For Carol’s 50th Birthday - Prequel to “A Memoir”

This year I sent my little sister Carol a Denver Bronco Jersey and card letting her know I wanted to give her something special for her 50^th birthday.    I'm fully aware she’s still years away from reaching this noteworthy milestone, but I’ve actually thought this one out.  I’ve even told our Mom my plans earlier this month so she can back me up if Carol claims this is just an elaborate ruse to cover up some sort of mental lapse.

 

 

With barely a teaspoon of effort, I can hear Carol’s conversation with Kevin when she opened the package.  “Doesn’t Kelly even know how old I am?  Do you think this may be the initial stages of Alzheimer’s?  I won’t divulge what likely surfaced in Kevin’s rational mind since he’d probably consider  it a breach of confidentiality on par with  insider trading, but he probably  replied in a deadpan voice (For those who know Kevin, don’t deny you’re also  hearing it) with something like, “Carol, I’m absolutely sure Kelly’s mental capacity is significantly better than  it was during his twenties. “  Anyway, I wasn’t the least  surprised when Carol sent me a bubbly Thank You message tactfully letting me know, “I also look forward to wearing it on my actual 50th birthday in a couple of years!!  It will be broken in and really comfy!”  Maybe, Carol should close her eyes and take a small step into her much more mature brother’s wonderful world of wisdom.

 

 

Imagine this.  Carol is wearing the jersey.  Someone remarks, “What a nice jersey, where did you get it?”  Carol replies, “My big brother gave it to me for me for my 50^th birthday.”  Then they utter the words truly going through their mind, “In my wildest imagination, I’d never have guessed you were already 50, How do you do it?”  It’s like a virtual fountain of youth Carol!  Please don’t ruin everything by confessing the gift was just given years too soon.

I could’ve easily just given Carol a Peyton Manning jersey and hopefully she’d of been golden for at least a year or two, but as I stated earlier I’m putting much more effort these days into thinking things through.    I still remember my son Bobby’s devastation when Mike Piazza left the Dodgers many years back.  Still a little boy, he had hard time comprehending how his favorite baseball player in the entire world could’ve ever left his favorite team.  He was to way too young to be faced with the business reality of professional sports.  All it takes is for Kinkos to be closed and suddenly your heart is broken and you’re the proud owner of an obsolete Elvis Dumervil jersey. 
 

 

 

Carol will eventually receive a Tim Tebow New York Jet’s jersey to keep her Denver Bronco’s Tim Tebow jersey company in the closet. I also picked up a Brady Quinn Bronco jersey from the same vender as a backup just in case Tebow gets poked with a hanger and can’t play. I wish I hadn’t been so cheap and spent another $4 for a Joe Montana Kansas City Chief jersey. When I got home, I realized he could’ve been the seasoned veteran mentor Tebow needs to finally get things turned around. I also changed my mind about the extra-large Brady Quinn jersey. I’m going to give it to a friend who’s a “big” Seattle fan. Besides, Carol doesn’t need a quarterback controversy in her closet.

 

 

Selecting number "12" for Carol’s jersey is significant. Even though I like the idea of it representing the fan as the “12^th Man,” it’s just a nice and totally appropriate coincidence. I didn’t want to select an active, recent  or well known player. Using "7" (John Elway) for example, could've ended up being awkward. I’ve included a link showing everyone who ever wore number 12 for the Broncos.   After reviewing the list myself, I'm pretty sure Carol is safe.

http://www.milehighreport.com/2011/3/29/2076832/denver-broncos-greats-by-the-numbers-12-charley-johnson-matthew-willis

*Please note that Gus Frerotte was a Washington Redskin when he put himself out of the game by head-butting the stadium wall in a touchdown celebration.

 

I left home when Carol was still a little girl and never got to know her well. In December of 2008, Carol sent me a story she wrote. Before then, I’d never realized we’d shared our Dad’s passion for Bronco football and her words touched my heart. This is a prequel to her story.

 

Our Dad was a big Denver Bronco football fan. One of his greatest achievements as County Commissioner was putting a UHF tower in Firstview Colorado to provide the entire county with three additional television channels out of Colorado Springs. Previously, our town only had one unreliable channel out of Goodland Kansas. I know television in general wasn’t very important to him and his political philosophy on spending money was to always say“NO!” Anytime he caught me watching TV before dinner, I’d be given a task off his never ending list of chores. While he never came right out and told me, I suspected losing TV reception right in the middle of a Bronco game was the straw that broke the camel’s back and convinced him to support spending a few tax dollars on the project.

I started watching Bronco games with my Dad for a simple reason.  I didn’t have a choice.  We only had one channel.  Even when we did get three more channels, we only had one TV, and the game was going to be on regardless of what was showing on the others.  The Broncos weren’t a good team.  While there was always a glimmer of hope and guarded optimism at the start of the season, it was usually short lived.   The Broncos had never achieved a single winning season in the team’s first 13 years.  I don’t fully understand how being constantly beat down and disappointed can build loyalty and desire, but I soon found myself caring alongside Dad.   By 1972, thoughts of ever making the playoffs or even having a winning season were beyond belief.   Hope was confined to beating a few of the other lousy teams and possibly pulling off an upset or two.

Denver won the first game of the 1972 season, but lost the next three.   The usual demands to fire the coach and replace the quarterback had already started.  I’ve taken a couple of paragraphs from the following link that gets to the heart of the next two games.   

http://www.milehighreport.com/2009/3/27/769891/mhr-s-forgotten-broncos-ch%20

*Early in the second period, Coach John Ralston pulled Steve Ramsey and put in Charley Johnson at quarterback.

“After an exchange of punts the Broncos got the ball back with less than eight minutes left in the game. We weren't much of a passing team in those days and Ralston orchestrated a time-gobbling twelve play drive. Charley Johnson executed it perfectly. With less than a minute to go Floyd Little scored his third touchdown of the day and the Broncos took a 20-16 lead. The fans went wild. Their beloved Denver Broncos were on the cusp of defeating one of the best teams in the NFC. Unfortunately Fran Tarkenton wasn't done. The hearts of the Bronco players and fans were ripped out once again as Tarkenton engineered a drive and scored with seconds left. The Broncos were defeated 20-23.”

Try as I may, I can't seem to recall this game with Minnesota.   Most Denver games were either blowouts (the bad end) or heartbreakers.

“The second elite opponent Denver would face that month would be the hated division rivals, the Oakland Raiders. The Broncos, up until this point, had lost twenty consecutive games against the dirty-rotten scoundrels and their chief henchman in Al Davis, but that streak was about to end. In probably the greatest game the Broncos' fans had ever seen from their team up until that point, Charley Johnson and the Broncos doggedly hung tough with the more talented Raiders all game long, upsetting the eventual AFC West Division Champions, 30-23 in Oakland.

Charley Johnson completed over 70% of his passes and threw for 361 yards and two touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 137.5. It would easily be Johnson's best game of his entire fifteen-year career.”

When the game clock hit zero, Dad leapt from his chair and started dancing a jig.  I’d never seen anything like that from him in my entire life, but I guess I’d also never seen Denver beat Oakland before either.  I guess you have to be a Bronco fan, or at least lived in Denver, to understand our relationship with the Raiders.  Denver lost considerably more games than they won in 1972, but Charlie Johnson, number “12”, finally gave Bronco fans a winning season.  The Bronco’s beat the Raiders and I saw my Dad dance!