The Target clerk and your aging jock-journalist were chuckling about the preceding customer. An attentive mom was juggling paying for items and caring for toddler. The daughter was fascinated with the keypad most of us, with debit or credit, acquire the stuff we need to survive. The darling young girl wanted a sticker from the clerk, who readily agreed, handing the satisfied lass a prized possession. “Sticker.” said the human in the early stages of speech. Very cute.
So the clerk and I are giggling about this young girl’s cuteness. Then the mood changed quickly. It was my fault. “How’s business this morning?” Beautiful eyes bored into me, “It’s been kinda slow.”
It was the day after the Denver Broncos shocking double-overtime playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Mile High City mood was somber. The unexpected and unwanted had happened. Those united behind the orange and blue were quite blue.
Heck, while walking around the retail giant’s Glendale, Colorado store, I had separate phone conversations with mother and sister about the game. Two ladies living in Kansas City, Kansas were talking about a thriller that left the Bronco Nation wondering, “What the heck just happened?
Played in bitterly cold temperatures on the Bronco’s home turf, the game reminded me of the 1971 Christmas Day playoff battle in Kansas City between the home-town Chiefs and visiting Miami Dolphins. I was a young man in attendance at that game. In what became the longest playoff game in NFL history, Miami kicker Yaro Yepremian ended the drama with a field goal in the second overtime. It had taken 22 minutes and 40 seconds of extra play to decide matters. In comparison, the recent Ravens/Broncos’ game took 16 minutes and 42 seconds. Close.
During these conversations with family members I kept telling them, “Hey, you gotta call our radio show, The Odd Couple, and talk about this” while they poured heart and soul into excellent narrative’s describing the emotional roller coaster ending with Baltimore’s 47-yard field goal. It was an epic game that left most emotionally drained, happy or heartbroken.
A question from sister Sue struck me like a Mack Truck. “Who’s to blame?”
It would be easy to point out the Broncos safety who allowed a ball to float over his head; a veteran quarterback who turned the ball over three times costing his team 17 points; an equally veteran cornerback allowing a young wide receiver to have too many big plays; a talented young linebacker who did not wreak havoc as expected on the opposition’s quarterback; conservative play calling on offense; the officiating. The point is this: the 70,000-plus who gathered, and shivered, inside Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High, witnessed the Broncos underachieving and falling short of their goal.
The odds, of Denver’s victory, before the miracle bomb from Raven’s quarterback Joe Flacco to wide receiver Jacoby Jones, were 98%. That’s what the television screen at the gym the next morning, courtesy of ESPN, reported. The hay was almost in the barn when disaster struck.
Who’s to blame? Just my opinion, but it was collective. Many could have done better to prevent a sudden end to what most thought, for the Broncos, was a great shot of reaching the Super Bowl and securing the franchise’s third NFL championship. Destiny was calling with Manning at the helm and the Super Bowl in the future Hall of Famer’s hometown of New Orleans. There were many great story lines developing before disaster struck.
Kinda like life ain’t it? Things look damn good. The track ahead looks free of debris and full of hope. Then stuff happens and the dream train derails. The aftermath can be ugly. It’s easy to ask, “Who’s to blame?” It might be a marriage collapsing, a job disappearing an illness reappearing. Life throws us curveballs, expected outcomes fade from reality and we’re left with a question. “What are we going to do about it?”
Blame each other? I’m just a simple dude from Missouri but it seems a far more effective strategy would be to rally around each other and try like heck to learn from, not become a victim of, the experience. The venues may change but the strategy is the same. Yeah, whether we’re talking about securing success in sports, life or business, when disaster strikes we gotta rally around each other and encourage one another to move on in productive, not destructive, ways.
It will be interesting to watch how the Broncos react to this adversity. Back in 1996, after the shocking playoff upset loss to Jacksonville, the John Elway-led teams won back-to-back Super Bowls. What about us? No doubt there’s issues in our lives right now challenging our fortitude. Defined as, “strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage.” The noun is easy to say, except for young kiddos like the one at Target, far more challenging to execute.
Fortitude. Let’s live it this week!
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