Time to Burn the Flag

Today, I am going to anger a lot of people. I will have friends and family that turn their backs on me for what I'm about to do...and I don't care. No, I'm not leaving my senses and burning the American flag. I'm burning the symbolic flag of loyalty I've hoisted for the Denver Broncos since 1977.

It is finally over. For a variety of reasons you can currently see in the headlines of any sports rag, and for the one that ultimately made my mind up that you can't read. Losing is not the reason, but it doesn't help. 16 of 21 is bad...but I am still a Royals fan, so I can't lay it a the feet of poor play. Taping scandals? Don't say that everyone does it and it's not a big deal because it is. It's silly and cowardly and most importantly happens to be cheating. That's not why I walk away today, either (but it doesn't help).

When I was seven years old, the Broncos played in their first Super Bowl. Red Miller led them there in his rookie year as coach. Craig Morton quarterbacked a steep underdog team that lost to Dallas, but won my heart. As a Wyoming boy, we had no close franchise in any sport to shove our loyalty toward. I distinctly remember that the Casper Star Tribune, pre-Rockies, ran a reader poll (where you mailed your ballot to them with a stamp and everything...bizarre) to see which Major League Baseball team they should cover as the "home town" team. The geographic choices based on distance? Kansas City, St. Louis or Seattle. I voted along with the majority of other Casperites to make it the Cardinals, even though I wasn't a fan. But who you rooted for during NFL play was never in question in my home. Once we snatched John Elway from the Yankees and Colts in '82, my love was sealed.

I've literally taken punches for being a Bronco fan. I went to a Monday night affair at Arrowhead Stadium (Chiefs vs. Raiders) in the mid 1990's with three big Chief fans. As a Donkey lover, I wanted them both to lose, but had to side with the Raiders to get a rise out of my buds. I (not altogether wisely) finished my 5th beer in the parking lot and wagered with them that they could each punch me in the left shoulder as hard as they liked, one time each, for every score the Chiefs had. Derek Thomas had seven sacks and KC scored an NFL record 22 touchdowns according to the X-Rays on my shoulder. It was worth every one of the 14 days I sported that greeple* bruise.

John Elway and Terell Davis brought me to the coveted land I'd always dreamed to visit in '97 and '98. I cried in my living room when Elway held the trophy above his head. I will always contend that he's the best all-around QB to ever play.

But something wasn't sitting right with me then...and it has come home to roost. Literally.

I moved to Kansas City in 1994. That's going on 17 years. My kids were born here. There was no question in our house and no Tribune mail-in contest to determine who to cheer for on Sundays. Its the Chiefs, of course. Except there's me, sitting there in my T.D. jersey, sulking as the other three trade high fives on the couch (last year's season-ending blowout loss to the Chiefs at Invesco). Sometimes I'll walk past the room where they sit and watch Cassel to Bowe touchdowns and enviously stare at them, like a hungry dog under the Thanksgiving dinner table. And they don't give me scraps. "It's your choice, dude", my wife once said to me during a chest-bumping contest they were having in the living room.

Well, Pat Bowlen, I'm mailing in my ID card. I'm sending back my badge. I took the jersey to Goodwill. I'm burning the ratty old flag with the big orange D in Times New Roman with a snouty white Mare poking though it.

I'm sorry Denver. I always loved you, but you've given me to the ultimate reason to love something...it's right in my living room.

Tomorrow, I'm taking the family to the Chiefs/Broncos game at Arrowhead. It's going to be extrememly cold and positively hard to hear-yourself-think-loud. I'm going to do something I've never done before. Eat seven hot dogs before noon.

And then I'm going to root for my hometown Chiefs.

Don't try to argue with me or call me a bandwagon boy. The Chiefs are rising, and they have a chance to make the playoffs for the first meaningful time in forever, but that's not what this is about. Even if Denver fired McDaniels tonight and Elway came out of retirement to coach them to six straight wins and an 8-8 division title, I wouldn't go back. If Denver wins by 50 and the Chiefs go ten more years without making the playoffs, they still have me now. It's not about loyalty...it's about loving the ones (fans, family) you're with.

Oh yeah, one more thing...Suck it, McDaniels. Go Chiefs.

*It's that disgusting clotted blood colormash of purple and green. It looks like boogers and grape jam.