Congratulations, Mr. Scoreboard Operator.
You have now joined the idiot kicker, Jeff Saturday, Donald Brown, Ronnie Hillman, Julius Thomas, Demaryius Thomas among the distinguished folks who have been publicly chastised by Peyton Manning.
There are Broncos fans across 50 states. They all love Peyton Manning. Pass to pass, he is the most exquisite quarterback who has ever played.
His desire is not just to do things right. He wants them done perfectly. It’s who he is. It’s why he is great.
But sometimes, you wish Manning had a little more Aaron Rodgers in him and he would just learn to R-E-L-A-X.
“I’ve got a problem with our scoreboard operator,” Manning said after he led the Broncos to a convincing 35-21 win against the rival San Diego Chargers on Thursday night. “I’ve got to have a little talk with him.”
Manning was right to jab Mr. Scoreboard Operator. He just should have been less serious. This would have been a time for Manning’s folksy humor that plays so well to a national audience.
“To winners, all behaviors matters,” Dov Seidman, a management expert who spoke at the NFL owners meetings earlier this year, tweeted about Manning and the scoreboard operator.
Mr. Scoreboard Operator is really the Broncos’ director of event preparation and production, and his job description is as long as his title. He wears many hats, including the man in charge of stadium video entertainment on game day. When Wes Welker set a new receptions standard for undrafted players, Mr. Scoreboard Operator had a video tribute cued up from Rod Smith, who congratulated Welker for breaking his record.
Mr. Scoreboard Operator can be seen almost every day in a fast walk at Broncos headquarters, moving from one task to another. He shakes hands, smiles, talks about his family and Joe Girardi.
For before joining the Broncos last year, Mr. Scoreboard Operator worked for the New York Yankees. And that’s where the entertainment wires might have got crossed.
It was clever, but hardly tasteful, for the Broncos’ video screen to show Chargers villain Philip Rivers so the crowd would jeer, then switch to a shot of Manning for cheers. Back and forth it went. Rivers laughed it off, but Manning was right when he said it was disrespectful of an opponent.
It was one of those cheesy tricks you might see in baseball, where the crowd through a 162-game season needs the occasional stimulation.
Manning was also irked at the home fans for making noise near the two-minute warning. They know they’re supposed to shut up when Manning is calling signals at the line, but they’re also supposed to join in the fun when the big screen shows Aqib Talib and his teammates dancing on the sideline.
Again, Manning was correct: Mr. Scoreboard Operator should have known better than to entice fans into noise. But even if it was wrong, does it really matter very much?
Apparently. In Manning’s maniacal obsession with perfection, he couldn’t find anything else to pick on. The Broncos ran the ball well, passed with Peyton precision and played great defense. Everyone is anointing the Broncos after they dominated the San Francisco 49ers and Chargers before back-to-back prime-time audiences.
And so Manning attacked the only flaw of the evening, Mr. Scoreboard Operator. Rivers, one of the friendliest guys in the league, handled it with humor.
Then again, Rivers isn’t as good a quarterback as Manning.
God bless, Manning. The Broncos are 32-7 since he became their quarterback. And Lord help whoever it is that mows the Broncos’ practice fields.
Mike Klis: mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis
