Similarities Between Rocky III and Broncos/Chargers Rivalry

Author’s Disclaimer: This is a long post, but please bear with me. This post was also inspired by a blog post that I read by John Bena on MHR, comparing the Chargers to the bully in “A Christmas Story.”

Most of us are familiar with the legendary Mr. T. In 1983, the former bouncer turned toughman champion turned tv/movie star was snubbed by the academy when he wasn’t even nominated for an oscar for best supporting actor in his portrayal of the vicious Clubber Lang in Rocky III.

In the third installment of the Italian Stallion’s legendary saga, Rocky Balboa has gone from rags to riches. After defeating Apollo Creed, Rocky is the new heavyweight champion and basks in the limelight. He knocks out the next ten challengers. The only problem is that “They was HANDPICKED!”

Meanwhile, Clubber Lang, a hungry contender who lives alone and trains alone, is knocking suckers out left and right with his vicious haymakers. He is such an intense boxer that we never see him throw a single punch, just those vicious hooks accompanied by those blood-curdling screams. Lang becomes the number one contender, and he is not impressed as he watches Rocky fight “those setups.”

Well, Clubber Lang comes to Rocky’s retirement ceremony and basically goads Rocky into fighting one more fight when Lang offers to show Adrian Balboa “a real man.”

 

I see a number of similarities between this movie and the recent history of the rivalry between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers. Here they are:

First, Denver went from Super Bowl rags to riches, much like the Italian Stallion. Rocky was a decent street fighter, and he had been in a championship bout and lost just like the Broncos had been there before with no success. When Rocky finally won the championship, no one really expected it to happen because he was going against a prize fighter, the cream of the crop. It was the same when Denver took on the Green Bay Packers: the Packers were the defending champions, the Broncos were the AFC representative, and an AFC team had not won a Super Bowl in 14 years and had only won one of the last 16. It was prize fighter versus street fighter. Everyone thought that the Broncos couldn’t last two rounds with the champs just like it had been predicted that Rocky would be knocked out in the second round. Rocky knocked out the champ in the last round; Denver dethroned the Packers and the NFC in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXII.

Second, Denver ranks number one in the AFC West as far as wins are concerned since the 1997 season. They are the last AFC West team to win the Super Bowl. After beating Green Bay, the Broncos followed up with another Super Bowl victory. They have not been back to the Super Bowl, but they have 20 more full regular season wins than any current AFC West going all the way back to the 1998 season. San Diego has the second most wins, and, beginning in the 2004 season, they started their rise as a force to be reckoned with–at least in the AFC West. San Diego has seven more wins than the Broncos in the past five full regular seasons. Like Clubber Lang, the Chargers became both jealous and hungry, seeking to dethrone and destroy the team that had been in their way to becoming number one.

Third, after establishing one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL, Mike Shanahan and the Denver Broncos became complacent. They thought they had it made, and they got sloppy. They exchanged the Jake Plummer-like blood, sweat, and tears of the streets and the old gym for the flashy, overrated media hype of Jay Cutler-like public training forums (I realize the analogy is growing weak). Meanwhile, the Chargers were continuing to win, and they started to make noise.

Fourth, Denver was much like Rocky in that “Eye of the Tiger” opening montage. They could win games, just not the big ones, especially the division clinching games that really shouldn’t have been hard to win (Buffalo and Oakland last season; San Francisco in 2006). San Diego knew this. They were like Clubber Lang accusing Balboa of fighting “those setups.” The Broncos only won two games against teams that made the playoffs last year, and one of those was–let’s be honest–a fluke win against San Diego that should have gone the other way. No wonder San Diego had the Clubber Lang syndrome regarding the Denver Broncos.

Fifth, San Diego finally got its shot to avenge the fluke loss just as Clubber Lang got the shot to fight Balboa. The division title was on the line just as the heavyweight title was on the line. As the game started, Denver was distracted by their season dying and their coach’s tenure nearing its end. Cutler and Shanahan seemed optimistic just as Rocky and Mick did in the pre-fight interview, but San Diego–well, the best way to explain how they felt going into the game, this video is sufficient:

The prediction was accurate. San Diego gave Denver a 52-21 beatdown similar to the vicious second round knockout that Clubber delivered to Rocky. Denver had no defense for Sproles and Tomlinson just like Rocky had no defense or counter for Clubber’s many vicious haymakers. It was over very fast, and, in the end, the Chargers celebrated with fists in the air screaming “UNGGGGHHH! UNGGGGHHH! UNGGGGHHH!” as the bloodied Broncos hung their heads in shame. To make the “pain” even worse, both the Broncos playoff hopes and Mike Shanahan’s career as the Broncos coach died right after the loss. When he returned to Denver, Champ Bailey may have thrown his helmet at one of the horses on the south side of Invesco Field in utter disgust.

Well, it didn’t end there. Sixth, a new coach came along to instill a new attitude. Josh McDaniels appears to be doing for the Denver Broncos what Apollo Creed did for Rocky as a trainer. Creed wanted Rocky to get that old look back, the eye of the tiger. It was painful at first for both Rocky and Apollo just as the first offseason with McDaniels in charge was hard on Broncos players, former players, and fans alike.

Denver stuck with it, and they are reaping the rewards, a 6-0 start. This past Monday night, the Chargers, who rejected the Broncos challenge because they thought the Broncos were no challenge, hosted the Broncos for a rematch.

Seventh, the Broncos made it clear that they were not going to be bullied by the Chargers any more before the game even began. It reminded me of the way Rocky’s entourage, namely Apollo, gave the same message to Clubber prior to the rematch.

Eighth, there could be a number of different ways to compare the last Broncos/Chargers game to Balboa-Lang II. You could compare the entirety of the game to Balboa’s reclaiming of the title, but since the season is still less than halfway through, I will compare it to the first round of that fight. Denver came out with a lot of intensity. They were faster and more aggressive than the Chargers. The Chargers made a little bit of noise. Philip Rivers completed a chest pass or two. Sproles had the big kick return. However, Denver socked them in the mouth over and over again despite San Diego’s belief that they would crucify Denver really bad. How did the big bad trash-talking San Diego Chargers respond to getting owned in week six? Much the same way as Lang reacted at the end of the first round: screaming and crying, not letting the first round speak for itself, and talking a lot of trash.

Shawne Merriman sure thought the Chargers would be trash-talking and dancing all night. Instead, they have to resort to saying things like “I can’t wait until we play them again.”

We can’t wait either, Shawne. You can ride the media’s steady over-hyping and overrating of you and act all bad. You can come into our house and throw a few vicious haymakers because you think you are so bad. You may even be in the game at some point. You may think you are killing us like you usually do, but the Broncos won’t be getting killed; they will be getting mad.

The Broncos are committed to improving each game, and they are sick of your big mouths. I see the November 22nd game going the way the second and third round of Balboa-Lang II. San Diego gets vicious for a bit, but still get dealt an early round knockout.

San Diego, YOU AIN’T SO BAD! YOU AIN’T SO BAD! YOU AIN’T SO BAD!