What used to be a house of cards has turned into a reservoir

Due to frankly incredible circumstances I missed tonight’s Broncos game, which they won over the Chargers of San Diego 34-23.

Eddie Royal took a punt and a kickoff back to the house, becoming the only Bronco ever to do so in a single game. It’s tough to appreciate how impressive that is. In the ’90s we often saw a stat in the Denver Post’s notes sections saying the Broncos hadn’t returned a kick for a touchdown since 1972, a string we didn’t break until late in the 1998 season. For a franchise with returners as gifted as Darrien Gordon and Rick Upchurch it’s a little surprising that this hadn’t happened before, but congrats to Royal.

Elvis Dumervil picked up his ninth and tenth sacks of the season. I think I’m finally grateful that Mr. Shanahan is out—he would never keep a pass rusher after a season like this.

Anyway, what else did I miss?

Dream the dreams of other men; you’ll be no one’s rival

Yesterday I caught an early rivalry game: the Texas-Oklahoma showdown at the Cotton Bowl. Texas beat the Sooners 16-13 in a close but not great game.

The Sooners were very competitive though they were clearly a little overmatched this year. Sam Bradford went down on another routine tackle and left the game with a reinjured shoulder. I had to wonder yesterday whether the Heisman winner’s best days are already behind him. Landry Jones is doing well considering the circumstances, which should not be confused with doing well, at least compared to OU’s preseason expectations.

As for Texas, I was a little impressed with Colt McCoy’s mobility, and their run game looked very good in spurts, but the defense is clearly their bread and butter. Their D reminds me of other great teams, as Oklahoma has been in the past, with monstrous, athletic defenders who appear somehow bigger than their NFL counterparts.

I don’t count it against the Longhorns that this game was so close; that’s just how rivalries are sometimes. In fact, in this season of upsets, they're one of the few teams with a true shot at the national championship.

* * *

A couple weeks ago I discussed with a friend a topic I’d like to open to everyone: what college teams can a person root for? Do you need a tie to a school and, if so, what suffices?

We were talking about the 2006 Rose Bowl, and I mentioned that among the reasons I was rooting for Texas was that my brother had attended law school there. My friend, a fellow CU alum, cut me off and said that was not a sufficient reason. He further said that he was rooting for Texas because they’re a Big XII school, which is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.

Perhaps because I followed the NFL first, I’ve never much cared for the conference ties that dominate so many college football conversations. Is the Pac-10 better than the Big XII this year? Who cares? I happen to make sweeping generalizations about conferences all the time (the Pac-10 is soft; the Big Eleven is boring), but I see no reason to root for teams I spent all year rooting against. I would never pull for the Chiefs in the playoffs just to bring honor to the AFC West. (Perhaps my friend is just doing the best he can considering Division I football’s absurd “championship” “system”, where it really does matter what people think of your conferencemates.)

College basketball’s a stretch for me, a fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels. I started pulling for the Tar Heels in 1998, mostly because MJ went there and they had an absolutely stacked team. (They didn’t win the title that year. In fact, they choked rather dramatically, so I don’t feel guilty about this at all.) I’ve visited the campus and even requested an application there, which I was too lazy to fill out. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I honestly considered attending school in Chapel Hill. Growing up in Colorado, who else was I going to root for? I did support the Chauncey Billups Buffs, of course, but the whole point of college hoops is March Madness, so you need a good team.

On the other hand, I grew up rooting for BYU football because my parents went there. I was pretty sure I’d go there, too, though as a little kid I had no real idea. But I was a lifelong fan, so it’s not like my fandom was any less pure than anyone else’s. If I’d been a lifelong fan of UNC, would that have been any less legit just because my parents didn't go there? Come to think of it, BYU was only a few years removed from its championship season when I became a fan; I just realized I might have been a front-runner there, too.

CU football I remember liking in a general sense, though not nearly the way I liked BYU. They might’ve been my second-favorite team, but it was kind of a distant second. Our ties to the school were living in Colorado and the fact that my mom occasionally took us up to Boulder to play on Folsom Field, which is even more awesome in retrospect. I definitely watched some Orange Bowls as a kid. I can remember our family staying up together to watch the win (over Notre Dame; how cool is that?) that gave the Buffs the national championship. At the time it was cool, but not Super Bowl XXXII cool. Eventually my brother and I attended CU together, and if they ever win another championship I’m going to lose my freaking mind. Amidst the scandals of the Barnett era the team became a bit of a punchline, but I find myself liking the Buffs more and more as life goes on, for obvious reasons. They’re my one team now, if I can only have one, but it’s amazing to me how long it took me to get there. For some reason, though, the rivalry with Nebraska meant a lot to me for years before the team in general did. That game was appointment viewing long before I ever attended class in Boulder.

I also rooted for Miami football in the early part of this decade for reasons far too embarrassing to discuss publicly. But with Miami, UNC, and perhaps young CU, I think I’ve had the right idea: if you’re going to root for a college team you have no natural reason to like, you might as well sell out and pull for a powerhouse. Contrast this with a friend of mine who moved to North Carolina a few years ago and started promoting what he saw as a rising N.C. State program. He talked quite a bit of trash to me as a UNC fan, which I found patently hilarious, because big-money college sports have all the upward mobility of Major League Baseball. Last season, after the Tar Heels won it all, he claimed to have lost all interest in the sport. N.C. State has a proud history with two national titles, and they gave the Nuggets the fantastic Skywalker Thompson, whose awesome lightsaber-holding likeness adorned the walls of the old Denver ESPN Zone, but come on. College sports are all about the haves.

* * *

The Red River Rivalry was just an appetizer for CU’s win over No. 15 Kansas last night. What can I say, I love watching Tyler Hansen. He’s got a good arm, but those feet! Unlike some young quarterbacks with quickness, his first instinct isn't to run, but to buy time and keep plays alive long after the plug has been pulled. Twice after he purchased some clock his receivers dropped good passes, and I’m convinced they’d just become mesmerized watching him dance behind the scrimmage line. Tight end Riar Geer was able to keep his focus long enough to catch a pass after another great scramble on Colorado’s fourth-quarter go-ahead drive. Hopefully that's a sign of the future. Adjustments will need to be made, but I think receivers will love playing with Hansen.

Kansas, other than their end-of-half sequences, didn’t look that great, and I’m a little surprised they were No. 15 to begin with, though they were undefeated.

CU’s next game is Saturday morning at Kansas State.

The Blind Side

So I’m a little late to the party, seeing as the book came out in 2006, but I just finished reading Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side, a book about many things which tells the story of Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher, who started his first game on the left side of the line Sunday. That’s not only the same weekend I started reading the book, but Oher and I have nearly identical names (his last name rhymes with mine); we’re basically the same guy, right?

In The Blind Side as in the outstanding Moneyball, Lewis combines fantastic reporting and storytelling to touch on a ton of fascinating topics, and in this case they include race, opportunity, and pro football. Like Moneyball, this book changes the way I think about things. In The Blind Side Lewis discusses the rise of the left tackle, sure, but also touches on the careers of players and coaches who changed the game in that direction, like Lawrence Taylor and Bill Walsh. In other words, he talks about the real stars of my childhood, back when football’s legends were actually heroes. (He even drops a very passing reference to John Elway, or specifically to the salaries of his offensive linemen). I found those sections of the book a pleasure to read, particularly the discussions about Walsh, his offense, and the effect it had on the quarterbacks who played for him.

One more point I don’t want to pass by: there is an absolutely poignant quote in the section discussing former 49ers lineman John Ayers that is not only beautiful, but captures why I will always gravitate towards team sports over individual ones. If you like football, and you haven’t already, you have to read this book.

The Nuggets really started something

As I watch the Rockies tie the game up in the first inning tonight and threaten to do more, I can’t stop thinking what wonderful momentum the Nuggets’ playoff run brought to our city. We ain’t quite Boston, but we’re getting there.

(And it’s 2-1, Colorado.) Of course it would be absurd to suggest that Chauncey Billups can really influence that many athletes, even as great as he is, but suddenly the Denver sports scene is booming again, even in vertically-striped socks.

Today I feel it almost necessary to take back every mean thing I’ve said about the Denver Broncos since they fired Mike Shanahan and traded Jay Cutler. Because this year’s team is good. Why, I don’t know. I mean, Mike Nolan, whose biggest achievement in San Fran was wearing those suits on the sideline, is doing a bang-up Joe Collier impression and putting the 3-4 back in vogue in Denver. The defense is awesome. They forced a three-and-out on New England’s first real crunch-time possession and forced a fumble on the next. The offense’s gradual rally was nice, but the defense saved the game.

I can’t explain the why, though. Was it really just a question of coaching? Teams moved the bill at will all of last year. Kyle Orton is putting up very good numbers without actually looking spectacular. And the new coach, now Mr. McDaniels, hasn’t, other than the “Wild Horses” today, tried anything outwardly fresh. But today was, to me, Denver’s most impressive win of the season. They’ve had dramatic wins, sure, but they came off of what were basically broken plays. Last week’s win over Dallas actually had more to do with Brandon Marshall’s freakish strength and agility, but still, it didn’t seem like the kind of play you should score a long touchdown on. Today, though? The Broncos stared down a formidable opponent and beat ’em. No, these aren’t your slightly-older brother’s Patriots, but we all saw Tom Brady spontaneously ignite against Buffalo in the clutch. Today the defense bottled him up, and the offense took advantage of the NFL’s overtime system just long enough to set up a winning field goal. To me, it was a standout win.

Back to the Rockies…

Hansen starting rest of the way?

Tyler Hansen, who lost his favorite red shirt Saturday, will, if all goes well, be starting at quarterback for the Colorado Buffaloes for the rest of the season.

I felt bad for Hansen during the game Saturday, wondering if he was really prepared to play and if he would get much playing time down the stretch this season, or if perhaps he’d been compelled to surrender his year off for little gain. The ESPN.com article shows, however, that the coaches planned this out a little more than the ESPN broadcast crew led us to believe. (Yes, the same crew whose Brad Nessler cruelly suggested we’d learn more about the quarterback controversy by reading the Rocky Mountain News today. Ouch.) Turns out the coaches approached him before the game, and Hansen wanted to play, so it’s all good.

But anyway, the term redshirt reminded me of a cool quote from the man himself, Pat Tillman, that I wanted to share (that whole article is outstanding):

When the coach raised the possibility of a redshirt year that would give him extra time to grow and learn the Sun Devils' system, Pat said, ‘I've got things to do with my life. You can do whatever you want with me, but in four years I'm gone.’

I will take the blame, but just the same, this is not me.

For the record, I like Matt Holliday. He was a key player during the Rockies’ 2007 World Series run. Unless he does something really awful—and wanting more money is not nearly “wrong” enough for me—I’ll always be a fan.

Even if I wasn’t, though, I think I’d still call the reaction to his play last night overblown.

ESPN’s main story right now: “Lost Holliday.” Over on the headlines, it’s: “Holliday’s error puts Cards in 2-0 hole.”

As you’ve probably heard, Holliday misjudged and dropped a low fly ball with no one on last night that would have ended the game with a 2-1 Cardinals victory. Instead, James Loney was safe on second. Casey Blake walked, then Ronnie Belliard singled to drive in the lead runner and tie the game. A passed ball moved the runners up, then another walk, then Mark Loretta singled to win the game.

In other words…a ton of stuff happened to ensure a Cardinals loss. If reliever Ryan Franklin had retired either of the two batters after Holliday’s drop, St. Louis still would have won in regulation. And further, if the offense had produced more than two runs—one of which Holliday created all by himself—they wouldn’t have been in that position, either. Blaming Holliday’s a popular narrative, but he’s hardly the single-handed reason the Cardinals lost.

It’s not just Holliday; it’s Bill Buckner, too, and every other athlete who’s been blamed for a loss. Is it even possible for a player to lose a team game all by himself? Yes, but it’s much more rare than people think. In baseball, you’d almost have to be a pitcher to do it, even though it’s often fielders or Cubs fans who are denounced after tough losses. Even the hallowed quarterback in football can rarely lose a game literally on his own merits. The same goes for wins, too.

Holliday dropped a ball he should have caught and normally would have, and it was very bad for the Cardinals and their fans. But he wasn’t the reason they lost, and he definitely didn’t cost his team the series.