The Denver Broncos have a fantastic record despite let’s call it some uneven offensive play so far. The defense has been terrific (3rd in the league in yards and points allowed per game, and just on pace to set the league’s single-season sack record), which has invited plenty of comparisons to the last great Broncos defense, the 2015 unit that propelled the team to the championship in Super Bowl 50. It’s a fun comparison to make. Recently my oldest son and I watched a really nice recap of that team’s AFC Championship game, historically significant as the last matchup between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. My memory of the game is that Brady just kept coming back despite our defense knocking the crap out of him. He was already considered one of if not the greatest QB by then, but it’s one of my favorite Brady games because of how he never gave up. Anyway, this was the recap, which I highly recommend if you have 20 minutes or so: I’d forgotten just how physical that 2015 team was. I’d sa...
In 2010, I bet a college buddy of mine (who longtime readers may remember as the only other contributor to Hole Punch Sports) that CU’s football team would not win the Pac-12 in the next 15 years. Guess what? It’s time for me to gloat, because I was right. Why we were doomed Back in the day, a lot of people made the argument that CU should join the Pac-12 because we’d get so much more TV money there. Of course, given college football is the answer to the question, “what if you had a sport where multiple teams were like the Yankees, and you created a whole universe of haves and have-nots?”, then yeah, you want to be aligned with some of the haves. But the question in my mind wasn’t, “will CU be better off with more money?” That’s an obvious yes. The question I asked was, will CU be any more competitive in their own conference if they’re competing against teams who are also getting more money? I couldn’t see why they would be. The mathematical angle Legend has it that Cowboys runn...