Turncoat Broncos fans killing our home field advantage

Jeromey Balderrama

MileHigh

Today was a wonderful win for the Denver Broncos, but too bad it was shared virtually half a stadium full of Cowboys fans.  When we got to our seats, we were dismayed to find that half of the section was filled with Dallas faithful.  Looking out over the stadium it became apparent that each section had a sizable amount of Cowboys fans – so much so that it felt like our home crowd advantage was all but eliminated.

Memories quickly returned to the AFC Championship of 2005, when Steelers fan invaded Mile High Stadium.  Armed with their Terrible Towers they turned Denver into a neutral site.  The game ended with those towels flailing around, looking like wasps buzzing all over the stadium. While I went home disappointed about the Broncos performance, I was cursing those season ticket holders that sold the stadium’s soul so they could make a profit off their Playoff Tickets.

The same happened in Denver again today.  A perfect storm was created when you have a team with a large fanbase (the Cowboys), come to town once every seven years, which leaves hungry visiting fans willing to pay virtually any price to see their team.  I don’t blame Cowboy fans for buying tickets, they have a right to go to see their team play.  I do however have a problem with the ticket holders so willing to give them up.

During the drive home someone called into 850’s post game show with “Lou from Littleton” making the same observation. Lou brushed it off, simply saying the Broncos fans need to be louder, and that you shouldn’t blame people for needing to make money during these economic times.  To those as coy as Lou I say this: Yes, Broncos fans could be louder, but it doesn’t help when Broncos fans that are perfectly able to come to the game send visitors in their place.  As far as hard economic times are concerned: if season ticket holders can’t afford their tickets then maybe it’s time to let someone else on the 15-year waiting list step up and take on these season tickets for a change.

I’m not saying that you should leave your <Insert Visiting Team Name> friend out in the cold.  If they want to go to the game, invite them to go with you.  It sounds like I’m splitting hairs, but bringing an opposing fan is a lot different than blindly selling them your tickets.  At that point they’ll likely bring a fellow <Visiting Team Name> fan, cutting the home crowd influence in your seats to 0% rather than 50%.

This may come across as pretty harsh, but if you’re a season ticket holder for your team and won’t be going to the game, the least you can do is try to ensure that fans of your team will take your tickets.  Is that really too much to ask?  I realize there are a few exceptions, but not enough to fill half of the stadium with fans from another team. In the meantime, enjoy your thirty pieces of silver.

Dirty HGH Player vs T.O.

Jeromey Balderrama

Let me get one thing straight: I can’t stand T.O.  My disdain towards Owens has been well documented here and here, so it really messed with my mind when I write a post defending him.  But here I go.

Last Sunday T.O. broke his streak of 185 games with at least when catch, when he went absolutely stat-less against the Saints.  Obligated to go to the Press  Conference, tried to be as short as possible, repeatedly saying “I just go with the plays that are called.”  Owens was pissed, and whether that is right or wrong Rodney Harrison lashed out at him on NBC’s “Football Night In America”, with this gem of a quote:

"He’s a clown. He’s all about the circus show and the cameras, and it’s all about that. But you best believe he’ll have Shawn Springs in his grill and Brandon Meriweather will be putting his helmet down his throat. So I’m excited about seeing that on Monday." [From USAToday]

I think Rodney Harrison is the perfect example why players should have a TV waiting period, or spend a year in purgatory (aka the NFL Network) before they get these National Network TV Gigs.  Harrison has a right to speak his mind, and I’m not going to argue that it should be taken away from him.  However, for him to make remarks that disparaging on “Football Night”, with his national platform, shows pretty poor judgment.  I really have no idea what NBC was thinking when they hired Harrison.  Throughout his career he was continually voted the dirtiest player in the NFL, and he doesn’t seem to have that charisma that other former players possess when they’re on TV.  It seems Harrison is only engaging when other commentators ask him a question, and when he responds it looks like the other commentators are hoping Harrison won’t punch them out.

T.O., through his Twitter account fired back, in pretty hilarious fashion:

"I could less about Rodney Harrison! Anybody tht using steroids, yes STEROIDS rodney, is a cheater & cheated the game! … Is tht Y u used steroids b/c u were worried about ur stats or ws it b/c u were losing it? Lol! U’re a loser & a cheater? Got any steroid … Hey rodney! Send me sum steroids 2 the Bills facility next week!" [From USAToday]

Owens is talking about Harrison’s 4-game suspension for using HGH in 2007, which was a pretty classic response.  How did Harrison fire back? By completely ignoring the Steroid fact:

"When it comes down to it, I’m a champion. He’ll never have that on his resume. He’ll never be a champion. He’ll look at his stats and say I was a great football player, but I was never a champion. You always have to stand up and be accountable for your actions. As a football player you have to be accountable. Regardless of whether you had 10 catches or zero catches.” [Dan Patrick Show]

Classy Rodney, in the same phrase that you completely ignore the HGH comments, you talk about need to be accountable for your actions.  As much as it pains me to say it, T.O. looks like the guy on top of this one. It was great that he followed up that phrase by demonstrating that he’s more of a Patriots mouthpiece than he is a studio analyst.

With these analysts booths growing as large as they are, is it too much to ask to put some kind of standards in choosing who they put in front of a national audience?  Give players a year or two to get out of the player mentality and shift towards a better analytical contributor.

New Greenfoot Gigposter – Signatures Night Club

Jeromey Balderrama

I know what you’re thinking (especially at 11pm on Friday night), if I was already going to break my daily blogging commitment.  Well fear not, faithful reader.  I was crafting a longer post regarding sports commentators, but I’ll make that Saturday’s post.  My wife and I left immediately after work to Copper Mountain, here for my brother-in-law’s wedding reception.

Aside from the travel and family time, here is what was keeping me from blogging this evening – a new Gig Poster for Greenfoot’s show at Signature’s Night Club next weekend:

poster-20091010

I decided to go with something that looked a little more simplistic, yet attempting to be eye catching.  The specs of black and white on Jake’s shirt and guitar are meant to be more abstract rather than me not coloring them in.

Yes, I realize that I’m not in the poster. Aside from my hesitance to have my face plastered across Denver, I thought that vectoring the drum set would have added too much noise to the poster.  I would definitely welcome any feedback!

Hey, if you’re in the Denver area and would like to spend an evening listening to great music, come out and check out my band on Saturday!  Get all of the details here.

The Chicago Olympics – why I hope we’re out

Jeromey Balderrama

Voting is taking place as I write this, so by the time you read this my points may be moot, but let me just say this: I hope Chicago doesn’t get the 2016 Olympics.

You may call me unpatriotic, but hear me out: I enjoy watching the Olympic games. My wife and I rallied around the TV every night last year to cheer on athletes in these sports that we normally don’t care about.  It was a fantastic experience, and made me appreciate the Olympics at its best.

Now fast-forward to today, in Athens, which hosted the 2004 Olympics.  After all of the romanticism of hosting the Olympics in Greece, all of the effort Greece went into putting their best foot forward – now five years later are left with decaying buildings that nobody uses and covered with hoodlum graffiti.

The Olympics at their best represent world unity through friendly competition, but you also have to accept the Games at their worst – an extravagant attempt to make a buck.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a staunch capitalist, but as a capitalist I must weigh in the production costs with the outcome revenue – and from my perspective shows me that things don’t add up.

Did you see how over-the-top the opening ceremony was last year?  It left me wondering if it would ever be topped. The problem is that future hosts of the Olympics will try to top that, spending countless billions of dollars to build newer facilities and real-time movie effects.  It’s like the Super Bowl: In the end all of the activities and preparations leading up to the event simply just overshadow the actual events.

I don’t mean to get political, but the way President Obama is lobbying for this is equally over the top.  On the wake of Iran admitting they have secret nuclear activities that have been exposed, followed by testing of their missiles, what does the president do? Hop on a plane – not to address this matter with other world leaders – but to lobby the IOC in Denmark for the Olympics in his hometown.  Really? Is this the most pressing thing that we need?  Just so we can build a bunch of facilities and infrastructure whose post-Olympics usage can’t justify their cost.

We’ll see how this pans out, but I won’t be disappointed if Rio de Janeiro gets South America’s first Olympic games.

Watch Out: 31 Straight Days of Blogging

Jeromey Balderrama

Yes you’ve heard it right, today I’m going to launch into the seemly impossible task of blogging at least once per day for the month of October.

nablowrimo3I’m taking part in NaBloWriMo which commemorates National Blogging Month (who knew!) by committing to blog once each day.  With my blogging track recording being as dismal as it’s been over the last few months, I thought this might a good jump-start to getting back to blogging.

What will I blog about – at this point I’m not sure. I’ll try to give an offering in various subjects, mainly offering what modest thoughts I can give to a topic.  I simply may react to what’s going on in in the world that day, and look towards starting a conversation on those topics.  I would appreciate any participation and encouragement by commenting below.  Wish me luck!