Wait… hold the tar and feathers. I know it sounds like heresy, but I want to argue that it’s actually a good thing for the Broncos that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. I know a lot of Bronco Country was rooting for Kansas City to lose. They are our loathsome rivals, after all, and are surpassed or equal only to the Raiders in terms of hatred. A lot of whining is going on the net about,” How will Denver catch up with Kansas City?” The answer is two-fold: 1. We’re almost there and 2. Iron sharpens iron. Remember that saying? Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips used that meme to take the Broncos to the top in 2015. Long-time Bronco fans know it goes back farther in time.
I’ve been a Bronco fan since 1965. I remember when Denver had no defense and Chuck Muncie up the middle was the bread and butter of the Denver offense. I sympathize with Kansas City fans and their decades of suffering. They kept supporting their team in spite of futility and disappointment. Bronco fans should understand being fans in spite of intense disappointment. We got blown out in five Super Bowls. We had the best record in the AFC twice and lost playoff games at home to inferior teams: Jacksonville and Baltimore. Okay, maybe the Ravens weren’t inferior, but my point is the same. Denver fans know the pain of losing when our team is so close to ultimate victory. But all three Super Bowl wins are worth it. And we want another one.
Our team doesn’t have more Super Bowl appearances than all but three other NFL teams because we were lucky. It was because we met the challenges presented by the best teams in our division and conference. In Seventies, the road to the playoffs was through Oakland and the Jets. In the Eighties, it was through the AFC West and Cleveland. In the Nineties, it was through Kansas City and Pittsburgh. In the 21st century, it was through New England.
It’s no accident that our best defenses were the ones who played against Elway and Manning every day in practice. Iron sharpens iron. And our best offenses developed when they had to practice against our defense when it was tops in the league. Today, Denver finally has the coaching staff and quarterback who can return us to the playoffs and success. We are not that far away from being able to compete with the Chiefs for the AFC West title, something we took for granted for so many years. Yes, they have beaten us in every game since 2015. And it won’t be a real rivalry again until we beat them. But we have done it before. Exhibit A is that to win our first Lombardi Trophy, we had to beat the Chiefs, who were 13 and 3, on the road in January. And then we had to do the same thing in Pittsburgh. After that, beating Green Bay in San Diego was almost easy. It also took away the sting of the previous four defeats and the embarrassment against Jacksonville the previous year.
Iron sharpens iron. Denver knows where the bar is set for success. It runs through Arrowhead Stadium. It will involve epic passing duels between Mahomes and Lock. It will involve returning our defense to the best in the league. Who else can challenge us to be better? The LA Chargers are a joke. The Raiders are unlikely to be the same dreaded team in Las Vegas as they were in Oakland. That leaves KC as our best competition. And personally, I’d rather see us playing in Kansas City in January than in New England. They have better BBQ and the fans aren’t nearly as obnoxious as the ones in Boston.
