A Eulogy for the Denver Broncos

An ode to the Denver Broncos’ ill-fated 2020 campaign.

It hurts because it is designed to hurt. There is one winner, and 31 losers. This year, my team is one of the losers. The Denver Broncos’ season is over. 

The Broncos are not going to the Super Bowl this year. They aren’t going to the playoffs either, and frankly, they weren’t all that close. It is just another season where the Broncos weren’t good enough to take that next step. They haven’t been good enough since 2015, and I’m not sure when that next time will be. 

The system is set up this way. No team is supposed to be good all the time. As a kid, I didn’t understand this. I sat in my room, drawing crayon vignettes of the Broncos winning 5, 10 Super Bowls in a row. I didn’t know the game, that it is not designed to support this. Your team will be good for a while, and then, after you have had your fun, it will be time for you to be bad again. The Broncos were good in the first half of the 2010’s – they won the Super Bowl! But now, it’s the Broncos’ turn to be bad again. 

This year was cursed from the start. Courtland Sutton tore his ACL. Jurrell Casey tore his bicep. Drew Lock never developed. Worst of all, our favorite son, Von Miller, dislocated a tendon in his ankle. Our leader, the face of our franchise since that glorious day in Santa Clara, was lost. He may never play another snap for the Broncos again. 

Despite it all, we battled. While the offense ground to a halt against Tampa, the defense kept its honor. We wrestled the hated Chiefs and took them to the brink in Arrowhead. And when our quarterbacks were stricken by The Almighty Virus, we offered up poor, valiant Kendall Hinton to New Orleans as sacrifice. They smote his ruin upon the grass at Mile High, and we gathered up his bones and held vigil by candlelight. 

We were not without our heroes. Shelby Harris spritely batted many a pass into oblivion, Justin Simmons anchored the secondary with grace and aplomb, and newcomer Jerry Jeudy twisted our enemies into pretzels, only for our signal-caller target the opposition instead. These men defended the dignity of our franchise, and will not soon be forgotten. 

We did not lose to the Jets. 

As the Broncos stumble to yet another losing season, many have begun to lose hope. We cry “fire Fangio!” forgetting his exquisite defense, “fire Elway!” forgetting his recent draft success. “Give Drew Lock more time,” we yell for some reason, forgetting that he will never be a franchise quarterback. The fans are not used to losing so much. The Broncos have not had such a stretch of futility since the mid-70’s, and most memories do not reach back that long. It’s ok. It is just the Broncos’ turn to be bad. 

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It is designed to hurt. Only one team gets to hoist the Lombardi every year, which means that 31 do not. The 2020 Denver Broncos are simply another product of the Loser Machine, which doles out ecstasy and misery in unequal portions. Welcome to the NFL, where every team believes it has a shot, and only one will truly be satisfied. Unrealized expectations beget pain. 

But would it really be worth it to be that one team at the end of the season, the one that has all of their dreams come true, if you didn’t endure the pain that came before it? 

Here’s to next season. Go Broncos.