Winston Churchill wrote that the proper attitude after defeat is defiance. Maybe so, but the ruling emotion after the Broncos’ crushing Super Bowl loss Sunday was utter dejection. Still, let’s not forget what an accomplishment it was to get there in the first place.
We realize there are plenty of people — even in Denver — who find the intensity of enthusiasm for professional football mystifying, even irritating, and wonder how such a sport ever became a civic religion with a secular holiday like the Super Bowl. We admit to being a bit mystified as well, even though we count ourselves among those whose moods rise and fall with the Broncos’ record.
Still, the game of football aside, the Broncos deserve a great deal of credit purely from an organizational point of view. They provide a sterling example of an outfit that refused to accept mediocrity and took radical steps to improve.
After winning back-to-back Super Bowls in the late ’90s, the team entered a period of fluctuating fortunes. A few good years punctuated a lot of mediocre years, followed by a truly awful year in 2010, with just four victories — at which point the team swung into action. Coach Josh McDaniels was fired (actually, 12 games into the 2010 season). John Elway was hired as executive vice president, and lost no time revamping the executive staff, coaching staff and roster, snubbing the obstreperous Tim Tebow lobby while dumping him for Peyton Manning.
The Super Bowl was a letdown, but you’ve got to admire the fact that the Broncos were there at all.
