I recently wrote an article suggesting that even though the Raiders still are known to upset the Broncos, the rivalry has lost some of its luster. I have taken a lot of flack from Raiders fans and my fellow Broncos fans alike. 

Click here to read some of the comments from Raiders and Broncos fans alike.

While I personally try to stay away from making any personal attacks on people when I leave comments, I am more than willing to go to battle with any of the delusional, obnoxiously arrogant fools who call themselves Raiders fans. They are not even devoted to their team, they are devoted to a stupid mystique that is really a joke. They won some Super Bowls back in the day. Whoopdee doo! They are scary because they wear black, gang up on opposing fans, and are even willing to shank you. Wow, congratulations!

Here is the fact. Regardless of what you did to us the last season, Oakland (and I did acknowledge that the Broncos should never take you lightly), your 4-9 record shows that you suck. Your quarterback situation shows that you suck. Your owner’s ridiculous management of the team shows that you suck. Your inability to accept a Bronco fan’s appreciation of our history and our rivalry shows that you suck.

This blog is syndicated with bleacherreport.com. I don’t really get a lot of readers, and that is fine. It’s a work in progress. I post my thoughts here, at MHR, and Bleacher Report. For whatever reason, Bleacher report automatically posted the previous article in the Oakland Raiders section. Boy, were they upset about it. How dare a Broncos fan talk down to them!

I have seen the light now. There is no other way to talk about the Raiders than condescendingly or hatefully. Their fan base is puffed up for no reason. They would like to accuse us of that, and I am sure there are some loud-mouths among us. Every team has obnoxious fans though, but no one compares to Raider Nation.

Yosemite Sam, a member of MHR, beautifully said, “I hate the raiders and especially their fans because I live in raiderland and I have to deal with them every day. That’s my starting point when I meet a raiderfan, and it is up to them to change my mind. Some have. Most haven’t.”

I think I was trying to say that there are some decent Raiders fans out there, but I am starting to doubt that there are many. From now on, Yosemite Sam, I am embracing your logic. It is up to them to prove to me that they don’t deserve to be despised. My first impression now will be that the Raider fans are a bunch of arrogant, classless, inhumane scumbags with a sadistic fascination with drunken mob violence and destruction which normal football fans despise.

I love my Broncos, but I am not delusional. The 2006-2008 seasons were horrendous, in my opinion. The middle of this season was a disaster too. Still, we have had a better record than the Raiders for the past few years. That is a fact. The Raiders haven’t won more than five games in a season since 2002.

I hope we start stomping the Raiders like we are capable of doing every time. Josh McDaniels is not going to let the Broncos continue to take lesser opponents like the Raiders and Chiefs (44 to 13 in Kansas City) lightly; that was a Mike Shanahan thing (speaking of Shanahan, he sure had the Raiders number for a while).

I hope that Al Davis continues to make a fool of himself and ruin the Raiders in so doing. I hope he continues to fire coaches so that no stability and continuity develops. I hope he uses his early first round pick on some quarterback, wide receiver, or kicker that none of us has really heard of. I hope that quality players like Jeff Garcia continue to request that they be traded out of Oakland because they can’t see any hope playing there.

I hope that I can continue to laugh hysterically at the delusional antics of Raiders fans. I hope I can hear a bunch of them saying, “Your team hasn’t won a Super Bowl” or “Your team hasn’t won a playoff game in years” after they lose game after game. I hope I can keep a grin on my face when I read ridiculous comments like “You’ve lost 5 of your last 7 games… So where do you get off trying to talk down to us….” from a Raiders fan whose team has lost nine of its last thirteen.

Raiders fans, you will not hear the end of it after we stomp your ugly mugs on Sunday. Happy Holidays.

This is part two of an exclusive interview that Jay Cutler granted to broncosculture.com. If you would like to read part I of the interview, then click it.

Broncos Culture (BC): With all due respect, Mr. Cutler, don’t you respect the record that Jake Plummer had as a starter with the Broncos? Don’t you respect Kyle Orton’s record as an NFL starter? Don’t you have to be somewhat understanding that there would be interest in Matt Cassel, who went 10 and 5 as a starter last year? I mean, this might sound like a putdown, and I don’t want to hurt your fragile sensibilities, but  you were 17-20 as a starter with the Broncos and never made the playoffs.
Jay Cutler (JC): We all know how Matt Cassel is doing as a starting quarterback this season, and he didn’t make the playoffs last year either.
BC: Okay, that’s fair. Does it give you any satisfaction to see Matt Cassel struggling in Kansas City?
JC: It fills my heart with glee.
BC: Okay, you have only addressed one part of that last question. It was a complex, multi-faceted question, the kind they ask at Vanderbilt. How do–
JC: Yes, I am aware of the type of questions they ask at Vanderbilt. Only geniuses attend Vandy.

Cutler being a genius, but not a winner, at Vanderbilt.

To Be Continued…

There are four types of fans out there. First, there are fans like me who love the Broncos win, lose, or tie, for better or for worse. Second, there are fans who hate the Broncos for whatever reason, and this goes beyond just the fans of other AFC West teams. Third, there are the fans who cheer for another team and have a little bit of liking for the Broncos. Finally, there are the fair weather, bandwagon-jumping fans.

Fan types two, three, and four are sure running their mouths a lot after the Broncos were shutdown yesterday by the Baltimore Ravens. Here’s some personal advice: when you are upset about your team losing, don’t go read the nincompoopery that “fans” write in the comments section on nfl.com because you will be exposing yourself to content created by fans from all over the spectrum (including Broncos fans) whose IQs are lower than the combined score of a Redskins-Rams game.

The haters and the casual/indifferent Bronco fans are just having a field day with this 30-7 loss. Many haters are foaming at the mouth about how overrated Denver is. All of their wins against good teams this year came when those teams weren’t clicking. Why in the world do the Patriots, Cowboys, Bengals, and Chargers all get a free pass to not click? When Denver loses one game–their first one, not to mention–these haters start jacking their jaws about how Denver is finished. Any NFL team is beatable, and any NFL team can be tough to beat. The Eagles lost to the Raiders a couple weeks back, for crying out loud!

The fair weather fans, on the other hand, are so sad. They were riding the high of a 6 and 0 start, and this loss was a big letdown. To them, everything they thought to be true of the Broncos turned out just to be an illusion. The defense folded in the second half. Special teams coverage showed that they have some major problems. Orton did not make any big plays under pressure. No one stepped up to make a big play on either side of the ball. This is the beginning of the end to a fair weather fan. Another collapse is imminent.

However, this is just one game.

photo from nfl.com

I can’t speak for all of the devoted Broncos fans, but here is how I feel about it. There are no excuses for why we lost the game. We were outdone yesterday. Plain and simple. Baltimore deserves respect. As far as this being a game where the Broncos were “exposed,” no one can know that for sure. No one can guaruntee what will happen this week, what adjustments will be made, what kind of a chip will grow on the team’s collective shoulder, etc.

Besides, Denver can’t really win in anyone’s eyes except for those of the true, dedicated fans. If the Broncos would have won yesterday, the haters and the media would still be talking about how they are the worst undefeated team in the history of the NFL. However, no one goes 6 and 0 by mere fluke.

The real fluke is that any of these haters are intelligent enough to have a job that would allow them to afford to a computer, intelligent enough to set up an internet connection, and intelligent enough to type out a bunch of mispelled rubbish in the comments section.

Back to the Broncos. Some of our fans have lofty expectations (Haters, lofty means high. I thought I would save you a trip to the dictionary). I see people writing, “We can still go 18-1″ for instance. Look, this may make me unpopular to many of my fellow Broncos fans, but a Super Bowl trophy is not part of my expectations this year. I am not saying that it is impossible, but I think we have a ways to go. Still, the progress could take place rapidly.

For me, a 12-4 season would be something to be extremely happy about even without a trip to the Super Bowl. This is, after all, a rebuilding year with a rookie head coach and many new faces in all facets of the organization. That usually does not equate to a Super Bowl trophy. The way that they have been able to start, however, should equate to an AFC West Championship. Anything less, to me, is a huge disappointment, considering the great start.

I have no fears that Broncos are going to collapse. This is a different team. They are going to lose some games this season. It happens to almost every single team every single year. Three straight games at home will give them plenty of opportunity to rebound.

Recently, former Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler granted broncosculture.com an exclusive interview. Our high tech audio video recording equipment was malfunctioning that day, so all I can provide is the transcript of the interview.

So many Broncos fans responded to Cutler’s departure with morbid comments such as: the Broncos are only going to win four games this year, McDaniels will be out after one season, and our offense is going to suck with Kyle Orton.

Since, people seemed to be so in love with Jay Cutler, I thought I owed it to the five fans who visit this page to get in touch with Cutler and interview him. Here is how it went:

Broncos Culture (BC): A lot has been said about what went down between you, Josh McDaniels, and the Denver Broncos organization this season. In your own words, what did go down?
Jay Cutler (JC): After a difficult end to the 2008 season which included the firing of my master and head coach, Josh McDaniels came in and wanted nothing to do with me. Not only did McDaniels not want anything to do with me, but Pat Bowlen didn’t want anything to do with me. I know this for a fact because there was a rumor that Josh wanted to trade me for Matt Cassel straight up. At that point, I knew that there was no point in even listening to them. No explanation was needed. It was the biggest, most undeserved slight–next to the time that Philip Rivers taunted me in San Diego–I have ever endured. I was their franchise quarterback, and they wanted to trade me. When I saw that they didn’t want to keep me anymore, I stopped answering their phone calls and refused to meet one on one with any of them. Instead, I demanded a trade. I ended up in Chicago. Denver ended up with Kyle Orton and two first round draft picks. It is Denver’s loss.
BC:With all due respect, the Broncos are undefeated and the Bears are .500 right now. How was that Denver’s loss?
JC:Well, I have already mentioned this, but I was their franchise quarterback. It is a fact that NFL teams do not win Super Bowls without franchise quarterbacks. No offense to Kyle Orton, but he is not a franchise quarterback. Also, have you seen that guy’s hair?
BC:Are you seriously making fun of someone’s hair?
JC:Come on! You at least have to admit that the neckbeard thing is ridiculous. I can’t even grow one of those.

BC:You keep mentioning the adjective “franchise” and placing it in front of quarterback. You claim to be a franchise quarterback. You have mentioned that franchise quarterbacks help teams win Super Bowls. Could you please elaborate on what else makes a franchise quarterback?
JC:All of the right tools. To be more specific, all of the tools that I have. I can throw the deep ball, I can scramble and am good on bootlegs, and the mainstream media adores me. Also, the team spends a high draft pick on a franchise quarterback because they believe the media hype about him, and they bench a winning quarterback in favor of the new and flashier “franchise” quarterback. Those are the key ingredients.

To Be Continued…

Elvis Dumervil Shows Philip Rivers What the New-Look Broncos Are All About

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!