Bring on the Patriots! Did I just say that?

f your hand hurts, you’re probably not alone. You are a Bronco fan.

I celebrated my 39^th birthday on Sunday with family and friends at my house watching Denver take on the highly favored Pittsburgh Steelers. What started out as an informal gathering, a few dips, beverages, and pizza, turned into Wrestle Mania 2012. The outcome of the game speaks for itself, but what happened inside millions of homes across the country cannot. I must elaborate.

Picture this: Grown men huddled around a flat screen in one room, 9 maniac children running amuck up the stairs, out the front door, in the back door, while the wives gathered around the island in the kitchen to catch up on all the “He said-She said” stuff around town. Down 6-0 after the first quarter, the room remained intact, and the atmosphere was somber as expected. As the game continued, the mood obviously changed, the blood pressure increased, layers of clothing including jerseys of one #15 became more visible. Strangers became friends and the hand slapping started, and then it became more violent with every offensive drop by the opponent, and the miscues on special teams. The Home team was in this thing. The Fourth Quarter.  By now, plates were not used for the pizza, slices of pepperoni just hung from the beards of many respectful men, runs to the cooler were now perfectly timed at commercial breaks, and the bathroom was just too far and way too risky at this juncture of the game. Overtime. You could hear a pin drop at the moment of the first snap……and then……it began.

Like a scene from Braveheart, men, women and children rose to their feet, running through the halls of the house, screaming and hugging one another. Two of my friends threw themselves through the front window….car sirens went off, the kitchen was on fire, as the dogs dropped from the chimney to join the chaos. Ok, maybe not, but it was anarchy.

The next morning my right hand was bruised from the insane high-fiving, the low-fiving, the “I’m stronger than you” handshake. All part of the magic of what happened in downtown Denver on Sunday afternoon. Regardless of what happens this weekend in New England, I’m proud of what this team has done, not just one man, but what the collective efforts of an organization and its’ members have done.

“There's no substitute for guts.”
-- Paul "Bear" Bryant

Comments

[modeling women]

That scares me a bit. I wonder what exactly it is.