Bolek Blog Series - Fans of Out of Market NFL Teams: Denver Broncos

As many of you have seen through my whored out Facebook statuses, I am profiling people who live in the Chicago area and are fans of out of town teams.

Thank you to everyone who has filled out a survey so far. If you're a fan of an out-of-town team and I haven't given you a questionnaire to fill out, please let me know ASAP, as I am looking to profile as many people as possible.

My fifth feature is on the Denver Broncos, the first of two AFC West fans that I found. Randy Whalen is a former work colleague who freelances for the Sun-Times Media Group covering high school sports. He has been a long-time Broncos fan, and I thank him for sharing his thoughts on the Broncos and how he became a fan of them.

Here's a list of other blogs in the out-of-town feature series:

1. Dallas Cowboys
2. Tennessee Titans
3. New Orleans Saints 
4. Minnesota Vikings

Randy has been a fan of the Broncos for 36 years.

For this generation of NFL fans, it seems hard to fathom a point in time where the Raiders were hated AND good. For Randy Whalen, his dislike of the Raiders, who were coming off a Super Bowl win in 1976, is what sparked his interest in the Mile High City.

In 1977, the Broncos were the last team standing in the way of the Raiders advancing to their second consecutive Super Bowl.

"I remember listening to the game on the radio and hoping and maybe even praying that Oakland would lose," Randy said. "The Broncos held on for a 20-17 win and went to the Super Bowl. They captured my imagination because they had never been there before."

Not that he's counting (ok, maybe he is), but Randy has been to a total of 37 Broncos games, which includes preseason, regular season and post-season. Including Denver (where he has attended 25 games), he has attended Broncos games in eight different cities, with Denver sporting a 23-13-1 record in those games.

"The memories would take volumes to go through," Randy said. "The best one was this past January when I was at the Broncos-Steelers Wild Card game where Tebow hit Thomas with the 80-yard TD on the first play of OT - pure joy and euphoria!"

He believes that Peyton Manning (his new favorite player on the Broncos) will make fans forget about Tim Tebow, provided Manning can stay healthy.

When he's not attending a game, Randy watches Broncos games at bars and has no problem following the team in a Chicago market, especially with the Internet and how much coverage the team has been getting this offseason.

Unlike some fans of out-of-town teams, you won't find him rooting against the hometown Bears though.

"I generally hope they win," Randy said, "except when they play one of my favorite teams, usually Denver or Pittsburgh. But I really don't care."

He also doesn't care for B-Bo Knows prediction of a 7-9, out of playoffs prediction for his team. Randy forecasts 11 wins and another AFC West division crown in Denver this season.

He won't say, perhaps out of caution, what the Broncos will do once they make the playoffs.

"The playoffs are wide open," Randy said.

Randy Whalen whole life in Chicago area Favorite team Broncos A fan since… late 1970s # of games attended 36 Choice of Team Consumption Bars Favorite Player(s) All-Time John Elway Favorite Player Currently Peyton Manning 2012 Prediction (11-5, AFC West Champs, No SB prediction) Vegas Projection for team 9 (as of 8-31-12) 5dimes.eu Over/under? Over Odds to win division - 5dimes.eu (+155) Super Bowl odds 17.5/1 (+1750) (as of 8-31-12) - 5dimes.eu

Shooting the Star: How Jerry Jones Has Lost His Way (Plus Week 1 Playoff Picks)

I had a friend tell me a couple months ago that Jerry Jones was heading towards becoming the next Al Davis. I thought it was a good point at the time - now I think it's a fantastic point.

Earlier this week, Jerry Jones reiterated that he was going to stay the owner/president/general manager/vice lord/whatever titles I'm missing of the Dallas Cowboys.

Quoth the vice lord: "The facts are that I've spent 22 years doing this exactly the same way."

Good point, oh wise one.

Problem is, your team has one playoff win in the playoffs the past 15 years - only Detroit has had less playoff wins in the NFC in that time frame.

His dynasty was mostly inherited when he bought the Cowboys in 1989, at which point Dallas was on the precipice of its success thanks to the Hershel Walker trade. In case you don't know, Walker, a stud Cowboy running back at the time, was traded to the Vikings (along with 4 future draft picks) for 5 players and 8 (edited, wrote down 13 originally)!!! future draft picks.

A few of these guys did some stuff. You may have heard of Emmitt Smith. Possibly Darren Woodson. Alvin Harper for those of you who know Michael Irvin's compliment in the Super Bowl days.

Since their last Super Bowl, not much good has come from the Cowboys organization.

Here are the list of starting QBs since Aikman retired in 2000, according to Wiki:

Tony Romo (77 starts), Quincy Carter (31), Drew Bledsoe (22), Vinny Testaverde (15), Jon Kitna (9), Chad Hutchinson...remember him Bears fans? (9), Anthony Wright (3), Brad Johnson (3), Ryan Leaf (3), Clint Stoerner (2), Stephen McGee (1), Drew Henson (1).

All you need to know - Quincy Carter started nearly 2 seasons-worth of games since the last of the big Cowboys left. Better yet, their best quarterback (yes, he is their best QB since Aikman) -Romo - wasn't even a drafted player. Thank Sean Payton for bringing him into Dallas when he was the offensive coordinator there.

Back to the point...Jerry Jones should not be holding so many titles. If you see your coach (i.e. Mike Shannahan) or owner holding so many titles, it usually comes at the expense of the quality of the team. Shannahan has yet to have success outside of the Elway/Terrell Davis-era of the Broncos. The same thing happened with Al Davis, who had success early as an owner/general manager from the mid 60s till mid 80s but completely tailed off from the mid 90s until his death in 2011.

Sometimes, people take on too many roles within a company, and it ends up hurting the product. No one knows how these guys may have done with actual GMs in their bad stretches, but one could deduce that these guys should not have held on to their multiple roles at once.

But as any area of life with business goes, sometimes power gets the best of people. "The facts are that I've spent 22 years doing this exactly the same way" becomes the justification for staying in your multiple positions.

The business-owner in him, a man who swings his junk around as if he wants to win more than any other owner, should be ashamed for pretending the past 15 years of his business have been successful enough for him to keep things "exactly the same way".

Week 1 Playoff Picks

Houston -3 vs Cincy
NYG -3 vs Atl
Det +11 at NO (NO wins but doesn't cover)
Pitt -8 at Den

This sets up NO at SF, NYG at GB in the NFC; Hou at Balt & Pitt at NE. I could see 2-3 road teams winning in round 2 if this were the set-up.

Go Niners!

Alls Well That Ends: The Wirtz Effect and How a Death Can Help a Business

News just broke that Al Davis has died. My condolences to him and his family.

As far as his business goes, it might not be the worst thing to happen. In fact, it may help them out greatly, if the Bill Wirtz Effect comes into play.

As many Chicago Blackhawks fans remember all too well, the mismanagement of their beloved team caused the team to be an afterthought at best in one of the biggest hockey markets in America, and of course, one of the Original Six teams. Wirtz, notoriously known by many as "Dollar Bill", was considered by many to be the lynch pin behind this terrible stretch of Chicago hockey.

This stretch of time he was president (over 4 decades), he banned home games from being played on TV - for fear of fans not going to the games if they were able to stay home and watch them. I never understood this reasoning, seeing as though just about every team in every sport shows their teams' home games (I know that the NFL has restrictions on showing home games in markets where a game has not sold a certain percentage of tickets). If he was so smart in the business world with liquor distribution and real estate, you figured he might have seen other pro franchises having no problem with this.

Anyways, we all know the Blackhawks' story - they've become relevant again. People actually want to watch them now. Through their actions, the Wirtz kids have amended their father's wrongdoings to the franchise by promoting the Blackhawks through the addition of home games to TV, the Winter Classic to Wrigley Field in 2009 as well as introducing a successful annual convention for Blackhawks fans to attend. This idea came from the bright mind of John McDonough, former Cubs and now Blackhawks president. They went from being to the worst ran franchise in sports to one of the best in a few short years thanks to the actions of the younger Wirtzes and McDonough. Winning a Stanley Cup for the first time in a couple generations didn't hurt things either.

Enter Al Davis. While he didn't have the extended run of no championships/championship appearances like Wirtz did, Davis has become significantly more irrelevant in the past couple decades. His run of success in the 70s and 80s has devolved into the 90s and 2000s Raiders that have been pitiful for the most part. Aside from their playoff appearances in 2002 (where their playoff run ended in the infamous "Tuck Rule" game) and 2003 (where they got slaughtered by their former coach and the Tampa Bay Bucs, not much but bad can be said about the Raiders.

Since that brief run of success, here's a list of QBs who have started for the Raiders: Rick Mirer, Marques Tuiasosopo, Kerry Collins, Andrew Walter, Aaron Brooks, Josh McCown, Daunte Culpepper, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Frye, and Jason Campbell. I feel like I'm missing someone...

Oh yeah, JaMarcus Russell! Say what you will about recent first overall picks being busts, but no doubt in my mind is Russell the worst first pick of all time. After three seasons with the Raiders in which he finished with a 7-18 record, he was released. But not before collecting a shit ton of money. I wouldn't be surprised if he's already burned through the money that he got from his $61 million ($32M guaranteed) contract from the Raiders in 2007.

Sadly, one of the best first round picks the Raiders made in the past 15 years was for A KICKER! Sebastian Janikowski, who recently tied the league record for longest field goal (63 yards) was a first round pick for the Raiders in 2000. A fucking kicker in the first round! This from the same team that drafted a punter (Ray Guy) as a first round pick - to date, the only punter ever drafted in the first round.

With Davis' death, I'm hoping that the Wirtz Effect happens and hopefully the Davis heirs are half as intelligent as the Wirtzes were following their dad's passing. The NFL is a lot better league when the Raiders are relevant. Davis was a great contributor to the NFL, but his time of relevance and success had passed.

Let's hope that his passing can lead to the Wirtz Effect for the Raiders and they can return to a proud franchise again.