By now the excitement of Super Bowl 50 may just be a bit of a memory for most of you and you’re back in the saddle gearing up for a work week. But if you’re part of ‘Bronco Mania’ you may be (a) nursing a hangover, (b) trying to get your voice back, (c) still savoring the sweet taste of victory with your office mates or (d) all of the above.
Denver has a complicated love affair with its Broncos and their appearances in Super Bowls. Sure they’ve been at least 8 times but as Phil Simms likes to point out it, the Broncos stumbled into the playoffs and had only won twice before yesterday (can anyone explain why that guy hates the Broncos so much and manages to remind me of his disdain every. single. time he calls any of our games?).
Denver is nuts about this team…I mean really nuts as in crazy insane to the point where most are convinced that God loves the Broncos because of the the bright orange sunrises and sunsets we’re known for in the area. People get tattoos of the logo, paint their house & dye their hair a garish shade of orange, and other stuff like that.
Denver has been the laughing-stock of the NFL over the years and the butt of many a late night joke (the team wore vertical stripped socks back in the 60’s-gah…who does vertical stripped socks?!) and embraces and encourages the phenomena of ‘Bronco Mania.’ Not many people gave us much hope at winning this game against the Carolina Panthers who had the best record in the league, and yours truly was at the front of that line. While it is just a game, it seems to be something far more important to many Bronco fans. Not sure if its my competitive streak or the city insanity that grabbed me by the throat at Super Bowl time since I’m not nearly as rabid during the regular season but it was very apparent yesterday (surely some of you can relate to what I’m talking about?). Sam clearly sensed my distress and tried to console me in his special way to put things into perspective. I only began normal breathing in the final couple of minutes. Don’t ask me if I recall any of the commercials or halftime entertainment. I was way too keyed up to have anything memorable stick although the Heinz Weiner dog commercial did make me smile.
Yesterday we finished packing and organizing all of Wayne’s things to be shipped back to Denver and now that Super Bowl #50 is over, we can now breathe a sign of relief and relax our achy muscles. Personally I had expected the Panthers to wipe the field up with the Broncos but was surprised they managed to pull off the upset…the defense showed its spunk and got win #200 for Peyton and the city will bask in the fact that its beloved team won its third Super Bowl. There was tons of jeering, cheering, screaming and gnashing of teeth on my part (e.g. ‘sheesh, guys…will the offense ever score??!!’). As Sam doesn’t deal well with loud voices, he tried to calm me down by doing his ‘therapy thing’). We’re heading back to Denver tomorrow to try to avoid bad weather so keep us in your thoughts that we make it without being blown to kingdom come through Nevada and Wyoming again. Happy trails, sports fans-here’s wishing you a super week!
Live, love, bark! <3