Author: Derek Kessinger

Vance Joseph not only doesn’t have control over his players (they’re on edge to the point that a couple of “dustups” broke out at practice on Thanksgiving Day), he doesn’t appear to have much control of the direction of the team. Every big decision feels like it has Elway’s fingerprints all over it, even if Joseph says otherwise.

The best leaders relinquish some power by delegating to those around them. Elway has lost or eliminated those people who once held power, whether it was coaches, general managers or even leaders in the player ranks.When leadership is good, it’s almost invisible.

It’s hidden in the camaraderie of the team across position groups and job descriptions.

It’s the voices raised in opposition to the general consensus.

It’s the guy calming down a distressed teammate.

It’s words of encouragement curated to a specific moment.

It’s rallying around a common purpose.

These are foundational leadership principles. The Broncos Super Bowl 50 team had leaders.

This current team does not appear to have real leadership.

A lot of football people have a hard time with the term leadership. Fantasy points can’t measure them. The intangibles like communicating with players, convincing them to follow you and keeping the ship upright can’t be measured.

What is clear in watching this current Broncos team is that it’s missing something we have seen in years past — since Elway took over. They’re no longer a franchise that’s the envy of the league. They’re lost.

When looking at individuals, their leadership talents aren’t always labeled as leadership.

Peyton Manning: The Hall of Fame quarterback who brought a sense of calm to a chaotic team.

DeMarcus Ware: The heart of the defense demanded respect from a rowdy group of the best-assembled talent in the league.

Wade Phillips: A defensive coordinator adopted by his players as one of the guys.

Gary Kubiak: A coach so beloved by his team that he was constantly mentioned as a reason the players wanted to compete.

T.J. Ward: The Swiss Army knife of the defense. Not only could he rush the passer and defend the end zone, he could also be the tough guy and the consoler.

Not all of those vacancies are exclusively the fault of Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager John Elway. How he’s handled their replacements might be.

John Elway was the ideal leader for the Broncos when he came into the organization. He was very good at surrounding himself with smart football people to help guide the team through transition. During that time, John Fox and Brian Xanders were both stabilizing forces for Elway.

The best thing he can do is recruit new, strong allies. He needs to empower others to lead. Elway needs to go back to the earlier days of success and share the responsibility.

It’s how Elway’s first winning run with the Broncos was built.

Rockies fans need to change our strategy. We’ve seen the team try everything to get some respect. If a humidor, a Bridich Barrier and a big outfield won’t change people’s minds, nothing will.

If baseball people are too sheltered in their narrow-minded opinions to realize that Coors Field is a part of baseball and not a stain on its legacy, maybe it’s time to embrace that.

The Rockies are making some renovations to the ballpark this offseason; maybe a new sign is in order. Welcome to Coors Field: 5,280 Feet of Altitude with a Vengeful Attitude.

Philadelphia is known for booing Santa Claus. Buffalo is known for poor decision-making. Oakland is known for costume makeup. Colorado should embrace being known for ruining baseball.

Maybe we start game starts with a wave. We call it the Rocky Mountain Wave and it begins from the first pitch — becoming louder and more disorganized as the game goes on.

Dinger morphs into an evil purple version of the opposing team’s mascot every game. One day he’s a purple Mr. Met and the next he becomes a purple Philly Phanatic.

Instead of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” at Coors Field we play “Get Out of Denver” by Bob Seger.

The purple row of seats becomes the press box for all visiting writers.

Our two-strike noise is the buzzing of bees, bringing fear to a lovely day, and letting baseball know we’re about to sting.

The Rockies could celebrate each win by jumping in the fountain and each loss with a champagne ceremony in the locker room.

We ruin baseball for the rest of the country and become the greatest sideshow on grass.

Of course, these ideas wouldn’t solve anything. We wouldn’t suddenly get respect from the rest of the league, but it sure beats arguing with people over the effects of Coors Field on the game.

Instead, it might be time to insulate ourselves from the baseball world. They’re never going to listen to us — so we have to stop caring about it so much. Baseball can have its history; the Rockies will have its own.

Someday, baseball fans will travel to the Colorado Rockies Baseball Museum (under development) and learn about our folk heroes – The Blake Street Bombers, Larry Walker, Matt Holliday, Ryan Spilborghs, Todd Helton, Arenado and Blackmon.

It will be a special pilgrimage, separate from Cooperstown, where an outlaw baseball town keeps the Colorado Rockies spirit alive.

Sure, we ruined baseball by existing. But thinking back on how much fun last year was, I’m ready to continue to ruin things. Someday, if we ever win a World Series, people will discount the victory because of Coors Field.

They’re not a part of our ball club. Let them be ignorant.

When Duchene found out that he was not untouchable in General Manager Joe Sakic’s eyes, his loyalty changed. Here’s my best guess of his thought process at the time: If the Avs were going to treat him as just an asset, why should he remain totally committed to them?

Duchene requested a trade almost a year ago. He burned a lot of bridges on the way out of town. He essentially gave the press the silent treatment. He constantly seemed ready to jump ship. His teammates, who felt like he gave up on them last year, were happy to see him leave. The end of the Duchene era is filled with much more relief than sadness.

Duchene will probably never have his number retired by the Avalanche. He probably was never the best forward on any Avalanche team. Paul Stastny and Nathan MacKinnon overshadowed him at different times. He even fell behind O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog on occasion in the categories of work ethic and leadership.

When I think about the Matt Duchene era, I think about Craig Anderson carrying the Avalanche into the playoffs, of Peter Forsberg’s failed return to the Avs and the Valentine’s Day Massacre (Forsberg retired for the final time on February 14, 2011, and the Avs lost to Calgary 9-1 on the same day). I think of Landeskog and Stastny. I think about the Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov trades. I think of Roy as the fiery Avs coach. I think of MacKinnon’s rookie season and the outdoor hockey game.

Duchene fits in there somewhere, but he was never the focal point.

The fact that the Avalanche only made the playoffs twice in the eight seasons with Duchene is not his fault. The Avs’ near-term goal is to stop being one of the worst teams in the league, which is the main demarcation of Duchene’s years with the Avs.

The next era for the Colorado Avalanche will be defined by what they can do without Duchene. They have a core of dedicated players: Johnson, Landeskog, MacKinnon, Varlamov and Mikko Rantanen, surrounded by young talent.

In a lot of ways, this team resembles the group of players that moved to Denver from Quebec City in 1995. They are a young team with a lot to prove. The one person not on board was Duchene. No one who watched him celebrating that first NHL goal thought this is how he would exit the Avs.

The only guy who would have a chance with this offense is the Duke of Denver himself — John Elway.

Elway was what separated the Broncos from being the modern day Cleveland Browns. When watching highlights and lowlights (like the pre-XXXII Super Bowls), one thing is clear: Elway played much of his career with offensive talent similar to today’s squad.

Seriously, go watch the Drive (1987 AFC Championship Game).

Elway had virtually no help on that drive. The special teams failed him on the kickoff return. The running game could only grind out a few yards and the offensive line couldn’t stop the Cleveland Browns at all. Yet, Elway kept his composure, scrambled and ran. Half of his body was covered in mud. Still, he found a way to will his team to the game-tying touchdown.

Elway has to be thinking about that time. He won with mediocrity here for years, leading the Broncos to three Super Bowls. It’s possible. Of course, he never won a championship until team management built up the talent around him.

The Broncos find themselves in that familiar situation — with an offense that needs its quarterback to carry the load. It’s just that Elway and his scouts put them there.

Lessons From Super Bowl XLVIII

The Broncos’ current offense is still a result of the Super Bowl XLVIII loss. Elway built the most prolific passing offense in NFL history. Quarterback Peyton Manning threw double-digit touchdown passes to each of his four top receivers: Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker and Julius Thomas in 2013. Then they lost to the Seattle Seahawks, and Elway knew what he had to do.

He needed to build a defense that could win a championship. He went out and spent the money to do that.

That strategy was the main reason the Broncos won Super Bowl 50.

The defense is still of that caliber, but it’s also shifted the focus away from the offense. The offense has continued to erode.

In January, Elway said he wouldn’t take away from assets on defense to fix the offense. It’s true — most of the Broncos’ money is tied up in paying the defense.

It’s just that most of the losing is tied up in the offense. And the Broncos don’t have the quarterback to lead a bad offense. They don’t have John Elway in his prime.

The Woes of the Draft

Of the offensive players Elway has drafted, the only ones making an impact this year are Matt Paradis (sixth round in 2014) and Garett Bolles (first round in 2016). Then there’s Trevor Siemian (seventh round in 2015) and perhaps Brock Osweiler (second round in 2012).

They have a number of players that have not made an impact this year, including most of this year’s draft class (some due to injury). Virgil Green is the only offensive draft pick from Elway’s first three years as GM still on the team except for Osweiler.

The Broncos still hope that Devontae Booker breaks out, but they also used picks on running backs Ronnie Hillman, Montee Ball and De’Angelo Henderson.

The receivers and tight ends from recent drafts have yet to make an impact. The failures drafting offensive linemen bring tears (and pain) to the Broncos’ quarterbacks.

Josh McDaniels drafted Demaryius Thomas. Emmanuel Sanders was a free agent. C.J. Anderson was an undrafted free agent.

It’s not that the Broncos haven’t tried to draft to fix the offense. It’s just that so far they have failed. The fixes have not come from the draft.

If you think the Broncos’ answer at quarterback is on the current roster, you better hope he doesn’t play this year. No one is going to thrive in this offense.

Meanwhile, the Broncos need to start hitting in the draft on offense and hope that they can find some impact players quickly. Because the lopsided field they’re facing right now might be a descent into football darkness for Denver.

MacIntyre’s antics became exasperating to watch. He threw his body around like a toddler as the Buffs continued to lose. The coach’s temper seemed to be directed equally at the referees and his team’s inability to execute. It was as if MacIntyre was fighting himself.

It was nothing like last year.

Of course, last year’s story had a fabricated ending. To believe “The Rise” you have to stop the tape before the Buffs were blown out in the Pac-12 Championship game. You have to be okay with the lopsided bowl game loss.

Watching MacIntyre last Saturday night, I wondered how much he bought into “The Rise.” Ideally, you want your coach to treat every season the same. Instead, did MacIntyre believe that the Buffs had turned a corner and would just keep going?

There was no way the Buffs could match their 2016 campaign. They lost too many players to the NFL. The architect of their defense, coordinator Jim Leavitt, left for Oregon. Quarterback Sefo Liufau graduated. The Buffs were going to have growing pains with a younger team.

The results have been worse than anticipated and MacIntyre’s program no longer looks like it’s on the upswing. With a 1-4 Pac-12 record, they look like the same old Buffs.

MacIntyre did not steady the ship against Washington State. Even when his emotions were clearly out of control, MacIntyre denied that fact in a press conference on Tuesday.

Are he and his coaching staff at least shouldering the appropriate blame for this season?

“We had the chance for four interceptions the other night and didn’t catch any of them. So the coaches put them in the right places, they’ve got to make the catches,” MacIntyre said this week in a press conference. He went on to say that he thought the players would make the plays.

The coaches put the Buffs in the right positions in a game they lost 28-0?

The biggest party of the year is currently underway in Boulder. (And it’s not homecoming weekend, where the Buffs welcome a Cal team that beat those same Washington State Cougars with a resounding 37-3 performance two weeks ago.) Halloween is a multi-week event of costume parties, alcohol and bad decisions. All those ideas you have about crazy college towns converge around Halloween at CU.

The biggest ghosts in Boulder appear to be on the offensive side of the Buffs football team. The CU coach’s behavior is reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It would be a trick to consider the Buffs getting a bowl game treat.

The sequel to “The Rise” is currently a “Tower of Terror” fall.

Can Michael Malone be a longtime coach for the Denver Nuggets?

I have concerns about Malone’s ability to lead the Nuggets long term. He’s been described as one of the NBA’s best assistant coaches, but how does that translate to managing assistants and players as a head coach?

Malone needs to become a more cohesive leader, on and off the floor. This is a complicated roster, but Malone’s task is to manage the game to get the most out of his players.

The strikes against Malone are his handling of personnel. The biggest error was the Jokic problem, but the list doesn’t stop there.

Emmanuel Mudiay’s regression from strong performances in his rookie year is troubling. Both Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler spoke last year about not having open channels of communication with the coaching staff. Then there was the handling of Jusuf Nurkic. Nurkic was disgruntled, and the Nuggets could not ease tensions.

With an overcrowded bench (not his fault) and NBA players’ egos, Malone has a tall task ahead of him to prove that he’s a long-term option at head coach.

If the Nuggets miss the playoffs this year, it may be time to move on.

Are the Denver Nuggets efficiently managed?

Part of the burden put on Malone is the fault of Nuggets President Connelly and General Manager Karnišovas. Heading into the offseason, everyone knew that the Nuggets needed to clear some space on a crowded bench. Instead, Denver entered this season with even more congestion for playing time.

They have a dozen guys who could legitimately see NBA minutes, plus the likes of Darrell Arthur hanging onto the NBA bench. Depth is important, but it creates constant open competitions and easy resentment among players. The Nuggets have a lot of assets, and they’ve added even more good ones. It’s causing a coaching headache.

This front office has yet to make the playoffs. That’s the biggest knock against them. They’re heralded for what they’ve done, but it needs to lead somewhere. They also have to deal with the looming Jokic contract negotiations.

Can Nikola Jokic become a true star?

Jokic is the most dynamic offensive player the Nuggets have had outside of Carmelo Anthony in decades. His ability to pass and create chances on the court is electrifying.

Still, Jokic has a DeAndre Jordan problem. For Jordan, it’s free throws. For Jokic, it’s defense. The Nuggets can’t afford to have a superstar on the court that is such a liability defensively in close late-game situations. If Jokic can significantly improve his defense, he’ll be on track to be a true star.

Apparently, Jokic worked hard on his conditioning in the offseason. This will be the first year where he is truly the focal point of the team from day one. If he can develop chemistry with Millsap, the Nuggets could be a hard matchup every night.

Will players become great?

The Nuggets are hoping that a second star truly emerges. The bet is on Jamal Murray, who has the shooting potential of other marquee NBA players. While this expectation puts a lot of pressure on a second-year player, the Nuggets need that shooting ability to show up consistently.

They have other guards that could still make jumps this year including Gary Harris, Will Barton and Emmanuel Mudiay. They need it to be someone.

Maybe it’s Mason Plumlee? No, it’s probably not.

The real question: Can the Nuggets win consistently?

When facing so many stars in the Western Conference, can they steal some wins?

Can they reestablish home dominance? They won 22 home games last year. In 2012-13, they won 38.

Will they continue to collapse late in games?

Can they take care of business against the bad teams in the NBA?

Can they make the playoffs?

Let’s hope the answer to all of these questions is yes.

When it’s working, when a team is moving the puck and scoring, there is no better sport than hockey. Every play break is a 10-second Snapchat story. The games flow on momentum, feel and physics on the ice. Hockey is thrilling chaos.

The Avalanche were not fun last year.

Don’t take the first four games of a season too seriously. The Avalanche won half of their first 18 games last year. Then, with the injury to defenseman Erik Johnson, the wheels came off. The Avalanche managed one win every six games the rest of the year, a .167 winning percentage.

Their best players were hurt, frustrated and fighting. They couldn’t hold leads. They couldn’t control the puck. The game was never pretty to watch. It was miserable.

In the early stages of this season, the bad memories of last season have seemed to serve as motivation. This team needs to be different. To me, fun is the first step. If nothing else, let the team be fun.

There are a few factors that lend to the idea that this team can be enjoyable.

The Avalanche have invested heavily in is the atmosphere at Pepsi Center. Ever since the sellout steak ended in 2006, Pepsi Center has often felt more like a barn than a world-class entertainment venue during hockey games. The presentation was often shaky and disinteresting.

The Avs’ investment in the in-game experience includes new video board sound systems and on-ice projection. Most importantly, the creative minds they employ are making interesting decisions, from videos to contests. The dividends paid off on opening night, keeping the crowd engaged until the game became the focal point.

Pepsi Center was so loud during Avs goals, with an announced sellout crowd, that I couldn’t even hear the new goal song. But it’s perfect that they stole the song from a rowdy darts crowd. It makes absolutely no sense, other than that it’s fun.

Building on this atmosphere, second-year coach Jared Bednar enters the picture. Bednar was less than two months into his NHL head-coaching tenure on opening night last year. He won the AHL minor league championship in Cleveland, but was trying to do something completely different. He had to turn over a system built by hockey icon Patrick Roy (who quit on the team).

Bednar hoped to rebuild the foundation on the fly. He didn’t know that Roy’s departure would have the effect of taking the bottom pieces out of a Jenga tower – utter collapse.

In training camp last year, I was impressed by Bednar’s philosophy of moving the puck. The system emphasizes quickness through the neutral zone – never sideways and always forward. It seemed like the perfect way to highlight Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon. It never materialized last year, but now seems to be paying off.

The defensive play early in the season has also been better at even strength. The Avalanche are more aggressive and creative in the way they steal the puck and block shots. This freer method makes Chris Bigras and Tyson Barrie huge assets.

The defense still needs work. The power play and penalty kill are bad. However, the good parts of the team are a start.

Of course, Bednar can only work with the players that he has and those guys were very divided last year. A lot of the personnel issues still rest with Joe Sakic. Sakic flipped over a roster of older guys and restocked it with younger talent and players with something to prove.

Nail Yakupov, a former first-overall pick is widely talked about as a complete bust and almost left the NHL entirely. The Montreal Canadiens basically gave Sven Andrighetto to the Avalanche last year. Alexander Kerfoot, a Harvard man, was signed by Colorado as a college free agent. This isn’t a complete list of all of the Avalanche players written off by the NHL at large.

This band of misfits is already bonding to make sure this is not a repeat of last year. Quotes from Erik Johnson to new Mile High Sports colleague Terry Frei spoke volumes about where this team is right now. I highly recommend the whole article: “With Avalanche off to another 3-1 start, leadership is a ‘core’ issue”

Johnson said it in the nicest way, but clearly, he feels that older veterans were holding the locker room back last year. Instead of the Avs core leading, it was the veterans. These were guys who played in a different era where experience trumped talent.

That is not the case anymore. Johnson believes that the core players need to lead the young Avalanche, even if they’re all in their 20s. Captain Gabe Landeskog is thriving with this idea. His physical, confrontational style is making the Avs tougher on the ice. He stands his ground and the Avalanche don’t back down.

The benefit of this style of play is that it’s a lot more enjoyable to watch and probably to play.

Who knows if it’s sustainable? The Avalanche may turn in another nightmare season. My expectations are low. When you start with one of the worst teams in NHL history, you can’t ask for much the following year.

So how about a little fun?

This is the kind of game that will live on in Arizona baseball history forever. Honestly, it should also live on in Colorado, because this team deserves to be remembered.

I wrote earlier this summer that suffering as a Rockies fan was what made you a Coloradan. This season, and even this game, consisted of a much different kind of suffering.

Yes, it was the pitching that again snared the Rockies, just as it did in 2009 with Huston Street and during the ‘Blake Street Bombers’ era. However, it was a different kind of pitching.

It was pitching built in spring training by new manager Bud Black. He provided the fun and honesty the Rockies needed to start again. Black knew there was talent, and he knew he could teach people to pitch at altitude. In the end, they had the pitchers, just not always the right pitches.

Pitching With Altitude
The pitching performances that stood out in 2017:

• Rookie Antonio Senzatela became the second pitcher in the majors after the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw to reach nine wins.
• Colorado native Kyle Freeland not only won the Rockies’ home opener, but also took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in another game in front of his hometown crowd.
• German Marquez surpassed both of those rookies with his success, starting with eight innings of shutout pitching against the Cubs in early May.
• Chad Bettis beat cancer for the second time and threw six shutout innings in his first start. Bettis also secured the Rockies’ final victory of the season against the Dodgers.
• Greg Holland set a Rockies record by saving 23 games in a row to start the season after returning from ‘Tommy John’ surgery.
• Chris Rusin saved the Rockies’ season by quick-pitching against Justin Turner on the way to a four-game sweep of the Dodgers in L.A in mid-September.
• Then there were flashes of greatness from starters Tyler Chatwood, Tyler Anderson, Jon Gray, and Jeff Hoffman.

The Cast of Characters
The players in the field to remember:

• Charlie Blackmon was a legitimate MVP candidate and became well-known nationally for his beard and quirky personality. Blackmon passed up the opportunity at a cycle in one game, because trying to take the extra base wasn’t needed to help the team win. He ended up winning the National League batting title at .331 and drove in the most runs (103) from the lead-off spot in MLB history.
• Nolan Arenado, another MVP candidate, completed a cycle with a walk-off home run, and is expected to win his fifth straight third-base National League Gold Glove Award.
• DJ LeMahieu, only a year after winning the batting title, was questioned by some observers for being selected to the 2017 All-Star game. He answered these questions by batting .310 for the season.
• Mark Reynolds, signed as a backup option at first base, kept the Rockies afloat early in the year with his hitting. Reynolds had help from Gerardo Parra, who rebounded well after a bad year in 2016.
• Honorable Mention: Former Rockie Ryan Spilborghs, whose antics as an announcer and sideline reporter made the Rockies an even more fun team. Whether he was taunting opposing outfielders or bragging about his awards, no one makes baseball more fun than ‘Spilly’.

The 2017 Clincher

This game will stick with me. It was Sep. 30, a cloudy Saturday filled with expectation. Before the Rockies’ game, Milwaukee blew a lead against the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth inning. Former Rockies pitcher Juan Nicasio recorded the save for the Cardinals, clinching a spot in the Wild Card game for the Rockies.

I was in the same spot that day as I was ten years earlier, when I watched the Rockies clinch the play-in game berth in 2007. Back then, it was in seats where my Dad and brother and I watched Game 162. In 2017, that area is now a bar — The Rooftop, on what’s called the party deck — where once I celebrated another playoff berth with friends.

The Rooftop is right above where I watched Carlos Gonzalez hit a walk-off home run for the cycle in 2010. Seven years later, on Sep. 30, 2017, “CarGo” hit a homer off of Clayton Kershaw in what might be his last start at Coors Field for the Rockies.

In a year where CarGo struggled, he fixed his swing to help the Rockies one more time late in the season. In my mind, it cements him as one of the greatest Rockies of all-time. He became the connective thread from Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki to Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Jon Gray. As CarGo rounded the bases, I tried not to cry. CarGo is the Rockies to me — and I don’t want to see him go.

On this night, as I finished up my job at the ballpark, I saw the players take the mound after all of the fans left. They were taking a picture. Suddenly, some of them started yelling. They ran towards my location near the Rockies’ center-field fountains. They proceed to jump in and splash each other. It was the perfect celebration

No One Believes

No one thought during spring training that this season would end with fountain-jumping.

Yes, the Rockies started off strong — winning a lot of road series early before crashing in the middle of the season. Yet, they never completely lost it. They were in a playoff spot every day this season — something they’d never done. The playoffs just turned out to be short-lived.

For every glory-filled 2007 play-in game for a team, there are these letdowns. There were the two blown saves in 2009 by Huston Street and the 2010 collapse to miss the playoffs. Now, the 2017 Wild Card game defeat is added to that list.

The boys of summer have left Denver as fall begins, but the 2017 season deserves to live on. It was special for a different reason than a championship season. It was special because Colorado got to live baseball, day-in and day-out, for the first time in team history.

Perhaps they will return to the playoffs again next year. We thought that would happen after 2007 and 2009, only to have our hopes dashed. If this is the pinnacle of this current team’s success, it still deserves to be celebrated.

Because on Oct. 5, 2017, these Rockies believed they could win a game in which they were down 6-0 and 8-5 and 11-7. They believed in spring training that they could bring ‘Rocktober’ back to Denver. In the process, they left us with a new appreciation for the Colorado Rockies. Unlike the last seven years, we are suffering this year… because we didn’t want the season to come to an end.

The sports moments held up too. The greatest example is “Remember the Titans,” the Denzel Washington/Disney version of the integration of a divided town brought together by the high school football team. The differences melt away as the team comes together. It’s a tidy representation of the civil rights era.

Other sports moments held up in the movement. Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the military because of his religious beliefs. Two raised fists at the Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal podium. Jackie Robinson having the courage to not fight back when people in baseball tried to get a reaction out of him.

One thing left out of all of these stories was how unpopular the decisions were in their day. FiveThirtyEight ran a story this week about this idea. Sixty-three percent of Americans viewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. unfavorably in 1963. That’s higher than people today who believe that not standing for the National Anthem is unpatriotic according to another poll going around. King’s popularity today is 96 percent.

I know now that the picturesque version of civil rights was just another point on the curve of progress towards justice and quality. The enemies, prejudices and complications in our society have not ceased. There is no children’s book that holds up to the social upheaval we are facing.

The complications of the anthem protest exponentially increased this week with President Donald Trump’s comments. So did the thoughtful dialogue around the conversation, which I collected as I thought about this column.

I don’t have one succinct thought on it — there is no tweet that sums up what all of this means. No one on Facebook has been completely right with a status. Social media again has failed to aid us in our search for understanding — instead, it divides us.

So today, in a single sports column found on the Internet, I cannot speak for the over 320 million Americans faced with this issue. This is a conversation of nuance that requires critical thinking and the ability to realize that some people disagree with you. I understand why there are many sides to this story; there just isn’t a 240-character summation to put online.

At some point, our national politics become too noisy to ignore in any realm, even fantasy ones like football and the Internet. I have never tried to separate sports and politics because I always see one reflecting the other. Still, I understand why some would want to leave the politics out of sports. Unfortunately, we are again living in a moment where politics collides with all aspect of American life. We must accept this moment.

When the National Anthem plays, I often take the time to reflect on the many shades of patriotism. Sometimes the patriotic words of our forefathers come back to me from the Declaration of Independence. The ideas held within it were dissent, in order to create a country where different freedoms and opinions could be held up without fear of persecution.

At a school like CU, which is much less diverse than my Denver high school, sometimes that dissent takes courage. On an NFL football field, with millions of people watching, such dissent can cost you your job. In life, each American makes his or her own choice. That’s your right as an American.