The Broncos Optimists Club

So ... January 12, 2013.

Is it weird to come back out here tonight, - the night the Broncos lost to the Ravens in the Divisional playoffs at home at Mile High ... (coincidentally nearly 4 years to the day after the last post written here) and write again about why I'm a Broncos Optimist?

Is it weird to not have written anything during the years of McDaniels and his QB hoarding and sad trades and wannabe Belichickian scheming?

Is it weird to have not blogged about optimism and Broncos-mania over the 2011-12 season with the crazy and unbelievable wins from Tim Tebow?

Is it weird to not have come out to this space to write something about the team 'o my heart acquiring a Hall o' Fame QB (Peyton Manning) and dropping the man o' the hour, Tebow?

Is it weird?

Yeah. It's weird, if that's the right word for it, but understandable. I think you'll understand, gentle, quasi-interested optimist. There's a whole litany of humanistic stuff for you to embrace. Plus, blogging got boring. Snap! But back to humanism! We had a baby. Joy! She loves lots of stuff, just like babies tend to do. But it includes the NFL and she is a weekly participant in our annual family football pool (and she has since she was just under 2 years old! Also btw, she won that year. Snap twice!). Life is busy and interesting and crazy. Baby is now 5. Time marches on, but from August to January, it continues to revolve around the NFL, of course.

But also? We lost my mother unexpectedly in October of 2011. We were enveloped by a terrible sadness. We grieved and loved and lost. You have to know that the Broncos are still ridiculously a part of all of that. Two weeks before Mom died, our family was selected to be honored on the field as long-time season ticket holders (since 1960). My 3 sisters and I got to go on the field at Mile High and receive an honorary game ball for our families. It was bigger than any of us could have imagined. And within 10 days, it was a treasured moment that we all were grateful beyond belief to experience. 10 days apart, we celebrated our family's treasure trove of 6 Broncos season tickets and the #112 priority number, and then the completely unanticipated passing of our matriarch, our beloved mother.

Tebow's first win came the first weekend after we lost our mom. Tebow's first crazy win happened October 23, 2011 - just on little Quinn's 4th birthday. We celebrated and threw up our arms in grief and crazy amazement. "Win for Quinn!" We cheered. But it was also a win for us, and our mom. Our mom - a huge Broncos fan, a huge football fan for her whole life, who was still on the fence about Tebow even just the weekend before she unexpectedly passed. We spent most of last season in a puddle of grief and wonderment at the weekly diversion of Tebow and the Broncos' antics. We were amazed and strangely comforted at each and every incredible win.We figured our Broncos angels on the other side were helping the team along, and helping us feel better in the process.

We lost in the playoffs last year. It was ok. We expected that. Tebow was never going to lead us to a Super Bowl victory, right? But the ride was blessedly enjoyable and for us, bittersweet joy. We lapped it up.

I adored and continue to adore the diversion and the hopeful nature of football. Every day, any team can win. That's worth cheering for.

This year, we added Peyton Manning to the mix. Mom never really cared for his playing style. Neither did some of us Optimists. Not all of us, sure. Some have been Manning faniacs for years (ahem, Maureen!?). Others of us (myself included) were not easily ready to embrace the mix of Manning's determined bossiness in the pocket and tendency to get hot under the collar (at his own teammates at times) vs. his obvious meticulous skill and laser-focus on football. This season changed all of us. We saw a Manning who didn't lash out at teammates. We saw a Manning who was patient and talented and who delivered. We all love him now.

Manning helped deliver a #1 seed in the playoffs this year. The whole team was promising and talented. The statistics backed up what Broncos fans always believe, in other words, "We have a GREAT team!" Defense, Offense, talent, talent, talent. Miller, Dumervil, Bailey, Clady, Stokely, McGahee, Moreno, Decker, Thomas. Really, this 2012-13 team is one of the best we've seen since ... the Elway Super Bowl years. (Thank you, Elway. And the Elway as Vice President of Football Operations is a whole 'nother blog post, don'tcha think!?)

But today, we lost. At home. In an incredibly prolonged game. With the 12th man watching, longing, hungering, wailing, and finally mourning. It feels rather Jacksonville-ish, circa 1996, eh?

Can Manning win in an outdoors playoff scenario? Does he deliver the Mile High Magic? What happened to the O-line? The D secondary? Champ Bailey had his worst game in forever during a divisional playoff? WTH!? Can football bio-engineer a perfect team? Can Elway continue to convince Manning that every HOF player deserves the final game Elway managed to attain?

I love football. But tonight, I'm tired of it. I'm tired. The game today was TOO LONG and ended too dishearteningly for me. Dumb football. You take too much of my time.

And yet ... Are we still Optimists?

Yes.

We've always been Optimists. We will always root for our team. We will always wear orange and blue, we will always look at an orange sunset against the blue Rocky Mountains and think of the Broncos, we will always call the stadium "Mile High." We can sing the words to "Make Those Miracles Happen" and "Nobody Does it Better" and think of the '77 Orange Crush team. We stood for hours to celebrate the 1997 win at Denver Civic Center. We cheer the Broncos players who are finally making it into the NFL Hall of Fame. We embrace Elway taking charge of the business operations and we champion Pat Bowlen's long run of being a superior NFL team owner. We look forward to every game - whether we watch it on tv or in the stadium. From September to December, Broncos games are the highlight of nearly every week.

We are Broncos fans. We are the magic. We will be paying attention come training camp 2013. We will tune in and/or attend those preseason games. We'll be following what happens to the Broncos staff and players offseason. And we WILL be at the home opener at Mile High 2013.

Forever, Go Broncos. Thank you for always giving us something to cheer for.