Week 8 @ Broncos
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I’m writing this from the concourse of O’Hare International in Chicago just after 1230 Tuesday afternoon. I made an earlier attempt this morning from the plane but motion sickness got the better of me and I had to give up 6 words into it. Yes, I’m one of those guys who can’t read or write or watch TV in motion. Boo-hoo for me huh?
I am still on a high from what has been an amazing 24 hours. Well, what was an amazing 15 seconds at least. After sitting nervously, biting my nails and listening to the rubbish some of the Bronco’s fans were spouting, I, least of all anybody in the stadium, expected this game to finish the way that it did. I think about it now and I still can’t believe the sort of night last night was. Isn’t it amazing how the adrenalin from one moment can stick with you for days?
Aside from the game, which I’ll get to shortly, the trip to Denver was special for another reason. My best friend from High School in Sydney was always a big Broncos fan. He and I used to pay out on each other every day over who was the better team. That was back in the early 1990’s. He thought John Elway was the greatest. I used to retort that whilst John was good “he was no Majik Man”. Ahh the Majkowski days. Anyway, long story short his friendship was something that has forever stuck with me because most of the guys that we were in school with couldn’t have cared less about the NFL. With him liking the Broncos I had the one person I needed to make all of this real.
We drifted apart when my family and I moved to Perth for 4 years and didn’t really pick it up when we returned. Either way, the times we shared talking Lambeau and Mile High had finally come together tonight in what was an amazing experience. As I saw the Elway Jerseys, the Elway name on the stadium, the bucking Bronco’s and the words “Mile High” I felt like a kid again. I remembered the days at school, our Pro-Set cards and the way we’d throw a ball whenever we got the chance. Boy that sounded girlie didn’t it?
So the trip, a 27 hour jaunt from Green Bay to Denver started at 8:00 yesterday morning with a cab to Austin Straubel. No big deal I know. Until you realise you have left your cell phone in the cab and you find yourself running like the wind to catch a driver on his way out of the car park. In the end I gave up. I figured it was gone and I was a little conscious of the 40 or so people watching me sprint from entrance of the airport. After waving to the fans, I got back to where I had left my bag, had a second look and low and behold, it was right where it should have been. Crisis averted.
I continued on to get a couple of pairs of gloves, just in case it got cold and one wasn’t enough (bless my non-snow seeing past life) and boarded the plane successfully. I arrived in Chicago, transferred to Denver after a very enjoyable talk with my new friend Dr. Steve and there I was. In one of the newest most magnificent airports I had seen. Complete with trains between terminals this place seemed to have it all.
My mate Don, whom I had met in New York then later in Minnesota, was also going to the game. He was there to pick me up at the airport to make my getting around just that little bit easier. We went back to the Super 8 in Aurora where we collected our things and the journey was on. I love that name Aurora by the way. Are there any Wayne’s World fans out there? Sure they were in Aurora Illinois but it’s all the same to me.
Anyway, we skipped most of the traffic thanks to us leaving so early and made it the stadium not long after the gates had opened. My one regret with the day yesterday was that it was so hazy you couldn’t see the mountains that frame this beautiful city. That was one of the reasons I was so looking forward to the great Mile High. This was long forgotten however when we walked into the car park for the very first time. Low and behold what do we see? Packers car after Packers car surrounding the stadium with their BBQ’s going and beers-a-flowing. If this doesn’t evoke a little Packer pride then nothing will. I mean, this was a Denver home game after all?
Whilst Don, who isn’t one for coming to the game with a ticket, tried to talk his way into one I cruised the stadium premise and took the whole thing in. This place is something else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Lambeau Field but boy what a stadium. It looked great, the quintessential American Football ground so far as I was concerned. It high, it was wide, it was imposing. Easily the best stadium I have been to on the road so far.
After he had successfully talked his way into 2 tickets, I was left to sell my mine, which I wasn’t so keen on doing. It was here I truly learned the fine art of scalping an NFL ticket. Now I’m a pretty content sort of person (stop snickering Kel) so just having a ticket was the most important thing to me. As long as I’m in, I don’t really care where I sit. (See picture and cast your eyes to the very top right corner. That’s where my seat was. The pic was taken from the new seat). Don on the other hand knows what he wants. Seats between the 40’s, lower deck, on the Packers side of the field. Not too much to ask is it? Anyway, he found two tix, one where he wanted it and the other in a similar spot behind the Broncos. It was up to me swap my ticket for that one. Not really interested with the ensuing hassle of having to sell mine, for a better seat or not, I told all concerned that I wasn’t too fussed.
This caused a frenzy let me tell you, and there main reasons why:
1. None of the locals could figure out what my problem was,
2. Those that didn’t have tickets were pulling cash out wanting to buy it and
3. Don, like the kid at school who wanted you to do naughty things with him kept telling me “You want to do this, you WANT to do this”
In the end, in true, nonchalant, Aussie fashion, I told them (about 8 people at this point with more looking on) to do whatever they had to do so long as I had a ticket in the end. I did and kudos to Don, sitting in section 106 did provide a better view than section 541 – as the same photo demonstrates.
The true magnitude of this stadium hit home on the Bronco’s pre-game introductions and more so, with the Packers first offensive series. Sure the place was loud when the fire crackers were going, the flames were flaring and their players were running onto the field but it fair dinkum went mental when the Packers came on for their first possession. I was always being told by the people we met that the Metrodome in Minneapolis was loud.
For those who remember telling me that along the way, get yourselves to Denver. The crowd there was phenomenal and I mean it when I say they did not let up. All 4 quarters they went crazy. I’ve no doubt that the two false starts we had in the 2nd quarter had something to do with our guys not being able to hear Brett’s call. I don’t know if it had anything to do with it being a Monday Night game, the fact that Brett was there or whether it’s like that every week but wow, the atmosphere was incredible.
I was a little concerned that Denver scored so early in the piece. Alot less concerned when Brett threw a 79 yard touchdown to James Jones on the first play of our next possession though. At 7-7 midway through the first there was a touch of anticipation in the air. I mean not long after that our running game, which most had written off previously clicked into gear and all of a sudden we had become a “complete” team. A great defence, an awesome passing game, and a new, fresh running game to complete the picture.
Expecting bigger things from both teams after such a fast start we went through the next 3 quarters without another touchdown. Denver got to the one yard line after what was a good drive and fumbled. We got to within the 5 twice and came away with field goals both times. It was frustrating ‘cause you knew that just one score could change the game and when you’re leading without the ball that’s a little nerve-racking.
So we get to the final 12 seconds with the score at 13 – 10 Green Bay. Denver have the ball 20 or so yards out. At the end of a pass play up the middle and courtesy of no time outs the game looked like it was ours for the taking. Then their kicking team came running, nay sprinting onto the field. They were like a freight train through Fassifern. They set quicker than a cold beer on a freezing day at Lambeau and kicked the goal without a second to spare. Whilst unhappy they tied the game the change in personnel was something to behold. Benny Hill like in some respects, all that was missing was the music.
By the way you’ll have to excuse the lack of photos down here. The finish to this was just incredible and taking pics didn;t even cross my mind.
Now, I don’t like overtime in sports (unless we win). I think if after 60 minutes of break neck speed football the two teams can’t be separated it should remain a tie (unless we are going to win). Either way let me re-enact how it seemed the 15 minute, sudden death period played out. You ready?
We win the toss, we win the game. 19 - 13.
That’s it. That’s exactly how we felt. (I’ll get to the “we” part in a sec.) Nobody and I mean nobody, thought that this game, the offensive struggle that it had become, would be over in 12 seconds on an 82 yard touchdown pass by his majesty Brett “why do in 14 plays what I can do right now” Favre to Greg “I get to catch all the special passes” Jennings. It was the single most spectacular football play I have ever experienced. Sure, seeing Brett throw 421 was cool but in the context of what “this” pass meant to “this” game, it is unparalleled.
I was lucky when I’d found my seat that of the 4 people already there, the one on my left, Dawn, was a Packer Backer. Her husband and friends Eric, Dave and Holly were all Broncos fans but the hospitality they showed me was incredible. Being there on my own they took me in immediately. They made me feel like we had known each other for years and I appreciated that. Even the Broncos fans in front and to my left were great. We went nuts for our respective teams but we all had a good time and at least until Brett’s bomb, enjoyed each other’s company.
My friends to the right, all Broncos fans kept telling me to wait for the Mile-High magic. We waited and waited and then it finally came. He wasn’t too impressed that the magic happened on the wrong side of his ball but we were stoked so that’s all that counted. Dawn and I, for the most part were alone in a sea of orange and blue so our celebrations were a little confined but I can tell you straight from the horses mouth there wasn’t a single Packer Backer that she didn’t hug, high five or scream Packer woo-hoo all night long. That was almost as entertaining as the game itself.
With the night drawing to a close I was physically spent. It had been a late night on Sunday followed by the commotion of a massive day on Monday. Don and I met up to head back to the car and I was asleep before we got home leaving the bright lights of Mile High until next time.
It was an incredible day and a mind-blowing night. As I’ve said before, when you dare to dream you dare to live and today that couldn’t have been any closer to the truth.
