Fair warning up front: this column is light on football. It is heavy on personal thoughts and interests. The first point of coverage is hockey. I constantly get into my all sports interests and have mentioned the inclusion of the Colorado Avalanche. Rooting interest in a Denver team is odd for a CHIEF’s fanatic, but I’m not entirely normal. The truth is that I actively root for 3 Denver area teams in the Avs, Rockies, and Nuggets. I was 12 when the Rockies had their first opening day. They were an expansion team in the National League, and the Royals were in the early stages of becoming MLB’s official farm team. I was young, and they were intriguing. My baseball rooting interests include the Rockies, Brewers, and Royals. Again, very odd, but the chances of these teams being good simultaneously are rare.
If I am forced to choose one team, I prefer the Rockies. However, it is essential to note that I have a Brewers plate on my van, and AmFam Field is my most frequent sporting venue visit lifetime. I am a fair-weather Royals fan. Hays, KS is roughly halfway between KC and Denver, so there are many Denver sports fans. This primarily dictates football alliance and determines if hockey is an interest. There are many Bronco fans and some Avs fans, but very few Rockies and Nuggets fans. People from Western Kansas fall into a couple of buckets: farmers and small-town folk. The other buckets are staying small town or farmers and city dreamers. Most of the latter ended up in KC, so I went west. That was the extent of my thought process of moving to Denver.
Not only that, but the Rockies and other Mountain ranges around the country also offer a great opportunity.
My Denver Life
I finished grad school in May 2006 and moved to Denver in August. Did I have a job lined up? Nope. I just went. That all worked out as well as expected, and I almost gave up and moved back home. My high school buddy, Clint, who made the same decision, was having none of that talk and convinced me to stay. We made it work, and I ultimately spent just over two years there. I loved Denver and fully intended on it being my permanent home. Fate had other ideas and sent me to Milwaukee for a job promotion, and I have not left. My favorite part of living in Denver was the proximity to Avs and Rockies games. Rockies games were cheap, and the stadium is next to my favorite LoDo nightlife. Avs games were expensive, but Clint had a family season ticket hookup.
I am eternally grateful to him and his family for the amount of Avs games I go to see live. The Avs share the Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena) with the Nuggets. At the time, the Nuggets had a game day promo of $5 upper-level seats purchased at the box office on game day. The typical arrangement was for one of us to make the trek in the morning, and the other owed a beer at the game. Having seen them so often, I became invested in the Nuggets, and I still pull for them. Like the Brewers, I am partial to the Milwaukee Bucks, so I have 2 NBA teams. My favorite sports writer of all time is Bill Simmons. He calls people like me sports bigamists, which is accurate and fair.
Clarity
I want to make this point crystal clear: my sports bigamy starts with baseball and ends at basketball. There is only room for one football and hockey team at the inn. I enjoy the sport and can enjoy watching styles and such, but I root for one team in each of these sports. Let me quote the Plain White T’s from this song:
Hate is a strong word. But I really, really, really don’t like you.
I have more teams in the NFL and NHL that I hate than ones I can stand. Bill Simmons frequently talked about his hatred for teams like the Colts and players like Kareem Abdul Jabar in his columns. He also quickly pointed out that it was sports hate, not hate. I fully align that they are different and harbor a ton of sports hate even though we are rooting for laundry, as Jeff Seinfeld points out. When I moved to Denver, many friends, family, foes, and strangers made a comment of this nature: you will be a Broncos fan living in Denver. My personal history indicates things like that are on the table with me. However, those comments about that team offended me and further galvanized my CHIEFS fandom.
The main reason why: I HATE the Denver Broncos. Keep in mind this is sports hate.
Mass Sports Hate
I hate that team with every fiber of my sports-watching being. That team is always good, has ripped my heart out, and has horrible fans. Bronco fans as a collective are loud and proud, smart enough to debate, but also smug sufficient to make me want to light them on fire. My geographic residence in Denver has always ensured I have a ton of Bronco fans in my life. Many of my best friends in the world root for that team, so I hate the sin and love the sinner. The past 4-5 years have been great. Most Bronco fans have been quiet as the Mahomes era smacked them around. Unfortunately, the direct lead-in to this benefit included Denver winning a 3rd Super Bowl. Super Bowl trophy #3 is the one I want the most, and that was always the case.
Number 3 is when the whole conversation flips to appearances, and that conversation is easy to diffuse by pointing out that second place is the first loser. The great thing about being an Avs fan is that Bronco fans also love the Avs. It is a great way to actually connect sports-wise with the lost souls of Bronco country in my friend group. This is similar to how Cubs and White Sox fans get to be friends and bond over the Blackhawks, Bulls, and Bears. That is the actual segue into my next section, but authenticity requires me to disclose something else.
The St. Louis Cardinals is the other team I sports hate on a deep level. Take everything I said about the Broncos and their fans, and then increase the winning and smugness, and that is how I view the Cards. They always annoyed me in a way I couldn’t explain, and then I added the Brewers.
My Hockey Fan Life
Now that I have effectively fired missiles at my fellow CHIEFS fans, let’s talk more about hockey. NHL was not anywhere close to my radar growing up. I don’t know of a single ice rink in Western Kansas and cannot name a hockey fan from grade school or middle school. That all changed in 1995. I was a freshman in high school and beginning to establish the foundations of my grown-up routines and approaches to things. One routine I established was to do my homework in the basement with the TV on a sporting event. For the first time ever, this often meant an Avs game. That was their first season in Denver as transplants from Quebec City, QC. It stuck pretty immediately.
The first step was my eyes drawing to the TV. The second step was understanding the rules. The big entry point was on vs. offsides, and the aha was icing. The final step was becoming invested in the Avalanche. Colorado’s inaugural season ended with them winning the Stanley Cup. They also accomplished that feat by beating the President’s Trophy (most points/best record in the regular season), winning Detroit Red Wings, which is another solid sports hate target. The final straw for me was a sweep of the Florida Panthers. Hooked on the Avs was an understatement. The next few years solidified in the lead-up to the bitter Avs-Red Wings rivalry and were set in stone with another Cup win in 2001.
Hockey Hiatus
Hockey was my favorite sport until the 2004-2005 season. That season did not happen due to lockout and strike, which destroyed momentum. The lost season killed every TV deal, so even though it came back a year later, it was hard to watch. Part of the resolution of the dispute was the reestablishment of the cap, which caused all of the successful teams to lose a star. The Avs lost Rob Blake, which was happening anyway, and also Adam Foote. Foote was hard for me. I no longer recognized the team, and they lost their dominance. My fandom never died, but it definitely suffered.
Falling in Love All Over Again
Fast forward to the current times. Joe Sakic is my favorite player of all time. He was the team captain his entire Avs career and is now their GM. The Avs returned to a familiar place for me a few years ago: contenders. This title run has been building up, and I felt it all year. It had the same vibe as the 2001 season. I knew the Avs were winning the Cup that season when the puck dropped in the season opener. My confidence in this current team was not that high, but I could visualize the path. NHL has its TV game in line these days, so I got to watch many regular season games. I am immersed in the playoffs. It takes 16 wins to hoist the Cup, and the Avs did it in 20 total games.
The other thing that hockey has is the speed and intensity of the play. Hockey has an unmatched pace and drama. I cannot think of anything that gets my pulse up as quickly as hockey. My favorite part of soccer is the build to the score. Hockey is the “on steroids” due to the 10X speed of development. Every game has the feel of the second half of the CHIEFS Bills playoff game. Hockey and the Avs are back in my heart and routine.
Cheers to the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions, Colorado Avalanche!!
One More Random Topic
Football is in the doldrums of happenings and primarily out of the headlines. The times the headlines end up on the front page, the topic is mostly Deshaun Watson related, and I am not spending any time covering that. Here is the extent of my analysis of that situation: it is beyond my comprehension of how we can possibly be where we are. I hope all parties involved throw the book at him if any of this accused stuff is even remotely true. Innocent until proven guilty, but man, these charges are wild. Some of the biggest news this week for me was MLS Related. Global soccer is in the middle of its summer transfer window, where players can change clubs. Big names are moving, and big clubs are grabbing headlines for spending cash. The most significant move for me is Welshman Gareth Bale coming to the States to play in MLS.
Gareth Bale is a stud, and he has plenty of elite play left in his tank. Bale was the man at Tottenham Hotspur when I chose them as my Premier League team. His feature as orange shoes is my favorite moment in this NBCSN ad that announced their TV deal with the Premier League and also launched the Ted Lasso character. Bale left Tottenham for Real Madrid during the 2013 winter window creating my first and most immense transfer heartache. He spent eight seasons in Madrid, winning every team trophy possible. Bale’s Madrid teams won 5 Champions League titles making him one of the winningest players ever. He is also Wale’s all-time leading scorer. MLS has had many stars at mostly the tail end of their careers. David Beckham was the sizzle. Thiery Henry was the talent. Zlatan brought both. Bale is better than all of them.
My CHIEFS Takes
This is a CHIEFS website, so I have to cover them some. My latest player profiles make it clear that I am excited about the D. I am also excited about the offense. The lack of focus on improving the DL is concerning, but the offset in my mind is the extreme focus on rebuilding the WR position. The D loaded up on young, high level, and often mean talent. Mistakes will happen, but the effort will not be lacking. 2022 will be the first chance we have the opportunity to see what Spags can actually do. I have refrained from roasting him because he has been in make-it-work mode. He is now in make it work well mode, and I believe he is up to the task. The CHIEFS know what they have given to the D, and Spags has been a pro taking the criticism.
My favorite thing about the CHIEF’s offseason is the overall harmony. All the talk out of the current training session focus on widespread professional approach and hard work. The leaders are talking up team chemistry and rookie immersion. We remain a long way from a finished, game-day squad, but the work ethic and drive are there. To me, it’s obvious. This team has the potential to be incredibly special.
The only other things to do are wish Mitch Holthus a happy birthday and remember Joe Delaney. Read about Joe if you don’t know it, and check out this interview.
Josh Kingsley – ArrowheadOne