making the big, clutch play thing.

 - Victory formation and we are all set for a Steeler/Packer Super Bowl – and finally an answer to the question we have all been waiting for.

Does Troy Polamalu or Clay Matthews have the prettier hair?

Much of Bronco nation thought that 2010 was about as bad of a year as they could ever suffer through.

It began with the completion of an epic collapse that saw a team start a season 6-0 and then not make the playoffs.

It continued with the trading of Brandon Marshall to the Dolphins.

Then the team traded up to draft a quarterback who can barely throw.

Then the season started and the team was worse than even the already low expectations of Bronco nation.

Then the Raiders came into Mile High and scored 59 points.

Then the team was busted for video-taping a Forty-Niner practice. Ironic, given that as bad as they are I don’t think even their own coaching staff taped Niner practices.

And the Broncos still lost that game.

Then McDaniels was fired.

Then the team completed the 2^nd worst regular season in team history.

(By the way, while writing this I started crying right about the time they still lost to the Niners.)

However, just when we thought maybe the New Year would bring a bright, new day in Bronco nation, I have to admit January is looking ever worse than 2010.

First, the Broncos hire a guy to run the football operations whose most applicable work experience was running an arena football team. Too bad he couldn’t get Jon Bon Jovi as his assistant.

Then they hire a new head coach whose last job was as coach of the only team in the NFL worse than the Broncos and got the job, as far as I can tell, basically solely because he was the exact opposite of the last coach. Where McDaniels was a young, brainy, cocky first time head coach, John Fox is an old, humble re-tread.

Let’s just hope he starts his career 0-6 and then goes 20-6 over his next year and a half.

But beyond the internal team turmoil, there is even more causing pain in Bronco nation.

Jay Cutler and Mark Sanchez are each one win away from the Super Bowl.

Cutler was brought in to Denver in 2006 to be the savior of a franchise not in need of saving, coming off a season where they hosted the AFC championship game. Rather than being the second coming of John Elway, Cutler turned out to be an arrogant, immature gunslinger incapable of leading a team and prone to making bad decisions and worse throws.

After McDaniels came to town and hurt the pride of Cutler by asking around about other quarterbacks that may fit better in his system (i.e. not throwing balls into triple coverage), Cutler pouted and demanded a trade. Granting his wish, Cutler was shipped to Chicago. I think I spoke for most of the Bronco nation when I said: good riddance.

Especially when he threw 26 interceptions last season and led the Bears to a 7-9 record.

But now Cutler, while still immature and unlikable, seems to have reigned in his worst instincts, had a winning record for the first time since high school and is hosting an NFC championship game.

I will be honest; I had given up on Cutler. I just didn’t imagine he would ever mature to the point when he would eliminate his poor tendencies.

But watching him carve the Seattle defense like a Thanksgiving turkey, I saw a new Cutler. While still moping and unhappy, he also forced fewer throws. He took off running rather than standing in the pocket, taking a sack or offering up the interception.

He played better than I had ever seen him and I hated every moment of it.

After shipping pouty Jay off to Chicago, Josh McDaniels scouted and considered trading up to draft Mark Sanchez. While I was against it at the time, as Sanchez wasn’t very experienced, starting one year of college and didn’t overwhelm even when he was playing, the Jets were sold, traded up and took Sanchez with the 5^th pick.

Less than 2 years later, they are in their second consecutive AFC championship game. Sanchez hasn’t exactly looked like a young Peyton Manning. He is inaccurate. He occasionally makes bad decisions. Even his coaches are clearly frightened of him, often keeping the game plan slightly more conservative than Sean Hannity.

 But, the fact is he finds a way to win.  

Whether it is a hail may answered with a pass interference, a slant that turns into a 60-yard touchdown pass or a diving catch by a wide receiver in the final minute, Sanchez finds a way to win games.

He is a bizarro Kyle Orton or Tony Romo. He has ugly stats and plays ugly games, but in the final minute he turns into Joe Montana.

In the immortal words of Neil O’Donnel : “he’s a winn-a”.

2010 is finally behind Bronco nation and with it, the Charlie Sheen-level rock bottom that we hit.

2011 should be a time of optimism and hope for a new future.

Unfortunately, the rest of the playoffs seem to keep reminding us of what might have been.

A year ago, I wrote the below post regarding the ridiculous correlation between being named to the Pro Bowl and making the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have decided to re-post since it was lost in the H1N1 outbreak that hit the site in June and is something valuable to remember as we approach this weekend’s game. It is also a humorous post to re-visit in hindsight, for a couple reasons: 1 – Note the appropriate level of skepticism relative to Favre’s “retirement” – a valuable lesson when listening to any announcements this time of year; 2 – This may also represent the last positive thing ever written about Jay Cutler on this site.

Another note before we dive in. With no game this week (the Pro Bowl does not count) this will be the first in a series of recycled posts. Most likely you didn’t see these posts the first time, so as NBC once said, they are new to you. Plus they are all (sort of) still relevant. You will just need to mentally insert new examples and pop culture analogies. I would never re-post anything that makes me look a fool that doesn’t know anything about football. Those go immediately to the trash pile.

It’s All Just Suppositions

On which she has based her suppositions. It’s all just suppositions.

- Smith Keen, The Pelican Brief

It seems only fitting that we face the meaningless Pro Bowl just a week after the newest NFL Hall of Fame class is announced. Why is it fitting you may ask? What does a meaningless game/excuse for NFL stars to get pampered for a week have to do with being given an ugly mustard yellow jacket and a bust created by the blind girl from Lionel Richie’s Hello video on a steamy day in Canton, Ohio?

Well, for no apparent reason, someone has decided to equate the repeated presence at one as criteria for being invited to the other.

This would seem on the surface to be a legitimate rationale. An invitation to the Pro Bowl is meant to signify that a player is one of the top at his position in the game. Repeated invitations recognize the greats of all time.

At least that is what THEY want you to believe (they know who they are). But how much of a Pro Bowl invitation is based on performance and how much is based on reputation?

Just look at this year’s squad invited to Honolulu. Philip Rivers and Chad Pennington are both sitting at home (though those homes are in Miami and San Diego, so you can’t feel too bad for them) while Jay Cutler and Brett Favre were invited to Hawaii. Cutler started the season with a series of good performance in high profile games (8 TDs, 2 Ints, 3 wins) and Favre put up a couple huge games in leading the Jets to an AFC East lead at mid-season. So, when Pro Bowl voting was completed in early December, these two had made their impressions. Nevermind that both teams would collapse and fail to make the playoffs, in large part due to the turnover fetish of each quarterback. When the Pro Bowl votes were tallied a couple high profile wins with good performances (think Favre throwing 6 TD passes against the Cardinals), can trump a solid if unspectacularly consistent season leading a team to wins.

As a result, three years from now, we are going to be led to believe that these were 2 of the best 3 quarterbacks in the AFC this year. Ignore Chad Pennington and Philip Rivers leading their team to the playoffs, rookie ‘Bert’ Flacco managing his team to the AFC title game and Big Ben surviving repeated beatings to win a Super Bowl. Thus when you hear about Brett Favre being eligible for the Hall of Fame and they are discussing his many accomplishments, I am sure you will hear something along the lines of “Favre is a ten-time Pro Bowler, including in his final season with the Jets.”

[NOTE: This represents the wishful thinking that Favre actually does retire this season. But despite my recent gambling binge, even I wouldn’t put money on that.]

Consider Cutler versus Rivers. Two young quarterbacks helming AFC West rivals. Cutler has now made a Pro Bowl over Rivers but Rivers has led a team to the AFC title game and led the league in passer rating this season.  Yet, some would label Cutler as having a better season (and being a better player) simply because he got voted into the Pro Bowl.

[NOTE: I can’t believe I just made an argument for Rivers over Cutler either. Who is this guy? I must be getting sick. I need to get back to my blatant Broncos homerism. OK, how is this: Cutler is such an outstanding talent that the other Pro Bowl quarterbacks are afraid of his talent. How afraid are they? Peyton Manning tried to kill Cutler this week. There I feel better.]

Despite these injustices, I wouldn’t normally get too worked up about players not getting invited to a worthless boondoggle in Hawaii (especially when a lot of them don’t even want to go). The problem I have with the Pro Bowl system is that Hall of Fame resumes are built on Pro Bowl invitations, a shakier foundation than the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

As a player’s reputation grows thanks to making a Pro Bowl, they then get closer to making even more Pro Bowls. String enough Pro Bowls together, regardless of your team’s performance and you are a Hall of Famer.

Don’t believe me? Check out this list of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. What is one of the first criteria noted? Is it stats? No. Is it wins? No. Is it Super Bowl rings? No. It is Pro Bowls. A voting process that everyone agrees is ridiculous. 

So, we have Hall of Fame voters using the even less informed opinions of fans, players and coaches (who are usually a little busy to watch a lot of other players each Sunday) as the basis for deciding who is enshrined as the greatest of the greatest.

All of this isn’t meant to disparage any of this year’s inductees specifically, rather the circular logic of all of it.

It also isn’t meant to explain how Shannon Sharpe was passed over this year. 3-time Super Bowl winner and all-time leading receiver for tight ends at his retirement (and 8 time Pro Bowler) isn’t worthy of enshrinement? His biggest mistake seemed to be playing the majority of his career for the Broncos, Given the dearth of Broncos in the Hall despite being the second most consistently successful NFL franchise of the last 3 decades, Hall of Fame voters seem to believe Denver is just the southern most outpost of CFL.

Shannon’s mistake was valuing winning over impressing fans. I suppose when Tony Gonzalez appears on his first Hall ballot he will easily make the Hall thanks to his 10 Pro Bowls. That is much more impressive than Shannon’s 3 Super Bowl rings, one for each of Tony’s playoff appearances (and losses).

Of course that is just a supposition.