It looks to me like the lockout is going to happen.  The owners are in a position of strength, and the players have shown no indication of budging.  In the past, teams in this situation have given playbooks and plans for practice to the players to hold practices themselves.  Also, with no CBA in place, it's impossible to trade current players.   Whether the worst-case scenario transpires or not, teams would be wise to prepare for the worst. 

For now, the Broncos are stuck with two legitimate starting quarterbacks in Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow.  Without a CBA, there can neither be a trade, nor a competition.  While Elway said that Tebow needed to develop as a pocket passer, he wasn't specific whether he thought it best to develop as a backup or under live fire.  Elway also said that there would be "competition" for the starting QB job, but an extended lockout would prevent any competition.  The decision will have to be made before the lockout.  Assuming that one player will lead the offense through the offseason/ preseason: Who will it be?

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For those of us season ticket holders, it's time to send a message to the team.  It's time to vote with your feet to let Bowlen know that you won't accept a mediocre product on the field.  It's time to tell the NFL owners and players that you won't support them if they refuse to put aside their greed to work together.  It may sound sacrilegious, but it's time to send a message to ownership and the league by not renewing your season tickets.

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The subject of "Donkeys" has been brought up recently, particularly as a term of derision, and that's led me to consider the use derogatory names from other teams as well. 

Please understand, I have zero respect for the Raiders or Chargers, or their fan bases; and though I respect the loyalty of the Chiefs' fan base, I hate the team.  However, I think there are better ways to express our derision for the teams than by juvenile name calling.  Unfortunately, I think when someone resorts to a cheap insult, it says more about the speaker than the subject.  Below I'll break down some of the common insults, and suggest an alternative:

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Amidst the, uh, buzz generated by vuvuzelas in the World Cup, I remembered that as a child, I had a long plastic horn.  It was nearly as tall as I was, orange, and was clearly designed to make lots of noise.  My parents had given me the horn for use at Bronco games, but I did not use it exclusively for those events.

Perhaps that is why I don't recall having it for very long.  One day I looked for it, and it was nowhere to be found.  Even my parents, whom I thought to know everything, claimed not to know where it could have possibly gone...

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This loss was absolutely awful, but there are a couple of positives we might take from it.

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I checked out the site for the new league and the first thing I noticed...  well...  you have no choice but to notice the gaudy color scheme.  They're a cross between day-glo and pastel.  And all of the teams use colors from that weird category. 

I don't want to go on too much about the colors, but in a Periodic Table where hydrogen is red, and helium blue, these colors are lanthanoids.

Not to say they're ugly, but to cure yourself of maritial infidelity, dress your mistress in UFL-branded lingerie. 

I also noted some former Broncos on the rosters:

Florida Tuskers:  Tatum Bell, Patrick Chukwurah

New York Sentinels:  Cecil Sapp

Las Vegas Locomotives:  Jim Fassel, David Kirkus

California Redwoods:  Nobody I remember.

I apologize for posting this rant at such a critical time of year, but I can't hold it in anymore.  MHR is one of the most literate communities I belong to on the internet.  With that said, I have noticed the perforation of a most gregarious and obvious punctuation error in a polenta of fan posts, much to my demise. 

For most words, if you want to make it plural, you just stick an S on the end of the word.  That's it.  More than one Bronco (53 > 1) = Broncos. 

The only time you'd put the apostrophe before the S would be if it it was singular and possessive:

"One Bronco's record has yet to be eclipsed." - That's the only way to use "Bronco's" in a cromulent manner.

If you're still dubinous, look at the logo-

See...  Even in Austria, they know how to punctuate!

This fanpost is a follow-up on a comment I left to an earlier post.

I've seen a lot of criticism lately of McDaniels' preseason playcalling.  There are a lot of complaints about no passes being attempted over 20 yards and the reliance on the dink-and-dunk.  Further, they hold the preseason playcalling up as one of the reasons why the Broncos will fail this year. 

It's PRESEASON!  The reason why McDaniels is so vague about injuries is that he wants to limit the information available to opponents- it's not that he's a jerk.  So if he takes such pains to limit the information the Bengals will have about injuries, wouldn't he make an effort not to tip off the game plan?

There are plenty of things to criticize.  Against the Bears, the OL which was so stellar last year looked like it was constructed by Summit Structures of Dallas.  Ayers and Alphonso Smith are coming along slower than we had hoped.  Andra Davis is looking like this season's Niko Koutivides.

If McDaniels comes out against Cincinatti with some uninspired and predictable play-calling, I will be the first to criticize.  Until then, enjoy the PRESEASON!

Man, I am so SICK of people booing...  People are going to boo McDaniels, they're going to Boo Orton, and they're going to boo Cutler.  So inappropriate!    But I have a solution:

When I'm at the game and I hear people booing, I'm going to boo at them!  I'm going to boo at them so dang loud they won't be able to hear themselves booing. 

If you're at the stadium tonight, join me in this courageous stand against booing at the booers even more loudly than they are booing.  That'll teach 'em!