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?

The invention and widespread use of the internet has done many amazing things.

Allows you to instantly see and converse with anyone, anywhere in the world.

Brings fantasy sports to those without all day to spend reading newspaper boxscores.

Provides access to porn for teenagers trapped in a house where they don’t control the cable bill.

Most importantly, it allowed know-nothings like me to spout off about any old subject we feel like discussing.

Whether anyone cares that I think the 2 morons that appeared on CNN this morning representing the Tea Party make the ‘movement’ look less intellectual than a retirement home for former WWE wrestlers, is beside the point. I can put it out there and no one can stop me.

Especially not the 2 tea partiers in question, because I am pretty sure neither can read.

(One of them was even supposedly the Tea Party Chair for the state of Utah, which means people actually listen and follow her and may have even voted for her. For the first time, Big Love isn’t the most embarrassing representative for the state of Utah.)

However, all of those wide open uncensored communication does have a negative side.

People actually believe that when they say something, it matters.

As anyone who has seen those guys standing on street corner proclaiming “the end of the world is n’igh” can attest, there is a difference between speechifying in public and actually influencing how people live.

Where we all walk by that guy muttering ‘nut-job’ under our breath, so do people that stumble upon your insane ramblings on the internet.

The ability to write what you think on a public forum doesn’t mean that your opinion holds any more weight than when it was only espoused from the stool at the corner of the bar.

It just feels like it.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the world of sports blogging.

Everyday millions take to the internet to tell the professionals in their favorite sport why they are complete idiots. They argue, debate and insult.

Yet, the professionals they love/hate so much just don’t care. And that makes them even angrier.

In Denver, Tebowmaniacs and citizens of Broncos country were infuriated when Kyle Orton said a few weeks ago that he was only concerned with impressing his teammates, not the myopic, misinformed or uneducated fans blindly cheering for Tim Tebow.

But he is absolutely correct.

Whether fans or local sportswriters who spend too much time in tanning booths think that Tebow could play better because he won games in college, or loves Jesus, or seems nice, or whatever the rationale is, doesn’t matter inside the locker room. His teammates see every day that Kyle Orton is the better player and all they care about is winning.

Just because fans have more avenues than ever before to yell their thoughts doesn’t change that, as a wise man once said, those thoughts are like a cow’s opinion. It is moo.

The internet opens up the world to any idiot (including this one) to say what he thinks, but it doesn’t mean that what he thinks has any more weight.  

And now we have Twitter, which adds an even more direct route to the teams and players. Now, the unwashed masses not only can post their random thoughts in public, they can say them directly to the faces of the players.

Well, not directly to their faces. Most people that use the internet to critique and insult people would turn into groupies if they ever met the people they so hate face to face.

Twitter has turned the internet from a guy with a megaphone and a Jesus Saves sign into a conversation. This can be good and bad.

Arian Foster, after tweaking his hamstring, took the opportunity to lash out at people worried about his health for strictly fantasy reasons (poor Arian must not realize there are only 14 Texans fans in the country, so the only reason that anyone cares about him is fantasy). This led professional blowhard Colin Cowherd to take the opportunity to respond. And then Foster responded back.

I think we can all agree that Cowherd is a jackass who knows as much about sports as my cat (and really whose only redeeming quality in life is his relationship with Michele Beadle), so Foster broke the cardinal rule for athletes. He reacted.

Twitter provides a false sense of intimacy with those we follow. We receive messages that look a lot like a text, from those we follow. It makes us think they are looking for responses and a conversation, further empowering all of us to think our relationships with athletes aren’t at arms-length but as friends when the vast majority of the time it is just a one way monologue.

Foster reacting to both fans and then a professional moron only exacerbates the problem. Now people know they can get to Foster. And more will.

Foster needs to learn from other athletes and recognize that Twitter can bring you closer to fans. But it also makes fans thinks they are closer to you.  

People already think that they can influence the sports and teams they love by yelling the loudest.

I shudder to think of what the world will be like if they actually do have that influence.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
- Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

I never knew Mark Twain was a sports fan, other than following the underground frog jumping circuit, of course.

But like many things, Twain was well-ahead of his time with the above quote. He (probably) didn’t know it at the time, but he was perfectly summarizes the world of sports debate in 2011.

Although to be fair, today it could be re-written as: ‘There are four kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, statistics, and when someone hacks my Twitter account’.

An epic feud has persisted in baseball for the majority of the last decade, as the young heroes of Moneyball value stats over their eyes when evaluating players. The Red Sox have won 2 World Series and Brad Pitt is about to star as Billy Beane, so I will give the current edge in that battle to the Stat-heads.

Every NBA team has a statistics department, filled with young math geniuses plucked from MIT before even Goldman Sachs can get their hands on them. Most of them would probably get laughed off the court at your local YMCA, yet they hold the fate of your favorite NBA team in their pale, fragile delicate hands

(You know, if they ever come back to work).

And now, ESPN is taking an hour of valuable primetime programming to hype a new made-up statistic with which quarterbacks can now be definitively evaluated (apparently). Sure, a slot on a quiet Friday night in August isn’t exactly prime-ESPN real estate but it is still fascinating that a TV network would dedicate an hour to talking exclusively about a new stat.

While I am sure the statistic will be interesting, let’s be honest. There will never be a definitive statistic.

Statistics are only valuable when they support an already-held belief. So, the only people completely on-board with the new stat are going to be the people whose opinion it supports.

Besides, if any math in sports were absolute, we would all become rich, betting on the favorite in Vegas.

What will be most interesting about the new stat will be its application to the biggest running story in Denver: who should be the Broncos starting quarterback?

Through just a few days of camp, Kyle Orton has, apparently, clearly separated himself from Our lord and Savior Tim Tebow and Brady ‘the Mighty’ Quinn.  

But if you listen to many Bronco die-hards and advanced stats guys, Orton is destined to be a failure on par with the Titanic, the Edsel, Ryan Leaf or the season finale of The Killing.

On the surface, it would seem that stats guys should love Orton. Even on a 4-12 team he had over 3,600 yards passing, 20 touchdowns, 9 interceptions and a respectable QB  rating of 87.5. I was a fantasy owner of his, and he single-handedly won me at least one week, on my way to my first ever fantasy championship.

Not that I am bragging.

The t-shirt I had made is very understated.

But the in-depth stats guys ignore those stats as archaic and meaningless. In a desperate attempt to find a mathematical holy grail and validate their sheltered lives, they continue to pick apart every number possible to find ‘the real story’. With Orton that 4-12 record gives them ample ammunition to keep picking.

The arguments against Orton boil down to 4 main critiques:

(1) He stinks on 3^rd down (QB rating dropped to 58 on 3^rd down)

(2) He stinks in the red zone (completion percentage in 40s and 3 sacks inside opponent’s 20-yard line)

(3) He stinks in the 4^th quarter (QB rating dropped to 58.4 in close 4^th quarters)

(4) He has worn a nasty neck beard

Setting aside the validity of the last point, the other arguments are myopic at best, delusional at worst.

While Orton will never be Peyton Manning (or maybe even Eli Manning), much of these arguments against him ignore the fact that he isn’t the only player on the Broncos offense. There are 10 other players out there. And, frankly, their performance last season could most charitably be described as disappointing.

In the way a high school kid driving a brand new sports car into a tree is ‘disappointing’ to his parents.

Let’s look at the areas of the game that aren’t directly in Orton’s control.

Running game

Knowshon Moreno is better known among Broncos Country as No-Show Moreno. The Broncos running game ranked 26^th in yardage last year. Despite a reputation coming into the league as a speedy big play guy, Moreno’s longest run through 2 seasons is 36 yards. Last year he averaged less than 60 yards per game. You think it is a coincidence that Moreno had over 150 total yards in the Broncos best game of the season (Week #10, 49-29 over the Chiefs)?

The offensive line struggled with injuries and disappointing play which also, obviously impacted the running game no matter how good Moreno could be.

There was also little appetite for establishing the running game by the pass-happy coach. He came from New England where ultra accurate Tom Brady could pick apart defenses throwing to talented receivers like Wes Welker and Randy Moss (until, you know, he went bat-shit crazy).

All of these allow a defense to sit back and wait on a quarterback.

Look at the criticisms of Orton again.

Poor on 3^rd down – you mean primarily long 3^rd downs because of no run game?

Poor in Red Zone – you mean, where the field is compressed, so with no threat of a running game, there is less room for receivers to get open against the defense?

Poor in 4^th quarter – you mean, when the Broncos were down and forced to pass (making the defenses’ life even easier)?

And then there is the Broncos defense.

32^nd in points allowed; 32^nd in yards allowed; 31^st in rushing yards allowed; 32^nd in rushing touchdowns allowed; 25^th in passing yards allowed; 24^th in passing touchdowns.

Good news: only 5^th in pass attempts allowed though!

Sure, it means no one wasted time passing because they were gaining almost 5 yards per rush but at this point I will take any single digit I can find.

Last I checked Orton didn’t play defense. Giving up more points than anyone else, and allowing opponents to run (and kill clock) more than anyone else, meant when Orton and the offense got back on the field they were (probably) losing and had limited time to respond. Add that up and it means they were pressing and passing.

In short the Broncos were in a death spiral last season.

Poor defense, led to deficits, which led to the offense passing too much to catch up, which took away any surprise, which meant the offense had more incompletions and meant that there were more short drives which led to the defense being on the field more, which meant they got tired and gave up more points…

Put the team through that spin cycle and a 4-12 record is the inevitable result.

I don’t hold Orton blameless for the failings of the 2010 Broncos. The 59-14 loss to the Raiders in week #7 that for all practical purposes ended the season and the McDaniels era, was driven by early turnovers deep in the Broncos end, including by Orton himself.

Orton is not perfect. As I said at the top, he is no Peyton Manning. And as Josh McDaniels learned, he is no Tom Brady either.

The stats above that demonstrate Orton’s inadequacies are even more interesting when compared to his 2009 stats.

(1) 3^rd down QB rating was 87 on 3^rd down

(2) In the red zone, a completion percentage in upper 40s to low 50s and 1 sack inside opponent’s 20-yard line

(3) 4^th quarter QB rating was 107 in close 4^th quarters)

I just find it convenient for criticism of Orton to rely on statistics that are not entirely his fault. In fact, when looked at as a whole, Orton’s 2010 statistics seem to describe a decent to slightly above average quarterback on a bad team. Which is exactly who he is.

It is even more convenient to use cherry-picked stats to denigrate a guy while at the same time extolling the virtues of his back-up through reliance on his intangibles.

Tebow’s biggest fans always point to his intangibles; his leadership, his will power, his work ethic, his holiness. Mostly because of his lack of stats. Even in college, his stats, outside of touchdowns scored, were never great.

I agree it isn’t fair to grade Tebow on his shortened performance at the end of last year but to ignore Tebow’s mediocre stats (50% completion percentage, 82 QB rating) and anoint him team savior while also digging deep into Orton’s stats and some anecdotal memories of ugly failures last year to damn Orton is the height of hypocrisy.

Stats can be used to make or refute any argument. Especially individual stats in a team game.

Forget all of the angst about the starting quarterback for the Broncos. Find a running game and a defense and I bet that Orton’s 3^rd down, 4^th quarter and red zone stats ‘magically’ revert to his career averages.

But then I am sure that the Tebow disciples will find some other stats to argue for Orton’s demotion.

Mark Twain would hate being in Dove Valley this fall.

Sunday evening I spent a couple hours watching the living dead.

No, not the zombie TV series The Walking Dead.

I’m referring to the Broncos.

Although, as lifeless as the Broncos were during their pathetic, depressing loss to the Cardinals, it may be hard for many to find a difference between this team and the zombies that inhabit the TV series.

In fact, as dead as the Broncos players look these days, the team may be more competitive if they did unearth some corpses and throw them out on the field.

At least the stench may slow the opposition’s offense for a few minutes.

In the first game after the ouster of coach Josh McDaniels, the Broncos showed no rebound like other teams playing under interim coaches. They actually might have been worse, if that is in fact possible.

There are major changes coming to Dove Valley this off-season with a new head coach. Not just in the coaching staff (though there is little reason to keep any of the coaches outside of the underrated virtue of stability) but among the players.

Ignorant fans blame coaches for a lot but in the end, this is a game played by grown men. If their 6, 7 or 8 figure paychecks aren’t enough to induce any kind of effort then you would think that at least some sense of pride would keep them playing. But that isn’t the case with the Broncos this season.

They are Dead Men Walking.

Unfortunately the first to fall will probably be Kyle Orton. No thanks for being the sole reason this team has won any games at all this season, Orton has become the easy scapegoat after three dreadful performances in a row.

It was confirmed by those in the know that he hasn’t yet missed practice time due to injury but something clearly has changed with Orton. Where once his accuracy was his best attribute he is now throwing in a manner best described as downright Carson Palmer-ian. He skips simple pass to his receivers. He zips balls over the heads of backs on short dump passes. He overthrows deep balls by 5 yards.

If there isn’t a physical reason for Orton’s suddenly erratic play, there is one other obvious reason that any Bronco fan should be familiar with.

Plummer Disease.

A season after guiding the Broncos to the AFC Title game, Plummer’s game fell apart after Mike Shanahan drafted Jay Cutler. Plummer could never concentrate on just playing as he had one eye constantly on the bench waiting for Shanahan to bang the gong and yank him in favor of young Cutler.

Plummer made it to game #11 before getting the hook for good. After the season, he retired to the mountains of Idaho with his ex-Bronco cheerleader wife and plays handball.

(Not a bad trade-off, if you ask me, but it doesn’t help the Broncos)

The Broncos missed the playoffs that season and have yet to produce another winning season.

This year Orton came in as the clear #1 QB. Yet, in an off-season that saw the Broncos draft Tim Tebow in the first round and trade some useless running back named Peyton Hillis to the Browns for former #1 draft pick Brady Quinn, it was only a matter of time until one too many mistakes would bring chants of ‘Tebow’ from the cheap seats.

Despite some of the best stats in the league Orton increasingly became the focus of the fanbase’s anger thanks to too many mistakes late in games. This in spite of his play being the only thing keeping a team with no running game and a defense that only showed up once a month from being winless. In week #11 (see a pattern?) at San Diego, Orton had one good drive and that was the end. His next two games have been abysmal.

By the 3^rd quarter against the Cardinals, Orton looked like a soldier after a heavy fire fight. He had a vacant expression on his face and a 1,000 yard stare.

Orton is a goner.

While, I personally think Tebow will be a failure as an every down quarterback in the NFL, it is his time, if for no other than crass business reasons. There is nothing that will bring Broncos fans to Invesco for 2 meaningless home games to end the season. The only thing that might is Tebow mania.

I can’t pretend to understand the hold Tebow has on football fans. Anyone that has watched much of him and knows anything about football has to have serious doubts about whether he can succeed in the NFL (Woody Paige is not in this group. Whether he hasn’t actually watched Tebow or doesn’t know anything about football, you decide). But the fickle orange and blue fan base that haven’t quite gotten over the Super Bowl wins a decade ago, see Tebow as the answer to their problems. If you don’t know better, you look at his winning record at Florida and imagine him as the obvious heir apparent to John Elway’s legacy.

Popularity may not be the best reason for making a quarterback change, but for the Broncos they have nothing to lose at this point. Orton has lost it mentally – he is a half step from retiring and moving to the mountains of Idaho himself. If the Cardinals can start John Skelton at quarterback, the Broncos can start Tim Tebow.

At least that way, when they lose and their quarterback plays poorly, Broncos nation will have no one to blame but themselves.

The most famous story about Jesus Christ was his resurrection 3 days after his crucifixion. It may be too late to ask his younger brother Tim to resurrect the Broncos season, but maybe he can at least resurrect a few of his teammates and in the process resurrect the most important thing for any football team’s fans.

Hope.

Summer is the time of grilling. There is no better way to spend a summer evening than sitting on a porch drinking a cold beer and grilling meat. At least until football starts. Then you can drink beer, eat grilled meat and watch football.

While eating grilled meats is one of the great joys in life, there is one part of the summer ritual that might be even better. The first whiff of the meat starting to near completion on the grill. The smell of ribs or barbecued chicken smoke coming off of a grill is one of the great things in life. And one of the 189 reasons I could never be a vegetarian. The smell coming off a grill is so dense and rich it is, as my 5-year old niece might say, like lunch for your nose. It also represents anticipation.

An old Jerry Seinfeld joke was about how being ‘next’ in a line is the greatest, how it might be better than actually reaching the end of the line. You are the envy of everyone standing behind you and you aren’t yet forced to deal without whatever nuisance awaits you (DMV, grocery store clerk, passport control). It all comes down to anticipation. You are close enough that whatever you are waiting for is nearly there yet you aren’t thrown into the mix just yet.

Which is exactly what the first weekend of pre-season games is to the football season. It represents our first taste of football after a long, hot summer in the purgatory known as baseball season. It isn’t quite the real thing, but it is the best reminder yet that the season is about to start.

While it is human tendency to overreact to the first pre-season games, we should all bear in mind how little pre-season has to do with the regular season. Remember last year when Kyle Orton threw 3 interceptions in his first game and then didn’t throw another until week #6?Not only are starters only playing portions of a game but you have players learning a new system after the draft or an off-season trade. Anyone expect that if the Colts and 49ers play in the regular season the 49ers would again win 37-17?

But, there are also things that can be learned if you look closely enough. So, after sitting through at least portions of 4 games over the weekend, here is what I learned:

- Let’s start with the Broncos. First and foremost, if anyone mentions the possibility of anyone other than Kyle Orton starting at quarterback for the Broncos this season, that person should be immediately dismissed as a complete moron and probably kicked in the nuts as hard as possible to reduce the chances of him reproducing. If that was a quarterback competition for the Broncos, then Brady Quinn and Tim Tebow were Angola and Croatia while Kyle was the 1992 Dream Team . Orton was poised and showed a strong arm leading the first string offense to 2 touchdowns against the Bengals starting defense. Brady Quinn was what he has been since he entered the league – lost. I have never thought much of him, and last night’s display (against Bengal back-ups) re-enforced that opinion. A pick-six and a couple three-and-outs.

- As for Tebow, well I think we can put away the Messiah name plate for now. He also looked like what he is: a rookie trying to learn to play a new system. He completed some short passes when he didn’t need to sit back and read the defense, he struggled when blitzed, and when all else failed plowed over some dude that won’t be a Bengal in three weeks for a meaningless touchdown on the final play of the game. On the bright side, he did throw a nice deep pass that was dropped by Matt Willis but that throw as with others showed the throwing motion he spent the off-season trying to get rid of. Not a good sign.

- As I tweeted though, at least he has a bunch of fat UF girls now cheering for the Broncos.

- In short, he is a raw rookie trying to refine his passing motion while also learning how to become a pro quarterback and read more complicated defenses being played by better athletes than he has played against. You know, exactly what he is. He isn’t a God. He isn’t a The Greatest Player Ever. He isn’t even the best rookie on the Broncos. He is just a guy with a freaky, obsessive following that more than overshadows his actual skill. Sort of like Justin Bieber without the cool hair.

- If you are a Bronco fan, forget about OLASTT and focus on issues that could actually impact the team this year: the running game. Both for and against. The first string Broncos offense almost didn’t even try to run. Presumably (by which I mean hopefully) that was due to all of their best running backs being out of action rather than an admission that there will be no running game this year. A 5^th string running back behind a patchwork of journey men and rookies on the offensive line isn’t the best indication of what the Broncos could be. At least let’s hope not. I don’t care how good Orton looked, he can’t be asked to lead the Great Show on Grass this season.

- On the other side of the ball, the Bengals moved the ball between the twenties pretty easily in the first quarter, especially on the ground. For a defense that went out and got a bunch of huge run stuffing linemen, they sure gave up a few runs right up the middle early. If it wasn’t for a Herculean effort by Champ Bailey on 2 deflections and a tackle, the Bengals would have done a little better in the first string battles than losing 14-0.

- Moving on to other games, I watched a doubleheader of mediocrity on Saturday night. First, the Bucs and Dolphins played in a bog and played like whatever creatures live in a bog. Two bad offenses were not helped by the muddy infield at Buffett-is-a-sell-out Stadium. If this was a scouting game for my fantasy team, the best I can say is that I really hope I don’t draft any players from either of these teams. Let’s just say that Brian Hartline was one of the starting receivers for the Dolphins. Do you need to know any more than that?

- The second half of the doubleheader was the Seahawks and Titans from my second hometown. This was mostly a back-up fest, outside of an opening drive in which the Titans marched down the field against the Seahawk defense, scoring nearly as easily as a team playing the Mariners. On the positive side, for the Seahawks Matt Hasselbeck didn’t get hurt. On the negative, Julius Jones didn’t get hurt.

- Probably the biggest news for the Seahawks was the competent play of big off-season acquisition Charlie Whitehurst, probably the 2^nd biggest career back-up pick-up in the NFL this spring (Brady Quinn finally wins something!). Whitehurst played fine; he put up some stats and scored 2 touchdowns against the Titans back-ups. Which is great, I am sure Seahawk fans are thrilled. They will be decidedly less thrilled however if Whitehurst is asked to play that much in any regular season game.

- On Friday night, I watched bits and pieces of the Redskins trouncing of the Bills. This was notable for 2 reasons. The first is that the Redskins featured former Bronco Ryan Torain at running back. Who always looked really promising in preseason at Dove Valley and would then suffer a devastating season-ending injury. I’m pretty sure he made it through this game in one piece thought. The other note was the dominance of the Redskins. Of course, I remember the first pre-season game of another Redskins head coach when he destroyed an opponent and the Steve Spurrier era didn’t exactly turn out so great for Skins fans.

So what did we learn, if anything this weekend?

Well, we learned that football is so near we can almost smell it.

Sunday, the only NFL story in the Denver Post on yet another slow football news day was at least the fifth of what projects to be approximately 1,437 articles to be written about the Denver Broncos quarterback situation this offseason. This article was a relatively even handed look at Kyle Orton and whether he should retain his starter status with chronic underachiever Brady Quinn and Our Lord and Savior Tim Tebow behind him on the roster.

NOTE #1: The wife actually refers to Tebow as ‘He who shall not be named’. Not willing to go that far (if for no other reason than it is a long phrase to type every time I need to discuss him), I will henceforth refer to Tebow as OLASTT. Why? See above.

The article’s objectivity stands in stark contrast to the civil war brewing in the Post sports section between the Tebow partisans (led by perennially tanned, Around the Horn participant Woody Paige) and the Quinn supporters (captained by Mark Kiszla, who is probably a little jealous of Paige’s TV time and presumably even more jealous of his tan).

NOTE #2: In my imagination the rift will be resolved in an Anchorman-esque duel in Civic Center Park, escalating quickly until Jim Armstrong kills Dave Krieger with a trident.

The article goes as far as to offer the scenario that Orton will be traded, leaving the Broncos the nightmare-inducing prospect of Quinn and Tebow battling for the opening day start. This got me to thinking: why does everyone hate Kyle Orton?

Now I am sure there are people that hate Orton for very THH-ish reasons – stridently anti-neck beard types or alums of whatever school would consider Purdue a major rival (Indiana maybe? If they still have an athletic program – I should check that) – so when I ask that question, it isn’t about Kyle specifically. More importantly, I am trying to figure out why quarterbacks like Orton always fail to inspire loyalty in fans and more importantly teams. As with most things in football there is clearly only one man to blame.

Peyton Manning.

Orton is an athletically limited quarterback, who doesn’t have the strongest arm and will never date super models. Yet, he has been consistently successful in college and the pros with less than top-shelf talent around him. Orton’s final season at Chicago he went 9-6 yet was shipped out for big armed (and big egoed) Jay Cutler, who proceeded to pout his way through a 7-9 season – yet another non-winning season for him (continuing a truly impressive streak dating back to high school).

Orton never looks flashy. He will never set a single season touchdown record, no matter what his receivers do. He just limits his mistakes (He threw 5 interceptions through 10 games last season, which was equaled by Cutler in one game). Surround him by capable skill players, a solid offensive line and a decent defense and your team will succeed.

Yet from the moment he arrived in Denver, all of Broncos nation has been looking to find his replacement. Why?

Because he isn’t Peyton Manning and it has been drilled into our heads that you need Peyton Manning to win in this league.

However, if you really look back at the last decade, what you see is that you are just as likely to win a Super Bowl with a Kyle Orton as you are with a Manning or Brady.

Manning, despite his commercials and fawning press coverage has one Super Bowl win more than Orton. In the last ten years, Peyton has won as many Super Bowls as Brad Johnson or Trent Dilfer.

You can point to Tom Brady as well as another swaggering quarterback single-handedly leading his team to a Super Bowl. But that forgets that his three Super Bowls were won with ball-control, balanced run-pass attacks? The Patriots league passing yardage ranks in their Super Bowl winning years: 2001 – 24th; 2003: 15th; 2004: 17th.

Yes, Brady now owns probably the greatest single season a quarterback has ever had. But he lost the Super Bowl that year. To Eli Manning. Who had 247 yards in that game and a 73.9 quarterback rating that season. Orton’s rating was 86.8 last season.

Ben Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl as a second year player. But that was years before he became a sexual predator and pass-first stalwart of my fantasy team. In that Super Bowl he passed for 123 yards. Relying on Jerome Bettis not-fumbling, Willie Parker still being fast, a stout defense and helpful officiating crew to win.

Even the Saints wide-open style of offense isn’t a product of Drew Brees’ huge talent. It is a product of the large number of weapons and Brees’ smart decision making.

We like to say that the NFL is now a passer’s league. While that is true, it isn’t a downfield, Air Coryell-style league, despite what the Crypt Keeper…I mean Al Davis…thinks. Passing today is a more refined version of the West Coast offense of short, yardage- eating passes. A truly successful offense combines that with a multi-headed, multi-dimensional running game. It doesn’t take a big arm and charming smile to win in that style. It takes smart play and safe decisions.

Let’s face it; there aren’t a lot of Mannings and Bradys out there. Heck, there is even one Manning out there that isn’t a Manning – if you know what I mean. A team seems to have a much better chance of success by finding a solid quarterback and surrounding him with talent (see: Flacco, Joe; Rodgers, Aaron; Sanchez, Mark).

A team that sells it soul looking for the next great quarterback is much more likely to end up a loser than a dynasty.

Just look at the news from the past few weeks to see the folly of trying to find the next, great quarterback.

J.P. Losman (Bills franchise savior), long since abandoned by Buffalo, signed as a 4^th option in Seattle.

Brady Quinn (Browns franchise savior) is given up on and shipped to the Broncos. Replaced by human turnover machine Jake Delhomme. Delhomme is seen as an improvement by Browns fans who don’t have the NFL package and didn’t watch the Panthers last year.  

Jamarcus Russell (Oakland franchise savior) cut.

Jay Cutler (Bears franchise savior) sets single OTA interception record (this is conjecture).

Jason Campbell (Redskins franchise savior) shipped to Oakland.

Alex Smith (Forty-Niners franchise savior) loses starting job to homeless junkie from San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

Whoops, sorry that last one is next week’s news (Spoiler Alert).

All of these team’s have been consistently bad over the last decade looking for that one great quarterback to come in and save them.

All except when the Bears concentrated on a running game and defense; won two division titles and went to a Super Bowl with Rex Grossmann at quarterback.

That other division title season also featured a young quarterback named Kyle Orton going 10-5.