I have discovered Josh McDaniel's secret identity.

It really came to light during the comments discussion on mbudde33's recent FanPost "Orton vs Broncos Fans."  Broncobear and I were discussing how our team is different this year, and the things that used to scare us, that used to be almost a given in the "L" column (San Diego -especially late in the season, KC at Arrowhead in December, etc) aren't necessarily so anymore. There is confidence that we have a top-flight set of coaches now that actually game-plan to each individual opponent on all sides of the ball, looking to exploit their weaknesses and create mismatches at every chance while doing our best to minimize our own weaknesses; adjustments to scheme at half-time as needed to go with the actual play on the field...and we are improving on our mistakes on every game so far.

Spock commented:

I’m beginning to develop a sense of and respect for the way he coaches on game day. It’s a conservative ratchet effect. Keep accumulating small advantages. Give none back. It leads to a pedestrian completion percentage while the kinks are being ironed out, and an initially low YPC for the backs, but the positive turnover differential speaks for itself and the efficiencies will come.

It struck me that "Keep accumulating small advantages. Give none back" is the perfect succinct description of the Broncos new modus operandi. And it also seemed very familiar. Where on earth had I heard that before?!

Then it hit me. It was straight out of a line from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies: "Take what you can. Give nothing back."

And there it was...starring at me. It's all so obvious now. Coach, you cannot hide who you are underneath that hoodie any longer. You are found out!

Coach Josh McDaniels is a Pirate!

(Massive kudos to my awesome friend Liz for shopping this pic for me!)

Growing up in the Queen City of the Plains,  I've seen the cliff divers at Casa Bonita, visited the Denver Mint when I was in grade school,  walked the Zoo in all seasons, and seen the exhibits at the Natural History Denver Museum of Nature and Science. But Denver has always been Broncos Country, and so it wasn't until this past Memorial Day weekend that I really took a peak into the heart and soul of the city by embarking on a 75-minute walking tour of INVESCO Field at Mile High. Whatever your feelings on the controversial naming of the Broncos new stadium, it is home field for the orange and blue, and poking around its hallowed halls is a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon.

We started in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame - wandering around the displays until the tour started. 2009 inductees include Rod Smith and Sonny Lubick (Go Rammies!).

(updated with more info on cheerleader compensation below)

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Hi Packer fans - Bronco fan here from MHR. To get us through the long off-season we gave ourselves homework assignments to get to know the other teams in the NFL and how they look coming into this season. I volunteered to do the Packers. Why?

I feel like the Broncos and the Packers have a lot in common. We were both hit by a "Bus" in recent off-seasons that really tore the fan-base apart (I actually "adopted" GB as my NFC team after watching your Favre fiasco and even have Rodgers and Jennings in my dynasty league). We both had defenses in 2008 that lost us games, and we are both transitioning to a 3-4 to rectify those woes. Both of our strengths last year were in our offenses. The big difference between our 2008 teams is this: the Broncos were worse than their 8-8 record indicated, and I believe the Packers were better than their 6-10 record -you just didn't get any breaks. Ya'll had 8 of your 10 losses missed by less than a score.

It seems like ya'll did well in addressing your needs in the draft, and the MSM seems to agree. Raji was a great pickup, as is Matthews. You also picked up Capers to help impliment your new scheme.

So what do you guys think? Will your O-line stay healthy enough to let Rodgers do his thing? Will Rodgers stay healthy the entire season? Will your D learn and gell with their new scheme in time to stop AP and Cutler? Seems like the schedule this year is a little more merciful than last year, and I think 10-6 will be enough to secure the NFC North, with no Wild Card.

What do you think?

Okay -I’m going to say right now that I’m sorry for bringing Cutler up -I’m as ready as everyone to just part ways and move on. But this was very interesting to me. (I'm sorry if this has already been discussed and I somehow missed it. Let's face it. There have been a lot of posts on here the past few months.)

I discovered this from the McDaniels article Guru posted .

Sometimes I scan the comments of these articles -every once in a while there is an actual worthwhile post. Someone made the comment that perhaps losing Jay was a blessing in disguise. He then went on to tell the story of his coworker’s wife, who is a late diagnosed type 1 diabetic, and the mood swings that the condition can contribute to. From the post:

“After this whole McJaygate drama he reiterated how he and his wife would get into an argument, talk it out and resolve it, and then hours later she would be more upset than ever before. Josh and Jay had reportedly civil conversations, and then hours later Cutler is demanding a trade and calling this situation unfixable. You could see evidence of these swings in games too. The Dolphins game comes to mind when Cutler hooks up with Marshall for a 70 yd TD pass and it got called back. Cutler lost it on the ref, visibly steaming, he lines up again and forces a laser right to their safety in a very winnable game.”

Obviously I had to do more research. This article, although discussing type 2 in older men, I found very interesting.

“A person with diabetes may express long-withheld emotions-sometimes chaotically. A diabetic patient may be unaware of even severe mood swings; and act as if a current emotion is a valid basis for long-term decisions. Emotional outbursts may follow minor events or small lifestyle changes.

For example, a person with diabetes may angrily criticise[sic] other family members, or suddenly announce an unusual decision to business associates. Yet they may also quickly forget such conversations. Criticised[sic] family members, and business associates affected by hasty decisions may respond with their own emotions and reduced trust of the diabetic person. Emotional conflicts can spiral to create chaos."

There seemed to be a lot more information about mood swings in diabetics that corroborated this. I know we have some very educated/experienced folks on MHR, and I was wondering what your thoughts are on this? I have a friend who has late diagnosed type 1, and he struggles with mood swings and depression. I never put the two together, though.