Author: Derek Kessinger

Nothing to See Here, Local Media

No fanfare accompanied the Colorado Avalanche return to town this season. No airtime focused on who makes the Avs roster. There appears to be no optimism for this team other than, “it can’t be worse than last year.”

While Denver’s media is going Broncos crazy and touching on the Rockies’ precarious playoff chances, the Avs are absent from the discourse. Yes, the Avalanche are back, but why should Denver notice? 

Since the 2003-04 lockout, the Avs have fallen behind the other big three sports in town. When they have a good team or entertaining personalities, they’ve found moments of relevance, but the Avs don’t demand attention in their own right.

Former coach Patrick Roy played this game well. Roy used his personality as entertainment to turn the cameras on his team. He made the Denver media, by and large, pay attention to him with his antics, quotes and demeanor. He knew how to bring entertainment to hockey.

Sakic knows where that road leads. Sometimes it leads to great quotes, but oftentimes it forces you into controversy. Last year, when Roy walked out on the team a month before training camp, people were interested in the drama. Sakic unsuccessfully tried to run damage control. While he calmed media nerves, the team fell apart anyway.

This summer, Sakic was happy to stay out of the spotlight. Instead of trying to sell Denver a bad product, he gave them nothing to talk about. Without any smoke, no one could light Sakic on fire.

Five Minutes For Infighting

Nationally, the Duchene situation gripped the NHL conversation this summer. The NHL doesn’t get much national attention anymore without an ESPN contract. As a result, the national hockey communities are insular. These communities were ready to heighten the intrigue around Duchene.

Hockey fandom and hockey media are full of layers. You have the diehard fans on Twitter. You have the traditionalists who lean on Canadian sensibilities. You have groups that freak out over smart moves and trade rumors. You have people who hated the Nashville Predators’ Stanley Cup run last year because the city had too much fun.

Duchene has the fifth-most goals of any player born in the 1990s. These are all players 27 or younger with prime years ahead in their careers. Trading him became a hotly debated topic. Every fan base wanted Duchene for a discount, despite the value the Avalanche saw in him, so different segments of the hockey community tried to shame Joe Sakic into making a trade in the beginning. Sakic met them with radio silence.

Soon, people had to resort to wildly tweeting amongst themselves. While all sides were blasting Sakic for not making the trade, they couldn’t seem to pin down a reason.

The theories were fast and fluid. Sometimes Sakic refused good trades. Some thought Sakic was overvaluing Duchene. Some believed that NHL GMs had a bad perception of Duchene. Some felt like he was a locker room problem.

During his playing career, Sakic was known as “Quoteless Joe.” With the return of that strategy this summer, he let other people put words in his mouth, but he never spoke out of turn. There was always doubt about what was really going on. In the end, Sakic appeared as an elder statesman above the squabble of 24/7 hockey news.

Attitude Sports Features Matt Duchene

The one piece of the story that seemed up for debate was whether the Avs quit on Duchene or Duchene quit on the Avs last season.

No one thought Matt Duchene would make it to Avalanche training camp. However, Sakic didn’t have a lot of options. He could trade Duchene for nothing and risk further damage to the franchise or keep Duchene and risk rifts in the locker room.

Both options seemed risky, but Sakic chose the second option.

Duchene walked into training camp in a bad mood. He acted like a prisoner held against his will. Sakic let Duchene stand in front of the cameras and take the spotlight off the Avs inability to trade him.

How quickly this backfired on Duchene, fair or not, was all the proof many fans needed to see that Duchene was the problem.

Since then, Duchene’s attitude has softened. He’s having fun on the ice again. There seems to be a weight off his shoulders with the Avs. He’s less difficult to trade if he’s a team player. Point for Sakic.

Only then did Sakic emerge. In one of Sakic’s few interviews since last season ended, he spoke with longtime Avs reporter Adrian Dater. Sakic addressed where things stood with the Avalanche heading into this year. From Dater’s perspective, Sakic seems more confident in his GM role. The Duchene situation is still up in the air.

A Win For the Wartime General

It is rare in sports to find someone who can take criticism and come out with the better hand.

In Sakic’s silence, he emerged better equipped for this year.

Sakic never talked himself into a bad trade. He never spoke out of turn to ignite further controversy in the Avs locker room. He kept the pressure off himself locally and let the national hockey crowd fight amongst itself. He changed public perception about the Duchene situation to win people to his side.

Sakic stayed silent long enough to survive this summer with at least one more shot as the Avalanche GM. That’s one more win than the Avs had at the end of last year.

Rock This Broncos Town

The Broncos are Denver. You don’t have a choice about being a Broncos fan, it’s part of the city’s identity. Even being in the stadium for the home opener is a spiritual experience. Denver is a Broncos town by birth rite and a sports town by choice.

To the Denver sports fans, the Rockies are a part of the conversation alongside the Broncos. With a 6-2 road trip at the perfect time, the Rockies provided the night-to-night must-see TV.

Still, many push the myth that Denver is only a football town. Nowhere has this been more present than on the airwaves in Denver. The Broncos bought a share of a radio station, now an all-Broncos station, and another signal in town has gone out of its way to be a nothing-but-Broncos station for over a year. Both are no longer meeting the needs of the average sports fan in Denver.

The idea of “Broncos only” fans fell away inside the stadium on Monday night. I talked about the Rockies score with ushers, beer vendors and friends at the game. People are excited by the Rockies. Denver wants another Rocktober.

Those that only see Denver through orange-tinted glasses are missing out. By finding a voice in mid-September, the 2017 Rockies team is a success. If they make it to the playoffs, we’re likely to remember the 2017 Rockies more fondly than the 2017 Broncos.

The players loved Phillips. He was great at creatively using his players. From a surprise sack to threading plays into the “No Fly Zone,” the players had fun within his defense. Even more, they loved having Phillips around the team. He was the instigator of team chemistry.

Ward came to Denver with the mission of elevating his profile and the Broncos. He worked hard to set an example within the community. His leadership then extended onto the field. As one of the Broncos best players, he was also vocal on the sideline keeping players dialed into the game.

Ware was the Peyton Manning of the defense. He was the guy everyone looked up to – including Von Miller. Ware’s mentorship helped get Miller back on track. Instead of being a really good player with off-field issues, Miller became one of the best all-around players in the game.

Next Leader Up 

The Broncos’ two best players now lead the team. Miller and Chris Harris Jr. carry the legacy of the old defense. They must make plays on the field and keep the defense together.

Both Miller and Harris are now exemplary role models. They work hard, they are great with the media and they are supportive of the fans. The list of responsibilities grows now that the old guard is gone.

With a younger defensive team, more guys will be looking up to the leadership of Miller and Harris. Along with first-year Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods, Miller and Harris will have to calm the inevitable adversity the Broncos will face this season.

Beating the Odds

The Broncos are not helpless without Ware, Ward and Phillips. The defense should still be great. It just takes a little bit more than greatness to win in the NFL. It takes intangible leadership.

When faced with a loss of leadership, many teams fall apart. Trace how dominant teams end and it’s usually the loss of a key figure. Think about the holes left on the Broncos without John Elway at quarterback or Mike Shanahan as head coach.

The Broncos lost three key leaders in the offseason, just on the defensive side of the ball. The losses mean a change in the dynamics and chemistry of the defense. To be successful on defense, the Broncos must find a way to carry on the legacy of the old Broncos with a new cast of characters.

The Denver Broncos history is full of big personalities. They also had the quiet leadership of Champ Bailey. The profiles on first round draft pick Garrett Bolles are interesting because Broncos offensive linemen are historically stoic. Trevor Siemian played down the importance of winning the hot QB battle over Paxton Lynch. He didn’t even call his parents.

Social Media Without Social Cues

There was far too much noise around the Siemian vs. Lynch issue. The volume was so constant and deafening that it drowned out real conversation.

Social media heightened the phenomenon. Since Twitter operates like a PG-13 middle school name-calling contest, the rest of the debate followed suit.

Outlets pandered to the noise. Outrageous takes came from all sides of the debate to try and win recognition. Sports media gives too much weight to the loudest voices on Twitter.

This problem goes back years. Media outlets were struggling to attract young viewers away from social media. Instead of focusing on creating high-quality content, outlets pivoted to riding the wave of trending topics. The formula became: Make enough noise to receive coverage. Forget if the coverage was compelling – the loudest voices love it.

The current iteration of this idea is exhausting and it creates closed feedback loops. People latch onto sound-bite takes. There is nothing compelling about a sports conversation that is stuck at this level.

Now that the competition is over, everyone wants distance from what they said during the debate. Imagine if they had worried more about quality coverage during that time. This backtracking would be unnecessary and we would all still have sanity.

The eye tests and analytics tests all fell away in favor of the noise test. With so much noise swirling around, the echo chamber hid the best sports coverage.

The Thoughtful Broncos Fan

A few times over the last six months, I found myself in a rather pleasant conversation. In a casual manner, a friend would ask, “So what are your thoughts on the Broncos quarterback situation?”

It was like they were asking about any sports topic. They presented it like we were talking about whether Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov can rebound this season. There was no charged emotion in their question.

They didn’t want to yell at me as I answered the question. We brought nuance to the debate. We were able to get into the strengths and weaknesses of both quarterbacks without a 140-character limit. It was fun.

These weren’t isolated incidents. I’ve heard thoughtful rhetoric from people in the media that I respect. I’ve heard about the QB fatigue from friends and colleagues. It wasn’t enough to cut through the noise and pandemonium.

Rise Above the Twitter Tirades

Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone that pretends to be a Law and Order courtroom lawyer? Let me tell you – it’s not fun. That’s what Broncos Country turned into – yelling into the void without regard for the process.

For the moment, the bubble has burst. The yelling quieted. I’ve seen several media members comment on the lack of excitement from the noise. No one’s sure how to return to the coverage of a normal training camp. After all, it’s tempered down now.

The nuances of sports coverage should be respected. Some fans don’t spend 12 hours a day reading about the Broncos. Some people aren’t trying to win an argument in following sports. We should find entertainment in the games and storylines.

I’ve learned little from the yelling around the Broncos. I felt fatigue hearing the same few points over and over again. I know that many Broncos fans agree with me. It’s time to let them reclaim their space as fans. Better sports coverage comes about when the more quiet majority is considered.