SB Nation Denver - Features

A New Hope: The Denver Broncos' 2012 Offseason

2012-05-10T14:11:54Z

The Denver Broncos' latest NFL Draft picks might not know a whole lot about the binary language of moisture vaporators, but this draft possibly deserves a '1'.

After what John Elway described as "a very productive meeting," Brian Xanders is out as the Denver Broncos' general manager. I was trying to picture what a productive meeting in which one person loses their job would actually look like. What I imagined was the scene from Office Space where the consultants, The Bobs, were interviewing the high-strung guy.

John Elway: "So you decide who we're going to take in the draft?"

Brian Xanders: "Well, no, you and John Fox do that. But then I tell Roger Goodell..."

Elway: "Do you make the free agent decisions?"

Xanders: "No, I mean, you were the one who got Peyton Manning here--"

Elway: "What would you say ... you do here?"

I can't say I'm necessarily surprised that Xanders is gone, in reading both his and Elway's post-draft remarks I got the feeling that Xanders was being kept out of the loop a little on personnel decisions. Elway spoke at length regarding the players drafted and the Broncos' strategy for trading picks they way they did. Xanders' comments can basically be summarized as, "The draft is when you pick players who weren't on your football team to play on your football team for the next season, which starts in September."

The Broncos won their first division title and playoff game in six years last year, so naturally that means it's time to swap out the quarterback and general manager. To be fair, Peyton Manning isn't available most offseasons. Listen, I love Tim Tebow's drive and those comeback wins last year were a lot of fun. But going from Tim Tebow to Peyton Manning is like going from the Little Engine That Could to, well, Peyton Manning.

It's not a move that isn't completely without risk: Manning is coming off a missed season due to neck surgery. John Fox said he talked with Manning when they were watching him work out and he asked, "Will you be 100% when the season starts?" Manning said absolutely, he would. Which is all well and good, but I kind of feel like Manning's doctor had the best opinion on that matter.

So the Broncos made their biggest offseason move even before the draft started. Speaking of the draft:

Remember that scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker and his uncle Owen meet the Jawas to see what droids they want to get? That scene is essentially what the NFL Draft is. The teams take a look at what's available and consider what needs they have to fill: "We need a linebacker who can play in a 3-4 defense" really isn't any different from when Uncle Owen said, "I need a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators." Then they make their selection and tell the little guy who, for some reason, makes noises like a Chihuahua. (OK, the comparison isn't 100 percent accurate, but still.)

I would actually watch the NFL Draft if it took on this theme every year, with all of the draft eligible players brought in on a huge Jawa sandcrawler and all the GMs wore tunics like Luke's.

They wouldn't even have to always do the Star Wars theme. They could have a lot of fun with rotating different themes. Maybe one year they could do "Let's Make a Deal" where Roger Goodell would say "Alright Colts, you can take Andrew Luck, and he might be great. Or, in my pocket I have three crisp hundred dollar bills that you can have right now." Sure, a lot of people think Andrew Luck is the next great NFL quarterback, but $300 is $300.

One strange thing about the draft is all of the articles leading up to it. Several of these are counting down "The Ten Biggest Draft Busts of All Time" (Should've taken the $300) or conversely, the "Ten Best Undrafted Players of All Time." Look, I understand the need to fill column inches but when trying to build hype, it's a little odd to write articles where you basically say, "You know that thing we keep telling you is super duper important? Well here are some reasons why maybe it isn't so important after all."

Then at the end of the draft you see a bunch of articles passing out draft "grades." I know you need to sum up how each team did in filling their needs, but handing out grades after the draft is pretty much like your high school giving you a report card immediately after you registered for your classes.

And don't get me started on the fans that actually attend the draft. I have no idea what compels people to say, "I can't wait to be there to see who my team picks and watch him ... put on a hat."

Anyway, long story short, I don't pay a whole ton of attention to the NFL Draft. But enough people have asked me how I think the Broncos did, so let me give you a quick rundown of who the Broncos picked, and what their value to the team might be. Fair warning, I don't know a lot of anything:

Derek Wolfe, Defensive Tackle:

Pros: Excellent interior pass rusher who will take pressure off of the already strong pass rushers the Broncos have on the outside of the line.

Cons: May be a bit undersized to be a top-level run-stopper; doesn't understand the binary language of moisture vaporators.

Brock Osweiler, Quarterback:

Pros: Very good arm strength; has all the physical tools to be a top level NFL quarterback.

Cons: Mechanical flaws will take some work to correct; doesn't understand the binary language of moisture vaporators.

Ronnie Hillman, Running Back:

Pros: Very fast, excellent open field running capability.

Cons: Lacks the size necessary to be an effective interior runner; doesn't understand the binary language of moisture vaporators.

Omar Bolden, Cornerback:

Pros: Superb cover corner; has the ability to be a shutdown corner.

Cons: Coming off of a serious knee injury; thinks the moisture vaporators joke is pretty well run into the ground by now.

Philip Blake, Offensive Lineman:

Pros: Thinks Omar Bolden is wrong, and that the moisture vaporators joke is still going strong.

Cons: I really can't think of any.

Malik Jackson, Defensive Lineman:

Pros: Has the design plans of a lethal space station stored in his memory.

Cons: Hardheaded; prone to wandering off.

Danny Trevathan, Linebacker:

Pros: Understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.

Cons: Is so stinking pompous about it that no one wants to listen to him.

Derek Wolfe was the first player the Broncos picked. However, they had traded away their first round pick for more picks later. Whenever a team trades down in the draft I wonder if it makes for an awkward first meeting.

Elway: "Hey Derek, great to meet you. We're so excited to have you join our team!"

Derek Wolfe: "Well if you were really so excited why did you trade out of the first round before picking me?"

Elway: "Hey, have you met Peyton Manning yet?"

One last change of note the Broncos made this offseason: Each player will receive an iPad in which the entire playbook is stored. Which sounds pretty cool. It will also mean that most of the offensive formations will look like various levels of Angry Birds.

I think that was the impetus behind the Broncos signing Peyton Manning and trading Tim Tebow. Elway was studying the playbook and said, "You know, Tebow is like the red bird. He just goes straight at the pigs and can't do anything else. Sure, sometimes you get the perfect shot with him and you get lucky, but most of the time he just knocks into things and falls over. Peyton Manning is like every other bird. Sometimes his passes go really fast. Sometimes they split into three smaller balls and all the receivers catch them. And sometimes his passes explode and blow up all the pigs."

Then Xanders came in and said, "Everything alright, John?"

Elway said "Yeah, everything's great. We still on for that meeting the week after the draft? It will be very productive."

So how would I rate the Broncos offseason? I give it a 1. Which doesn't sound like much, but in the binary language of moisture vaporators, it's actually really good.

Brad Penny Released In Japan, Could Colorado Use Him?

2012-05-08T17:20:39Z

Brad Penny has been released by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks of Japan, and the Colorado Rockies should probably give him a look.

With no Major League offers on the table, former Detroit Tigers starting righthander Brad Penny headed to Japan to play for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks earlier this year. He was given a heck of a contract to do so, too. Four million dollars straight up plus several million more in possible performance bonus', the largest contract ever given to an American pitcher in Japan.

To put it lightly, it never worked out for him. Penny only made a single start for the Hawks and it was a stinker. He gave up seven hits and six runs while walking three. For his efforts, the Hawks have now released the 33 year old.

Very quickly and unsurprisingly, the Major League offers have started up for Penny, according to Buster Olney on twitter.

Brad Penny has offers to be a starter and offers to be a reliever from MLB teams. Will choose soon.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 8, 2012

You'll notice that he didn't name any names, which means that the Colorado Rockies might or might not be in contention for Penny. But do the Rockies need his services? The short answer is 'probably'. The long answer is 'very probably'.

It's not news that the Rockies have one of the worst rotations in baseball right now and are in dire need of a reboot. Sure, there has been bad luck involved but there has been plenty of straight up bad pitching by the starters. It's so bad that the Rockies have called to the farm and brought in Alex White and Christian Friedrich in order to change the landscape. Both very young pitchers, and both guys who have had little (White) to no (Friedrich) experience in the major leagues so far.

Jamie Moyer is a nice veteran presence -- lord knows, he's got enough age and experience to be two veterans -- but the impending youth movement could leave the team without much veteran experience in the starting rotation. And more important than the veteran experience, it's leaving the rotation without proven talent, guys who we know can put good games together.

Enter Brad Penny? He'll turn 34 this month and wouldn't need to do an incredible amount for the Rockies, just provide some stability. He's got the stuff to be at least pretty decent with a 119-99 record and 4.23 ERA over his 12 years of baseball. He's had fairly recent success as well, with low ERAs of 3.23 in 2010 for St. Louis and 2.59 in 2009 in his five starts with San Fransisco.

He's had injury problems in the past, but the risk would be worth the reward if Penny was even worth a couple of wins -- heck, a couple of 7-8 inning games to keep the bullpen rested -- for the Rockies over the next few months as they try and right the ship.

Maybe it's telling that right now, the Rockies would welcome someone in who could be 'at least pretty decent' with open arms.

For more on the Colorado Rockies, check out Purple Row. More on Major League Baseball in general can be found over at Baseball Nation, SB Nation's dedicated hub for baseball.

John Elway -- Just Call Him 'The Decider' For The Denver Broncos Now

2012-05-08T12:00:32Z

John Elway is now clearly the man in charge of the Denver Broncos with the departure of Brian Xanders, former general manager.

John Elway is now fully vested as the decision-maker for the Denver Broncos following Monday's parting of the ways with general manager Brian Xanders. While Xanders held the title of general manager, it was always quite apparent that Elway, as vice president of football operations, had the final say on all moves. With a year under his belt, Elway now seems to be well enough off that he can operate without someone holding the title of general manager.

From who the Broncos were looking at in the NFL Draft to signing free agents, we would all wait for what John Elway had to say, not Brian Xanders. And that's how it should be when someone with a brand like John Elway is brought on board to manage the team out of the darkness. This wasn't to be a move like Dan Marino made back in 2004 and then abruptly quit a few weeks later. Elway was brought in to do in the front office what he did on the field: to lead, to overcome, to win.

And Xanders just happened to be the middle man that got in the way of things running efficiently. Head coach John Fox deals with what happens on the field and Elway determines how the team gets to that point with his roster-shaping abilities (and the streamlined help from Matt Russell and Mike Sullivan). But that isn't to say that Xanders didn't leave a good mark on the team.

Xanders survived through two regimes in Denver before lasting just one year into the current era. As Lindsay Jones details over at the Denver Post, Xanders began his career with the Broncos during the last gasp of the Mike Shanahan era in 2008 as an assistant general manager, moving to full general manager just one year later at the start of the Josh McDaniels hegemony. Then two years later he was able to survive the transition to Elway and Fox. Finally, over a year later, Xanders now finds his run of surviving at an end.

In between that, Xanders has been involved in an operation that has missed on several draft picks (Knowshon Moreno, Robert Ayers and three second-round picks in 2009), whiffed on free agent signings (Justin Bannan and Jarvis Green) while at the same time bringing in Brian Dawkins (2009) and Willis McGahee (2011).

Xanders had to work within the confines of Josh McDaniels, who was the one who wanted Tim Tebow, the one who didn't want Jay Cutler, the one who traded for Brady Quinn.

As we saw once Elway took over, there was never any firm commitment to Tim Tebow. Elway had his vision for the Broncos and it didn't include Tim Tebow. "Let's give Tebow the time and the training to become an NFL quarterback!" we would hear all too often from fans. That is a problem for the New York Jets to deal with now (and they are ready to make Tebow a jack-of-all-trades -- well, at least until Mark Sanchez fails again). But Tebow's departure from the Broncos certainly is a big part of Elway's story.

If we want to place a point as to when Elway was ready to be the decider all by himself, wouldn't it be best to go with the Peyton Manning signing? That was the moment Elway could define himself as an executive. He could get the highest-profile free agent in possibly forever and he did. With swollen hubris, it is the move that will make Elway an immortal as an executive (he's already one on the field) or a crash-and-burn overseer. Remember, there is no backup plan (well, there is Caleb Hanie, and Brock Osweiler -- OK, Elway's right on this issue).

Just as he wanted Tim Tebow to do it, John Elway has pulled that trigger. Unlike Tebow's game-winning touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs, Elway needs to wait a few more months to see the end result of that. Touchdown? First down? Incomplete pass? Bated breath and all that nonsense. . . .

For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Denver. For more in-depth coverage of the Broncos, head over to Mile High Report. And for more news and notes from around the league, visit SB Nation's NFL news hub.

Colorado Rapids Vs. Real Salt Lake - A Rocky Mountain Cup Primer

2012-04-06T15:53:38Z

The Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake play the first of three games against each other this weekend for the right to win the fan created Rocky Mountain Cup.

It's Rocky Mountain Cup week, the first of three that we'll be having this season after two years of the balanced schedule gave us only two games between the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake to enjoy. People talk about the Cascadia rivalry between the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps as though it's the best in MLS - they certainly have a good claim to the title - but for years before those teams made the big leagues the Rapids/RSL rivalry turned into one of the best in the country.

At the center of the rivalry is the fan created Rocky Mountain Cup. For those of you just tuning in, the RMC goes to the team with the most points between the two teams in games played on the season. The Rapids won the first two cups after RSL was formed in 2005 but Salt Lake took it in 2007 and haven't looked back since, winning it back every single year.

Now that both teams have a 'real' trophy in their cabinets (RSL's MLS Cup in 2009, Colorado's MLS Cup in 2010) the RMC has taken a bit of a back-seat as the teams have made legitimate title contentions, though Salt Lake have had the better cup chances including a shot at the 2011 CCL. Still, the Rapids and Salt Lake have had some classics over the years and cup or no, the fierceness of the rivalry doesn't look to slow down any time soon.

Colorado actually has the advantage all time in the series with the record standing at 8-7-7 in favor of the Rapids, but they haven't won a game against RSL since 2009. Since 2010 the series has gone 0-1-3, with two of those ties being last second heart breakers for the Rapids out of winning positions.

Games in recent years against Salt Lake have always been tough, hard nosed affairs with RSL winning or forcing a late draw seemingly every time they played. Under Oscar Pareja's new system in Colorado, the teams have far more similar styles of play now based on possession and crisp, smooth passing. It's that system that has earned RSL the title of 'the Barcalona of MLS'. (Funny, since they stole their name from Barca's rivals Real Madrid. Also, Barca tend to win trophies so that title makes no sense.)

I've hypothesized that part of the reason why the Rapids couldn't beat Salt Lake but one time under Gary Smith was because Smith was focused on a hard nosed, start-and-stop, very wide style of play that clashed with RSL's style. Unfortunately, RSL had the talent advantage in pretty much every game and were able to beat the clashing styles. Trading Kyle Beckerman to Salt Lake still stands as possibly the dumbest trade in the history of MLS, too.

The Rapids will play two away games in Utah this season, giving RSL a much better chance of taking the trophy once again. Under the new regime and in a game against RSL though, we've already seen that anything can happen.

For more on the upcoming Rocky Mountain Cup derby as well as the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake, check out Burgundy Wave and RSL Soapbox.

Reasons For Optimism As Rockies Take The Field

2012-04-06T12:00:25Z

While hopes don't run as high on Opening Day for the Colorado Rockies in 2012 as they did in 2011, there's still the promise of something better than in years past.

A baseball fan gets six months to dream, and six months to watch reality unfold. The dreaming starts in fall, once the turnstiles quit clicking and the tarp settles over the infield dirt for the long winter ahead. With so long to fantasize about what could be, the visions of the season to come grow grander as the days progress. By the time pitchers and catchers descend on spring training complexes throughout Florida and Arizona, even the most cynical rooters of the lowliest teams have allowed the seed to grow.

If the stars stay healthy... if the kids grow up fast... if a couple of our veterans exceed expectation ... if we can lock down the leads we get ...

If you can't believe on Opening Day, if there's not even a fraction of yourself that isn't convinced this can be 'THE year' when your team takes the field for the first time, you may lack the capacity to believe in anything at all. That's what Opening Day is. It is the clean slate that puts last year's pennant winners on level pegging with the cellar dwellers. The dreaming doesn't stop on Opening Day, but the realization eventually arrives that the odds are 29-in-30 you're going to wake up and watch some other team raising the Commissioner's Trophy in October.

One of my favorite lines in the movie Moneyball, a line painfully relatable to anybody who played the game beyond Little League, was what the scout tells the young Billy Beane sitting at his parents' dinner table: "We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game ... we just don't know when that's gonna be. But we're all told."

The baseball season works the same way. Some of us - mostly in Pittsburgh and Baltimore -- are told this is not 'THE year' in May or June. Some get to hold out that hope until the final out of the World Series. But we're all told -- all but the folks who wear the same logo on their caps as the guys dogpiling on top of each other after the season's final game. The trick, then, if you must have that conversation at all, is to put off having to have that conversation as long as possible.

How long are the Colorado Rockies going to give us this year? Last year, it wasn't long, and the cruelty of the Rockies slide into irrelevance was exaggerated by how promising everything felt entering the 2011 season. The 11-2 start to a season that began with grand expectations made the ultimate winter dream -- the dream of a juggernaut stampeding their way to the World Series - seem closer than ever before. Then ... well, then the rest of the season happened. But the greatest thing about today is that today, 2011's disappointment is replaced by the promise of 2012, for however long that promise lasts.

There are reasons for purple-tinted optimism in Colorado this season. Start with the star power of two of the game's best young players, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. Even on the dreariest of evenings, Tulo will make a spectacular play at shortstop, or CarGo will hammer a ball that takes approximately 0.2 seconds to reach the right field bleachers, and you'll be reminded that rooting for players as otherworldly talented and as full of love for the game as those two will make all 162 nights you spend with this team worthwhile.

There are the lions in winter, including the greatest Rockie of them all, Todd Helton, hoping to tack one more .300 season and Gold Glove on the end of his Hall of Fame resume. Michael Cuddyer, Ramon Hernandez, Rafael Betancourt, Jason Giambi, and Jamie Moyer have been around the bend a few times, too. They are the leaders, the ones in charge of showing the team's younger players the way to a brighter future that they may not get to experience for themselves.

There are the kids -- a lot of them, this time around. It's not a full-scale youth movement on the level of 2004 or 2005's Rockies teams, but we'll be watching the first tentative steps in the big league careers of a lot of intriguing prospects. Wilin Rosario has thunder in his bat and lightning in his throwing arm behind the plate. Drew Pomeranz and Rex Brothers are gun-slinging lefties that could be the stars of the pitching staff someday. And in Colorado Springs and Tulsa, the Rockies have a crop of talent that is finally back to the level that it reached back in 2005 in 2006, when the core of a pennant winner was refining their games at the highest minor league levels.

While nobody's tipping these Rockies for a trip to the Fall Classic, nobody should feel very comfortable writing them off, either. Not with a 3-4 tandem as good as any in the game. Not with a bullpen that should be solid, if unspectacular. Not with the chance that the young pitchers might be faster to approach their ceiling than some would expect.

It will be a season where reputations will be put on the line: Tulowitzki's as a leader, the prospect parade as future big league lynchpins, general manager Dan O'Dowd's as a talent evaluator, manager Jim Tracy's as a ... well, as a manager. It's a season where little is certain about the final destination, and even less is certain about the journey this team will take to get there.

It will be fun, and it will be frustrating. Mostly, it will be interesting. And it will not be 2011, which alone is reason to be delighted for the moment when Marco Scutaro settles into the batter's box at Minute Maid Park Friday night and awaits the first pitch of the new season.

It may -- just may -- be 'THE year'. It probably won't be. But that's alright. What I'm hoping for is a year where we can believe that it could be for as long as possible, and a year that shows this franchise the way to many of 'THE years' to come.

Colorado Mammoth Lacrosse -- Hold On To Something

2012-03-28T12:00:29Z

The Colorado Mammoth will surely entertain you if you go to a game of theirs at the Pepsi Center. But there are no woolly mammoth taking part in it. Extinction and all, you know.

Last July I wrote about my first lacrosse experience at a Denver Outlaws game. Afterward, I got an email from a friend who said "We have season tickets to the [Colorado] Mammoth, the indoor lacrosse team. You should come sometime." So I decided to round out my lacrosse education by hitting up the indoor game. And many of you are thinking, "Mike, you're writing about lacrosse again? Does this mean you're running out of sports to write about?" To which I reply, "Shut up."

When I went to the Outlaws' game, it was the Fourth of July and the crux of my hard-hitting journalistic investigation was to examine just how American the game of lacrosse was. Well, the National Lacrosse League took the outdoor sport and Americanized the bejeezus out of it. Swear to God, there is a hot tub full of women in bikinis for no reason whatsoever. I'm pretty sure that's what Lee Greenwood had in mind when he wrote that song.

More Mike Sjerven: Avalanche Vs. Canucks: Antipathy of a Rivalry

Walking in to the Pepsi Center, I was a little bit nervous because I noticed a number of fans carrying vuvuzelas and cowbells, two-thirds of The Most Annoying Noisemakers in Sports Triumvirate. And air horns are easily hidden in purses or coat pockets, so chances are there were a few of those too. This didn't bode well. However, I needn't have worried. Any noise these paltry things could possibly make was soon drowned out.

If Gene Simmons from KISS ever saw the pregame festivities of a Colorado Mammoth game, I'm sure he'd say "Come on guys, show a little restraint." Sure, I was prepared for the highlight video set to loud music, that's industry standard. But do you know what the Avalanche or Nuggets don't have? They don't have a dance team that's brought onto the field on the backs of Harleys. The "Wild Bunch" do their first dance routine before the lacrosse team is even introduced. Then when the Mammoth do take the field, there's so much flame and sparks that I was trying to remember if I'd ever read anything in the news about Astroturf igniting.

The pregame festivities are so unabashedly over-the-top, I was a little disappointed that when the mascot came out it was just a guy in a mammoth suit. I fully expected an actual mammoth to come running out of the tunnel. The University of Colorado has Ralphie, a live buffalo, run across the field before football games, which is cool. But how stinkin' sweet would it be if you had an animal charging across the field that was actually at one time extinct?! An animal that is the closest possible cousin to a dinosaur! (Maybe. I didn't pay real close attention in biology.) I'm pretty sure that if the Mammoth ownership had the means to clone an actual woolly mammoth, they would. Heck, it's probably already in the works now. Then they would strap a harness to him and have him pull out three hot tubs full of hot babes along with a stage with Guns N' Roses playing. And I don't mean the members of Guns N' Roses as they are in 2012, I mean Guns N' Roses from 1992 having been Quantum Leaped into 2012.

The pregame is this amazing and ridiculous blend of cheesy and awesome. I loved it.

The game finally got started after the roadies packed up all of the sound equipment and the dance team was airlifted off of the field. This particular night, the Mammoth were playing (was playing? There were many Mammoth players, but only one Mammoth) the Washington Stealth. Team names are getting lamer in the new millennium. Do you notice how many college teams are named the Tigers? Know why? It's a cool name. The name immediately brings to mind a fierce animal, a powerful force of the jungle. Nobody is ever going to complain if another team names themselves the Tigers. When I think of "stealth," I just picture some of the weirder looking jets the Air Force has turned out. And I guess the only stealth that Washington was going for was jerseys that looked too much like the Mammoth jerseys for a newbie like me.

And perusing the names of the other indoor lacrosse teams, it just gets worse. The Edmonton Rush? Who wants to go watch a team named after the part of the day when traffic is crappiest? The worst one is the Toronto Rock. Someone thought it would be a good idea to name their team after a geological feature. Man, nothing gets me fired up more than thinking about a lump of granite, you know, sitting there. Plus I picture all sorts of dangerous goal celebrations if the fans up there decide the best way to celebrate a goal is to throw something on the field. Seriously, guys. Tigers. Eagles. Bears. Tried and true. Not lame. (Note: My wife just read this and pointed out that the Colorado Rockies and Denver Nuggets are also geological "things." Maybe so. But the Rockies run down the country like a backbone according to Sam Elliot, and gold nuggets are worth a lot of money. My point stands.)

Anyway, when the game got started I leaned over to my friends and asked, "What are the main differences between outdoor and indoor lacrosse?"

"Well for one, the indoor game is a lot faste-GOOOOOAAAAALLL!!!!!"

"Huh. OK, what else?"

"Generally there's more-GOOOOOOOOAAAALLLL!!!"

"You don't say. Anything else I should know?"

"Well the GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL will get GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL with the GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLL in the hot tub."

Spoiler alert, the Mammoth won this one 13-11. Having never played lacrosse, it really isn't fair for me to criticize, but I was wondering what constitutes "good" goaltending. I just imagine after a game, all the teammates congratulating each other:

To other teammates: "good game....good game......good game..."

To the goalie: "You ... did some real nice things out there."

Here's a problem that I had with the scoring at NLL games: Yes, there's a lot of it, which is good -- don't get me wrong. But each goal is accompanied with the same enthusiasm as a hockey goal. Everyone jumps to their feet and the music starts up and high fives all around. Sure, when the Avs score and you jump up you might spill a bit of your beer on your shirt but, hey, you're excited and that excitement is worth that ounce of beer or two. But on a good night, the Avs score three or four goals. The Mammoth scored seven goals in the first quarter. That's a lot of jumping up and spilling. Between quarters I wrang out my shirt, got another beer and decided to calm down some.

If lacrosse is going to have that much scoring, I think they need to tone down the goal celebrations just a bit. A proportionate reaction would be somewhere between the Avs scoring a goal and the Nuggets scoring a basket. We don't bust out the Rock N' Roll Part 2 for every layup at a basketball game, do we? Those games would take forever.

I will say this about the scoring though: It makes the vuvuzelas a total non-factor. People only blow them after a goal and you can't hear them over the general crowd noise and music. I suppose the reason that people at the international soccer games make so much noise with them is that there are such long stretches in soccer without any scoring. They just blow on their little plastic trumpets to pass the time. But the Mammoth refuse to give you any idle time. It's all in-your-face all the time. Picture the episode of Itchy & Scratchy when they introduced Poochie -- if they actually all did make it to the fireworks factory.

Baseball is my favorite sport to attend. Baseball fans will say they love the majestic expanse of the green grass, the deliberate pace of a methodical game. There's time to pause and reflect. Well, indoor lacrosse wants nothing to do with any of that. When you go to a NLL game, there's something going on constantly; be it music, dance routines, t-shirt giveaways (sometimes all three of these things are actually just one thing. It makes sense when you're there). A couple of times I found myself thinking, "Can't they just let them play the game? Can't we just enjoy the game for the game's sake?" However, I think that would be missing the point.

I think the whole point of the Mammoth games is the ecstatic overload, the bacchanalian exultance, the......eh, crap, thesaurus.com just went down. Anyway, you get the idea. Nobody at a Mammoth game ever asks, "Are you ready to have fun?" It's more like "OPEN WIDE, HERE COMES THE FUN!" It's like The Hunger Games with less killing and more Mötley Crüe. My advice is to not overthink it. Just enjoy the crap out of it. Trust me, you'll have a good time. At least until they finish up that mammoth cloning. Then it'll probably be pretty dangerous.

Peyton Manning, The Denver Broncos And The Need For Restrained Jubilation

2012-03-20T12:00:53Z

The Denver Broncos have Peyton Manning, but don't let the joyous occasion blind you to the realities of a 36-year-old quarterback with a history of neck injuries.

It's finally happened. John Elway has made what he hopes will be the signature of his tenure as executive vice president for the Denver Broncos: signing Peyton Manning. He isn't signed yet, of course, but negotiating a contract is just a mere formality at this point. Manning will receive a deal for five years and somewhere in the vicinity of $95 million, much of it placed in the first few years of the deal.

The first years of the deal. That's the big thing here. Bringing in Peyton Manning is a win-now move, obviously, but does anyone really expect Manning to play five more years in the league? He's just four days shy of his 36th birthday. At best I think we can hope for three seasons from Manning. An aging quarterback with a history of neck injuries doesn't really exude confidence of playing five more years

Still, let's be clear about this: Peyton Manning gives the Broncos the best chance to win now. John Elway saw his chance to make Denver his own again and what better way to do it than to bring in a quarterback who will be (and already is) discussed as being part of the pantheon of elite quarterbacks to ever play the game. Manning is a Super Bowl winner and No. 3 in both career passing yards and passing touchdowns. Even if Manning isn't 100 percent recovered from his neck injury, a depleted Manning is still likely to be better than many quarterbacks who started a game in the NFL during the 2011 season.

But it also feels wrong to say that this is a win-now situation. It's a Super Bowl or bust situation, and ultimately it's a no-win situation should Manning never hoist the Lombardi Trophy or at least reach the big game in the next few years. Worst case scenario? Manning's neck injury pops up again at some point during training camp or early in the season and he can never play again. Or maybe he falls one win short of making the Super Bowl.

The big question years from now will be: how do we judge the acquisition of Manning? Anything short of a trip to the Super Bowl leaves the Broncos in no better position than franchise has been the last several seasons. Oh, certainly the image of the Broncos as a winner will be enhanced even if the Broncos make a few more playoff appearances with Manning under center, but if that's all Manning provides it's far too little. (Yes, I'm guilty here of imposing a narrative before knowing the real story while also admitting that we need to avoid the historian's fallacy.)

Be excited about bringing in Peyton Manning. We will have one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history donning a Broncos uniform. But know that the fog in front of the team should keep us in check when thinking about the Broncos' future. Bright it may be, but who knows what obstacles are obscured in front of them?

***

As for Tim Tebow, he now becomes the false protagonist. Ever since Tebow was drafted as Josh McDaniels' guy in 2010, his story in the NFL has been about when he would ascend to a starting role. It wasn't until the final games of 2010 that he had it, but then it was pulled away from him before training camp began.

Yet, Tebow had his ascension five games into the 2011 season, led the team to an AFC West title by way of backing in with an 8-8 record. The story after that is familiar: Tebow plays the savior role when he and Demaryius Thomas connect for an 80-yard touchdown pass to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime of the AFC Wild Card round. But Tebow wasn't able to overcome his struggles in the next game against the New England Patriots, incurring chest injuries.

I'm not here to praise Tebow or to braise him. He was the product of a time and a place for the Broncos. That time has now come since John Elway was finally able to make a move to establish that his new order has finally found its legs (or maybe neck, right?).

Keep him, release him (seriously, who's thinking that), trade him -- whichever one it is, we should thank Tebow for making the Broncos exciting and relevant in a season that almost never happened. Like Rocktober 2007, it was an improbable run, one that defies explanation, but one we'll never forget.

Peyton Manning or Tim Tebow -- it's still Broncos football to me.

For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Denver. For more on the Broncos, visit Mile High Report. Check out SB Nation NFL for more news and notes around the league.

The Real Betrayal In the Ubaldo Jimenez Trade

2012-03-07T21:12:09Z

The narrative of Colorado's trade of pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez has changed from one that questioned the team's move to now pondering why the pitcher felt disrespected enough that he wanted to be traded.

The 2011 season provided a host of miserable moments for the Colorado Rockies, none of which are fun to dwell upon. But the indelible image of a season gone wrong will always be the scene at Petco Park on July 30, when the Rockies sent Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound to face the San Diego Padres despite an all but consummated trade that would send Jimenez away to Cleveland. The clearly-distracted Jimenez labored through an awful first inning, purportedly as the final details of the deal were hammered out off-camera. When the awkward half-inning finally ended, Jimenez began hugging his teammates in the Rockies dugout, his radiant smile turned melancholy by circumstance, and the greatest pitcher in Rockies history wasn't a Rockie anymore.

It was a painful exit, excruciating to watch, and the pervading feeling among Rockies fans was that Ubaldo had been unfairly handled on his way out the door. After a month of rumors that alternately ran hot and cold, the Rockies trading a player as beloved as Jimenez was hard enough. To send him out to the mound anyway that night in San Diego, to watch him struggle so badly, and then to see him pulled after one inning and depart the clubhouse while the game was still in progress - it all felt like salt in the wound. After years and years of fruitless searches for a true ace, the Rockies were trading their homegrown pitching star not even a full season removed from the best season a Rockies hurler has ever had.

Of course, fans were privy to the rumors. And they were privy to the idea that maybe, just maybe, Ubaldo was as responsible for his exit from Denver as the ballclub was. National writers reported Jimenez had grown disenchanted with the Rockies. They said he was upset when the Rockies decided not to restructure his team-friendly contract after the 2010 season, choosing to break the bank for long-term extensions for Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki and deferring discussions about a similar deal for Jimenez until later. But Rockies fans couldn't - wouldn't - believe such a thing.

Ask out of Colorado? Demand a trade? Such a thing seemed out of character for Jimenez, the humble Dominican who lived with his parents and lived a walking distance from Coors Field, the driven star who slavishly adhered to his workout routine, going on an early-morning run through the streets of Atlanta the day after pitching the franchise's first no-hitter. He had worked to overcome a bizarre shoulder injury in the minors, fought through wildness down on the farm, and gradually improved until exploding into the national consciousness with a first half for the ages in 2010. Jimenez seemed to personify the personality around which the Rockies were hoping to build their long-term success.

The trade seemed to make a scapegoat out of Jimenez, who had scuffled badly in 2011 thanks most directly to a loss of velocity and sharpness on the hill. Instead of the confidence which each Ubaldo start brought to the Rockies the year before, the Jimenez of 2011 was a dangerous mixed bag. But Jimenez had earned enough goodwill with Rockies fans that they were willing to write off his loss in form to nagging injuries, and willing to wait as long as it took for that dazzling fastball and six-pitch mix to return. For him to have been traded felt like nothing short of a betrayal. We knew Ubaldo Jimenez, and we knew he didn't deserve to be treated this way.

And then, on Wednesday, a Tracy Ringolsby column on Foxsports.com showed us we didn't know what we thought we did.

In the column, Jimenez admitted that the ugly rumors that Rockies fans were so eager to dismiss out of hand back in July were, in fact, true - that he viewed a lack of a long-term extension similar to Carlos Gonzalez's and Troy Tulowitzki's as a sign of disrespect, and wanted to be traded as a result. More damningly, Jimenez copped to trying to pitch through injury as the season wore on so that he would remain off the disabled list and remain eligible to be traded. Jimenez want the Rockies to move him so badly that he intentionally pitched at less than his best, costing the Rockies dearly as an 11-2 start (accomplished, you'll recall, with Jimenez on the disabled list) turned into a disastrous season.

And on this day, with this revelation, Rockies fans have every right to feel as betrayed as they felt last July - but not by the ballclub they root for. We didn't know Ubaldo Jimenez after all. Jimenez, it turned out, was just as selfish as anyone else, to the point of harming his own ballclub in search of his own personal aspiration, which was to be anywhere but Colorado. He was not, it turned out, the poster boy for character and accountability that we all assumed. The Rockies were not, it turned out, trading away a beloved start - they were trading away a cancer, a player who submarined a promising season for his own team, in the process costing himself a chance to become adequately healthy and have the kind of follow-up campaign that his marvelous 2010 deserved.

The Rockies never took a contract extension off the table. As Denver Post Rockies writer Troy Renck tweeted, the Rockies came to Jimenez in May and reiterated their desire to work something out with him if he finished the season strongly. But Ubaldo's mind was made up - he had been disrespected, and he wanted out. And eventually, he got his wish. And he'll continue to pitch under the same contract, only now he'll do so for the Cleveland Indians. The Ringolsby article says he feels happy, and feels wanted. Maybe he'll bounce back and be the pitcher he was in 2010. Maybe that triple-digit fastball is gone forever and the Rockies sold him at his highest remaining point of value.

One thing is for certain - the events of last July 30 are now recast in a different light. Rockies fans weren't betrayed on that night. They were betrayed in the spring, when a selfish individual put his own interests over his team. And instead of Ubaldo Jimenez standing as an unfairly-chosen scapegoat for a season gone wrong, he stands as further proof of the hard truth that as much as we think we know the players we root for, we really don't know anything about them.

Yes, July 30 is a different memory, now. A worse one.