Sports

Mile High Turncoats Continued

Jeromey Balderrama

Last month I wrote a post reacting to the number of Broncos season ticket holders that sold their tickets to Cowboy fans, calling them “traitors” and “turncoats”.  Well it may have taken a Steelers game to get other people to notice, but it looks like I’m not alone.

Someone wrote a guest post on Mile High Report (an awesome Broncos blog, by the way) about whether Broncos Country is for sale. The next day, the Denver Post’s Mike Klis responds in a Mailbag story about someone who posed those same concerns.

If you didn’t see the Broncos/Steelers game on Monday Night, then you missed out on seeing our stadium inundated with those Tacky Terrible Towels twirling around.  The Cowboys have been called “Americas Team”, but several media pundits have suggested that the Steelers are truly Americas Team, given recent statistical fan surveys.  You go back to the formula of hosting teams that don’t play in your city very often, coupled with a large and passionate fanbase as Pittsburgh, on top of that having it on Monday night when it becomes difficult for some fans to attend: a perfect storm of neutrality formed at Mile High on Monday.

Klis actually went to the Broncos COO to get a comment, and they simply responded with “Frankly there’s nothing we can do about it. Our ability to control that is nonexistent and would be illegal to do so” [Denver Post].

He’s right, but season ticket holders: that doesn’t make the act of selling your tickets to opposing fans any less traitorous.

After our original buyer for our 2nd set of tickets was forced to back out, Bethany and I had to put our money where our mouth was and sell the tickets at a loss to ensure that Steelers fans didn’t get them.  I realize that not everyone may be in a financial position to do that, but if you’re looking at your tickets as a profit-making experience, then maybe you shouldn’t be owning season tickets.

I’m just glad that we don’t have any more Monday Night home games on the schedule. I loathe Monday Night games at home.  It may be exciting for the players, and I love wearing my jersey on Mondays when your team is playing, but it sucks for fans going to the game.  First off, you have to make an effort to leave work early just to get there in time.  While you’re driving, not only are you battling “Game Day Traffic”, but you’re now dealing with “Typical Weekday Rush Hour” traffic.  No matter how early you leave, you don’t get any time to tailgate.  I could be wrong, but it seems like everyone working at the stadium on Monday Nights are not the typical people that work there on Sundays – I’m talking about everyone from the bus drivers to concession stand workers.  The experience just seems cheapened.  Once the game ends you deal with traffic, hoping you can get home before the clock strikes Tuesday and you have to be at work in 6 hours (and I can’t imagine how horrible it is for those on Eastern Time). I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful for the opportunity to watch my team live, but I’ll take a Sunday afternoon game over a Monday Night home game any time of year.

This isn’t helping in redeeming Soccer

Jeromey Balderrama

I understand that people are trying to validate soccer as an up-and-coming sport in the US, but the New Mexico Lobos aren’t helping soccer’s case with this (hopefully this video isn’t taken down).

Maybe Elizabeth Lambert is trying to challenge Rodney Harrison as the “dirtiest player” (oh wait, Rodney’s retired, so now it’s Hines Ward).

Geez.

MNF

Jeromey Balderrama

I’m probably not making any big posts tonight due to my attention being focused on the Broncos/Chargers game.  Usually I’m able to blog during Monday Night Football, but I’m too focused on this game to collect any thoughts.

As I watch this game, the more I realize how much I loathe the Chargers.  I think there are some teams that the national media becomes infatuated with, maybe it’s due to the supposed level of talent, or a specific player they want to rally behind – but it seems like the Chargers are one of those teams that the media is simply in denial about.  The Chargers have been pretty sub-par for the last two years, yet the media still tries to see them as a Super Bowl team.

Even tonight, when the ESPN pre-game show was going across their screen, they had 3-4 of the commentators going for the Chargers.  Never mind the fact that they’re injured on their offensive line, that Shawne Marriman isn’t the player he once was before he got injured, or that LaDainian Thomlinson has fallen from grace.  Somehow they manage to ignore that and still see the Chargers as the darlings of the AFC West, which they’ve penciled into their playoff brackets.

Media infatuation aside, I also loathe the Chargers because of Phillip Rivers and the way he gets a pass for all of his trash-talking that he does.  He always looks like a spoiled kid whenever they are on top, but if they face a shred of adversity he’s nowhere to be found.

So yes, it was fantastic watching the Broncos win tonight and continue to prove the national media was wrong: both about the Chargers and about the level of play coming from the Broncos.

Does your coach do this?

Jeromey Balderrama

Sometimes when you’re at the stadium you miss some great gems like this. 

We were in the South Stands, too focused on leaving and didn’t notice McDaniels going North this fired up.  Man is that cool.

I know some people may see this and say “Act like you’ve been there before coach”, but I for one am glad to see a coach react the same way that players and fans do after a big win like this.  Earned or not, McDaniels has endured a lot of crap from fans and the media since he arrived in Denver.  He’s done what was unthinkable back in July and defnitely deserved this moment.  Congrats coach, and best of luck being the tar out of the Chargers.

More Baseball Scheduling Thoughts

Jeromey Balderrama

Well the Rockies had a great run and blew everyone’s expectations – especially when you consider that back in the Spring Hurdle got fired because the team was so bad.  I’ll be honest: Now that the Rockies are out of the Playoffs, my level of interest in MLB has significantly decreased.  I did want to offer a thought, more-so an expansion of something I Twittered about last night before fatigue got the better of me.

The Rockies started playing at 8pm on a Sunday night, with the game ending well past midnight.  We’re talking Mountain Time, never mind that we were playing Philly, an Eastern Time Zone team.  Yet somehow baseball doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

Look, I’m not in so much denial about the Rockies’ stature that I believe the team warrants the major prime-time spot, and I am somewhat grateful that they re-scheduled the Rockies game to give Broncos fans the opportunity to watch..  but really an 8pm start time?!?  Baseball can’t get away with the same tricks that basketball and hockey pull – their games are under 3 hours – and an 8pm start time doesn’t work for playoff baseball.

I’ve heard the detractors of my views (and debated with them on Twitter), that I am being selfish and am unwilling to sacrifice a little to support my home team.  Perhaps they’re right, but consider this: Baseball has been in an arguable decline in popularity over the last few decades.  Their die-hard fans aren’t getting any younger, and the only way to build your stature is by getting your product in front of as many potential fans – especially kids – as possible.  It’s pretty hard to that when they’re all in bed.

I’ve stated previously that the NBA is pretty obnoxious about their playoff scheduling, but in the beginning they’re trying to fit in 8 games.  Yet somehow baseball only has to manage 4 games and still finds a way to screw that scheduling up.  Baseball is in a tough spot, but they need to start somewhere and accept a few things.  For one, accept that you can’t avoid football and may just need to compete with it.  If you’re going to play on a Sunday in the fall, you can’t avoid all of their games.  Secondly, you need to make sure you’re on in the afternoons on weekends, the fact that you didn’t have a game scheduled on Saturday afternoon is nothing but a missed opportunity.  Thirdly, if it’s too hard for you to take 2 games each night and alternate nights, then you maybe should accept the fact that the games will need to run on alternate channels.  I know each sports feels their playoffs should run exclusively, but if you can’t manage the 4+ hours your game run then you need to do something.