Denver Pandemic
by L. Stewart Marsden
Okay — I bought into it at the very last as well, especially when sports announcers said, with inflection, “So faaaaaar — (wink, wink) — the NFL playoff Wild Card wins have gone to the home team, leaving the only unresolved Wild Card to be determined in Denver, where the Broncos are 8 and 8, losing their LAST THREE GAMES, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are 12 and 4
Teebow. Teebow. Teebow. You kind of get sick of it. I’ll bet the rest of the Denver team got a little more than irked at the attention. Forget the line, the defense, the special teams.
So this little germ of an infection sets in. Maybe with a Denver defensive back. “I’m in the game, too.” And it gets passed onto a linebacker who spreads it to a defensive end, who whips it over to the offensive center, who continues to pass it on to one of the tackles, and then a running back and lo and behold, a wide receiver
The virus has broken out until Teebow himself, bowed with growing self-doubt, catches it, too.
At the end of regulation it’s knotted up. Tied. Even. Deadlocked.
“If the offensive team scores a touchdown, the game is over. If the defensive team scores a touchdown, the game is over. If the offensive team scores a field goal, the defensive team will have a chance on offense . . . ” and yadda-yadda-yadda, says the Referee
Call. Coin toss. Denver wins the toss and elects to be on offense
The twenty yard line. Eighty yards to score or less for a field goal. Denver has a comeback history with gargantua field goals
Steelers are coming for Teebow. Go ahead. Throw. We dare you! Na na na nah-nah!
Demaryius Thomas splits out left and runs a simple post pattern into the Pittsburgh secondary. Teebow drops back, spots his target, and lets fly with a 15 to 20 yard rifle shot that finds Thomas in stride. One stiff-arm and Thomas is on his way to the end zone down the right sideline
End of sudden death. End of Game. End of story.
Or is it? With the ominous Patriots looming ahead in Boston — the team that dismantled Teebow and friends just weeks ago — the chatter will build.
“Teebow will always have this Wild Card playoff victory to look back upon.” RIP, Tebow and Denver. Drop the roses on the coffin.
Once again, Teebow, Teebow, Teebow. Certainly the rest of the Denver team will drift back into their funeral malaise and bow to the tide of commentator wisdom
Bless you, Denver. Did somebody sneeze?
