So apparently Broncos fans are all redneck hillbilly ranchers who can’t drive to save their life.  Thanks, NFL.

At least that commercial got one thing right – you’d have to go to a bar to watch the game, as chances are you don’t get NFL Network at home.

“I Hate Tim Tebow”

I Twittered those words last night, sitting in a rain-soaked Mile High Stadium finally fed up with the 18th series of boo’s coming down and the 10th chants of Tebow that started no sooner than halfway through the 2nd quarter of the first game of the 2011 season.  So I posted the following to Twitter:

I hate Tim Tebow – and it’s because of all you jackasses at this game that chant his name. What about him drives you to boo your own team?

So I rang that bell – and I can’t un-ring it. Since then I’ve engaged in some Twitter discussion with Tebow supporters – some of them friends & family – about my comments and what spurred them.  While I can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube, I feel like I need more than 140 characters to explain what I said, and why I wrote what I did:

“I Hate* Tim Tebow**”

* ”Hate” is a strong word, but it’s important to understand Sports Hate vs. Real Hate.  Because of the affiliation nature of sports, you have the ability to hate a player for what they do on the field, or you hate that they’re on a team that you rival.  You don’t hate the person personally, or want anything bad to happen to them or their family – you just don’t want to see them do great in sports at that moment.

** In the case of Tim Tebow, I don’t have a problem with Tim as a player or as a guy. He’s a charismatic athlete who has found success in a conventional game through unconventional ways – it’s easy to understand why people gravitate to him and root passionately for him.  At the same time, Tebow has (unintentionally) bred an aura of mal-content and distrust amongst Broncos fans against the coaches, management and team in general.  Over the years as we have watched the team suffer some fallbacks, it seems that fandom has taken a turn for the worse.  Once unconditional supporters, Broncos fans have now become fickle, ready to turn on their team with a series of boo’s after every bad play.

This is nails on a chalk-board for me.  There are very few exceptions, but generally you should never boo your own team at home! Last night when the game started, I commented to my wife that there was a great sense of energy in the stadium that hasn’t been felt for some time – that all lasted all of 1.5 quarters, when the boo’s rang down amongst the stands after an interception was thrown.  A steady stream of boo’s persisted for the rest of the game, much like the rain that fell throughout the night.  The boo’s then degenerated into chants of “Te-bow, Te-bow” throughout the third and fourth quarter.  In the storied South Stands, fans started to turn on each other, with one fan profanely ripping into a guy for saying Orton should get the benefit of the doubt.

I hate to say it, but last night the Raider fans showed more class towards their team.  It was no surprise that they egged on Broncos fans that chanted for Tebow.  Why not root for the continued fracturing of fanbase of your rival?

I realize Tebow didn’t ask for this (at least not directly – Tebow has no shortage of endorsements, public appearances, and has written memoires at the age of 23).  Tebow didn’t ask to be drafted in the first round. Tebow didn’t ask to play for John Fox and John Elway.  Tebow didn’t ask to sit on the bench while his team is struggling – I get all that.  What I don’t think Tebow fans get though is that putting him in isn’t going to solve all of your problems.  John Fox and his staff have forgotten more about football than most fans know.  As fans we have a right to second-guess the coaches, but in the first game in the first season: the coaches deserve the benefit of the doubt. They feel Tebow isn’t the right guy to play in this situation, we should accept that.  If you don’t agree with that – fine, then don’t cheer Orton – but to boo the guys that put their health on the line to ultimately entertain you – that’s classless.

The problem I have with Tebow is that his presence is turning a segment of Broncos fans into Tebow fans, who couldn’t care less about the state of the team.  All that matters to them is to see their guy play. Nevermind the other 44 players on the team. Nevermind that Tebow is currently the 3rd-string QB after a training camp where he seems to have regressed in his performance.

Orton shares in some of the blame for last night’s loss, but there’s plenty of it to go around. Orton didn’t make the running backs anemic in their 38 yard performance. Orton didn’t commit 6 holding penalties on the offensive line.  Orton didn’t drop passes.  Orton didn’t let the Raiders rush for nearly 200 years last night.  Tebow is not going to make all of this better.

I realize that I’m extremely fortunate to be able to attend home games, and that there are people far more deserving than I that don’t get to go, but it’s not fun going to the games anymore – not because we’re losing, but because being completely infatuated with a single player, the fans have lost sight in what it means to support their team.

I thought that the Jets/Steelers game was going to be the one to watch, but it turns out Bears/Packers was a more compelling game. Not only was it closer at the end, but it was packed with tons of drama. You have CSU’s own Caleb Hanie leading the Bears from a 14-point deficit and putting them in a spot to win the game. While I began the game rooting for the Packers, I thought a bears win would have been incredibly compelling, if anything for the 2 weeks of distractions this QB situation would cause.

As a football fan I’m extremely grateful for the sacrifice the players make, just so that we can be entertained, and I do feel bad when a player is injured.  I don’t know the workings of Jay Cutler’s body, and when he says he’s injured, I have no reason not to believe him.  At the same time, players need to understand that the perception of a situation can be worse than the situation itself – and this one of those cases.  It’s one thing when fans are questioning his toughness, but when you had players on Twitter (one of the many reasons why Twitter is so compelling) questioning his toughness, it apparently moved Cutler to tears when he found out.

The issue isn’t whether Cutler got hurt. We’ll out find out in the next day how bad the injury is, which will lead to vindication to one side of the debate.  However, the issue lies with the actions that took place before and after the injury that cause the perception of his injury to take shape.

Before the injury Cutler was playing poorly, and Cutler’s body language reflected his displeasure at the way the game was going.  As much as I hate Tom Brady seemingly berating other players on the sidelines (sometimes for his own mistakes), it’s at least a better reaction than hanging your head and staring at the ground.

Then came the moment that the Bears decided to pull Cutler.  Cutler didn’t go back to the locker room to conduct further tests, nor did he even put an ice pack on his knee. He didn’t put on a headset or try to huddle around his replacements when the came back to the bench. Cutler simply sat down, by himself and stared at the ground the rest of the game, completely disengaged.  At that point, I think Cutler would have better served himself being off the field or even out of the stadium, at least he could use the "we’re looking at the injury" excuse.

Again, I’m not going to question the guy’s heart. Only the training staff knows the severity of his injury at the time, and only Cutler knows how he felt during the game. Unfortunately sometimes in life, perception can be more important than the actual chain of events – and I think to many Bears fans (as well as Cutler critics), the perception speaks volumes.

I’m sorry Bears fans, you guys had a good run.  As crazy as Denver’s QB situation is, I’m just glad that Cutler’s no longer a Bronco. Denver has enough controversy already.

I’ve been bummed about the jerseys ever since they switched to the blue in 1997.  Of course the new uniforms brought about some Super Bowls by coincidence, but it’s time that the Broncos right things and switch back to using the beautiful orange as the primary jersey color.  No other team in the league embraces orange the way we do (the Dolphins and Bears have orange in their team colors, but don’t make significant use of them).  In face, as Andrew Mason points out, 40% of the league uses blue as a primary color, while almost 30% of them use Navy Blue – same as the Broncos.

I could go on about the convincing arguments about orange, but I’ll leave it to the Pro’s:

• Andrew Mason, MaxDenver.com: Bring Back the Big Orange
• Dave Krieger, Denver Post: Broncos should become agents of orange

I know this isn’t ending world hunger or anything of that magnitude, but this is an easy cause to get around and support.

There are three ways you can support:

• Visit BringBackBroncosOrange.com and sign the petition
• Join the Bring Back Broncos Orange Facebook group to get updates
• Write an email to the Denver Broncos public relations at public.relations@broncos.nfl.net – or better yet, write them a letter at: Public Relations Dept., Denver Broncos, 13655 Broncos Parkway, Englewood, CO 80112

I don’t mean to complain, but there is one thing that’s happening at Mile High that just drives me crazy – how nuts people go about Tebow.

I realize that many Tebow fans have probably never been to an NFL game, or even watched football – so let me offer a tip: When the home team is on offense, you shut up! The minute he steps onto the field people start cheering as if we scored a touchdown and don’t stop until the play is over.  I was fine with giving a pass in the Jets game when Tebow took the home field for the first time in a regular season game, but the crowd goes bonkers every freaking time!  What’s going to happen when Tebow comes in for more than one play – start defensive cheers?

Tebow fans: calm down. He knows you love him, but there’s no need to make his job harder for him.

Mark’s right, the NFL is being very hypocritical, sitting on Mt. Pius and leveling hefty fines against players and now threatening suspension.  It was surprising to me that Schlereth has more an issue with the fines than he does with the suspensions, especially considering that NFL player fines are donated to charity.  Also, when a player is suspended, do they not receive a game check for that week – so you’re they’re still getting money taken away from them. I wish Schlereth would clarify that point.  I also think that there’s some built up reprehension in his statement for the mistreatment of retired players suffering health conditions (and rightfully so).

I’m pretty much lock-step with Mark here, but the only issue I take is that he’s rallying behind James Harrison. Please Mark, rally behind anyone but Harrison, who called his incoming fines “travesties” and then went on to say that he’s out to hurt players.  He goes on to explain the different between “hurt” and “injured”, except he said this right after two players he tried to “hurt” could no longer play because they’re “injured” – Harrison has a pretty crappy sense of timing and when to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.  And to cap all of this, Harrison is now threatening to take his ball and go home, not exactly the most mature way to participate in this debate.  It’s not like this is a momentary lapse in judgment for Harrison, as two years ago he justified bailing on the Super Bowl White House trip because Obama’s not a Steelers fan.  Politics aside, if you won the championship in your sport, you go meet the President – that’s just the way it is.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting week, with many more NFL legends weighing in the current state of professional football.  Remember this was all started by Rodney Harrison calling the kettle “black” on Sunday Night Football. Stay tuned.

All last week the Broncos org was pushing “Orange Sunday”, as the Broncos wore their alternate orange jerseys, and thus wanted all of the fans to wear orange as well.  They actually had a rally on Larimer Square on the Friday before the game.

I’m all for promoting home team enthusiasm, but I have a problem with “Orange Sunday”: that the Broncos need to christen a special event to wear orange and encourage their fans to do the same.  In still bothers me to this day that the ditched the orange jerseys in 1997.  I hate that they had a distinguishing color that really looks striking when a stadium full of fans, and decided to chuck it all away because some marketing guy thought blue would match more clothes.

Why can’t every home game Sunday be “Orange Sunday”?  If the Broncos themselves are so unwilling to do that, the fans should step up and don the orange – especially because you can get away with donning hunter orange.  I am now so envious of a team like the Chiefs, where the stands are a sea of red – that used to be Denver, and it should be again.

Also a note to all the Tebow fans at Mile High: I’m happy to see him come into the games as you are, but can you please shut up when he enters the game?!?  For crying out loud, we’re still on offense at home. Mark Sanchez had to deal with less noise.

Lastly, even though we’re down 2-4, after going toe-to-toe with the Jets and outplaying them – I like the Broncos chances, especially when you consider that they still have 6 games against AFC West opponents.

It’s still funny to see this build-up reprehension against LeBron. Not longer than a few hours after the announcement, owner Dan Gilbert tarred LeBron in a letter on the front page of their web site – using the  Comic Sans font! For those without a designer’s eye, Comic Sans is the web equivalent of crayon.

Crayon-writing aside, the letter is definitely worth a read. Gilbert likes to put words like “King” and “motivation” in quotations, many of them very unnecessarily so.

However nothing tops the front page of The Plain Dealer out of Cleveland.  The best part is the little arrows pointing to his ring-less hand.

So we’ll see where all of this goes. It seems like overnight three superstars 2 superstars and 1 gravy-train have seemingly changed the landscape of professional basketball, forming a Yankee-like evil empire.  We’ll see how long it’ll be before they win any championships.  Any predictions?

Apparently there were a lot of big soccer stars in this video, but all I could say was "Hey that’s Kobe Bryant & Homer Simpson!". Go check out this write up though to get all the details on this awesome video.

Update: Looks like Vimeo somehow took down the video, so I found the replacement on YouTube.

This makes you wish they’d still suit up and play. I don’t know what was more classic: the interview itself; or the fact that Ron Zappolo, who is missed sports staple in Denver, interviewed them.

Quick Reaction: Even though we’ve grown tired of Bill Belicheat’s hoodie (which has also spawned Josh McDaniels taking that tradition to Denver), it seems that another coach has decided to join this exclusive club of fashion-insensitive coaches: Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays coach Joe Maddon (Maddon, not Madden):

Maddon’s hoodie however, has caused much more controversy, since baseball still insists that baseball managers need to wear the same uniform that their batters and pitchers have on.  Yes, they may be permitted to wear a team coat if it’s cold, but certainly not a hoodie.  All that changed this month when MLB Brass decided that Maddon wearing a hoodie would not ruin the tradition of the game, and reversed their original ruling.

Belicheat, inspired by Maddon’s courage, decided to send him a Patriots hoodie.  However the story didn’t specify whether Belicheat chopped off the sleeves before he sent it.

This story reminds me just how ridiculous it is to see these middle-aged & older men wearing these baseball uniforms as if they’re going to step into the batter’s box.  This makes as much sense as having Josh McDaniels or Mike Shanahan strap on some shoulder pads, or George Karl putting on some baggy shorts.  I’m glad baseball’s loosened the reins a bit for cold weather gear, but they should really relax these rules for all games.  Maddon admitted he didn’t want to wear a shirt & tie, but it’d be nice to see these managers in a nice polo or something.

Back in 2007, when the Rockies were on their historic hot-streak, we went to the last game of the season.  This turned out to be a pivotal game, which required the Rockies to win and the Padres to lose, which led to that 1-game playoff for the Wild Card.  The atmosphere was amazing, and being a loyal Broncos fan I turned to my tailgating kit to help us prepare for this game.  We brought out our well-used grill to cook some steaks, when we were approached by stadium security (who was an off-duty police officer). I was shocked to find out that Tailgating at Rockies Games are not allowed!  The officer was really nice about it, and even made an editorial statement to the effect of “I don’t agree with the rule, but I need to enforce it.”  He let us finish grilling our steaks, but made us put our tailgating equipment away.  Sure that security had it wrong, I turned to their web site for the definitive word, and sure enough tailgating is not allowed:

Tailgating is not permitted in any Rockies operated parking lot. Persons may not consume alcohol in the parking lots, including inside their vehicles.

There are a lot of high expectations for the Rockies this year. Most analysts say playoffs are a given for the Blake Street Bombers, with the possibility of going deep into October.  Rockies Management: do your part to make sure that your talented team have the passionate fans they deserve – allow tailgating for at least some games.  It doesn’t have to be all 80 remaining home games, but at least the big ones: holidays, fan-favorite rivals, the inter-league games, and the late September games – that’s all we need.

It’s not like tailgating at baseball games are unheard of. I went by the Padres ballpark a few years ago, and they had a whole parking lot devoted to tailgating – sound familiar Broncos fans?  I find it funny that if you do a search for “Rockies Tailgating” you’ll find a ton of product licensed by Major League Baseball, yet you’re not allowed to use it next to their stadium.

Seriously Rockies Front Office, let’s bring Tailgating in some form to Coors Field. If you need to rope up part of the lot and charge a little more, so be it.

If you don’t follow college football, here summary: The BCS is a computer-based system that creates the official college football rankings based on a complex set of stats (# of wins, conference position, strength of schedule, etc).  The results are used to determine who will play in the national championship game.  The problem with this is that many times teams with 1 losses have been placed in the championship game, while undefeated teams get shut out.  This year is especially contentious, as there are 6 undefeated teams, but the BCS has pretty much come out and told TCU, Boise State and Cincinnati that they have no shot for the championship game.

With the success of March Madness in College Basketball, combined with the fact that Division 2 & 3 football have a playoff, it’s puzzling why College Football hasn’t adopted a playoff system. One of the popular playoff alternatives is "the Wetzel plan", which puts together a criteria for a 16-team playoff.

Earlier this week, I saw the story in Deadspin how the BCS has employed a new PR firm, whose first actions was to establish a Twitter and Facebook presence in this Social Web World.  This makes enough sense, but they’ve committed two serious errors in judgment: 1) Forgetting that they’re a controversial and much-despised, and would likely have more critics than fans; 2) Actually engaging their critics by baiting them into debate, without fully participating in the conversation.

Hilarity ensues: For the past few days, it’s been a fun game to do a search by the BCS’s username: @InsideTheBCS and see them make a straw man claim, then watch their critics go to town on them without any response.  Check it out below:

What’s been great is that the critics have actually been presenting good arguments.  There are a few personal attacks here and there, but for the most part the responses have been well-reasoned (for as much as you can be in 140 characters or less).  The problem is that @InsideTheBCS doesn’t really respond to any of the valid points, it pretty much continues to make their contentious, canned responses that they’re given phrased differently.  They do respond to some users, but mainly when they have the canned answer in their wheelhouse.

Let this be a social media lesson to brands/organizations, especially unpopular ones: Unless you’re willing to engage in an authentic conversation with your critics, then controversial groups should probably stay away from social media.  Having your PR Firm running this interference is only hurting you in the court of public opinion.  Worse yet, it’s banding your enemies together.  While I’ve always hated the BCS, I really didn’t care much about this issue until three days ago – when it became entertaining to have this conversation.  Something tells me that the people doing PR for the BCS are having a very lousy week.

Wow EA, talk about ballsy.  Is it not enough that Madden is the most popular sports franchise of all time, and that suckers like me continue to shell out $60 each season for the equivalence of roster updates?  Now you’ve resorted to showing me ads on the game that I paid for that obstruct the game experience?  Thanks jerks!

Look, I’m fine with you inserting ads into the game where it’s realistically done so.  I’ve come to accept the “Sprint Recap”, and the “Snickers Chompion Coin Toss” for two reasons: 1) It doesn’t interfere with my actual game play; 2) Because this is done during regular NFL games and is a sad reflection of the level of sponsorship in the NFL.  The league is pretty bad when it comes to in-game ads, but I don’t see ads streaming across the jumbotron before the QB is going to snap the ball.

Seriously EA?  I understand you’re not a charity, but there has to be better ways to get revenue than this.  Quit killing your golden goose, or before you know it it’ll stop laying eggs.

Someone wrote a guest post on Mile High Report (an awesome Broncos blog, by the way) about whether Broncos Country is for sale. The next day, the Denver Post’s Mike Klis responds in a Mailbag story about someone who posed those same concerns.

If you didn’t see the Broncos/Steelers game on Monday Night, then you missed out on seeing our stadium inundated with those Tacky Terrible Towels twirling around.  The Cowboys have been called “Americas Team”, but several media pundits have suggested that the Steelers are truly Americas Team, given recent statistical fan surveys.  You go back to the formula of hosting teams that don’t play in your city very often, coupled with a large and passionate fanbase as Pittsburgh, on top of that having it on Monday night when it becomes difficult for some fans to attend: a perfect storm of neutrality formed at Mile High on Monday.

Klis actually went to the Broncos COO to get a comment, and they simply responded with “Frankly there’s nothing we can do about it. Our ability to control that is nonexistent and would be illegal to do so” [Denver Post].

He’s right, but season ticket holders: that doesn’t make the act of selling your tickets to opposing fans any less traitorous.

After our original buyer for our 2nd set of tickets was forced to back out, Bethany and I had to put our money where our mouth was and sell the tickets at a loss to ensure that Steelers fans didn’t get them.  I realize that not everyone may be in a financial position to do that, but if you’re looking at your tickets as a profit-making experience, then maybe you shouldn’t be owning season tickets.

I’m just glad that we don’t have any more Monday Night home games on the schedule. I loathe Monday Night games at home.  It may be exciting for the players, and I love wearing my jersey on Mondays when your team is playing, but it sucks for fans going to the game.  First off, you have to make an effort to leave work early just to get there in time.  While you’re driving, not only are you battling “Game Day Traffic”, but you’re now dealing with “Typical Weekday Rush Hour” traffic.  No matter how early you leave, you don’t get any time to tailgate.  I could be wrong, but it seems like everyone working at the stadium on Monday Nights are not the typical people that work there on Sundays – I’m talking about everyone from the bus drivers to concession stand workers.  The experience just seems cheapened.  Once the game ends you deal with traffic, hoping you can get home before the clock strikes Tuesday and you have to be at work in 6 hours (and I can’t imagine how horrible it is for those on Eastern Time). I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful for the opportunity to watch my team live, but I’ll take a Sunday afternoon game over a Monday Night home game any time of year.