being jake wood

Denver Broncos coach, Mike Shanahan is fired.

I’m stunned.  

Shocked.  

What do you do when a winning coach of your favorite team is forcefully removed from his position?  Excuse me while I gather myself.  Tears, no… that’s just allergies.

I’ve been a die hard Bronco fan since the 1980′s (minus the confused year I defected to the 49′ers… I blame Dan Reeves for that).  And through all the disappointing years of going to the superbowl and losing, year in and year out, we  always had 2 superbowl rings that we could brag about.  Two superbowls that we won back to back, by the head coach dubbed, “the mastermind” Mike Shanahan.   Along with the two championships, Shanahan always seemed to keep us in the hunt for the playoffs with an overall winning record in the 14 years he led the Denver Broncos.  If anyone was going to coach for a team “forever”, it would be Mike.  So when I finally got word that Shanahan was fired yesterday, I was stunned.  After the initial shock, I’m left to question the future of the Denver Broncos.  And here is my opinion, as a die hard Denver Bronco fan.

Shanahan has been great for this team, and he has always been a great coach.  Everyone agrees on this.  Wherever he goes he will do great as long as he coaches.  However, Mike has not been the greatest General Manager.  Denver has always done poorly with our draft picks and our defensive staff has more turnover than a cheap hotel in New York City.  I don’t know how we got here, but we’re here.  And any good leader knows that it starts and ends with leadership.  So maybe this can turn into something good?  I don’t know.  Here is what I would love to see happen.

Marty Schottenheimer take the GM role and Bill Cower becomes head coach.  After Herm Edwards is fired (sorry Chiefs), we hire him as defensive coordinator.  After seeing what Parcells did with Miami, we can see how important an experienced guy as GM with connections can help turn around a team.  This would cost an absurd amount of money, but hey, it’s my dream!  And who wouldn’t want to play for such a great franchise?

Here is what will likely happen.  We’ll hire a GM from New England, a young coach that no one has really heard of and keep our current defensive coordinator.  With young players and a young coach, the Broncos will struggle for 3 years before falling apart.  John Elway then buys the franchise from Pat Bowlen and rehires Mike Shanahan and Gary Kubiac as coaching “super” team.  Do you really want to know the rest?

In the end, I think this is a good move for both parties.  Sometimes you have to shake things up a little to light a fire under your team.  And as much as I like Shanny (and always will), football is a business and for the last several years business has been bad in Denver.  So here’s to one of the greatest coaches of all times, we love ya Shanny and wish you well.  Now can we please go back to the superbowl?

This sign makes me question wether the owner has had an animal get sick because of “bad human” food.

I found this movie trailer that was made from a die hard fan of Thundercats.  He took clips from other movies like X-men, Troy and Lord of the Rings and went frame by frame to paint their faces to look like Thundercat characters.  I couldn’t imagine the time that was spent making this.  I grew up watching this cartoon and loved it.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they actually end up making this a movie someday.

adam walker-cleaveland started a little viral twitter thread, called “twitter of faith“. his description:

Twitter of Faith: What do you believe? You have 140 characters – give us your statement of faith in 140 characters. #TOF

you can go to this link and see the 140-character or less statements of faith created by others (assuming they tagged their tweet with #TOF), or this link, which aggregates both tagged #TOF tweets as well as those that use the words “twitter of faith”. interesting challenge, really, to condense a belief into so few words!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope your break from the grind has been a good one so far.  This was a quote I found from another blog I read.  I thought it interesting enough to post it up here.  Thanks Dave!

“I remember coming back from a very long tour…. On Christmas Eve I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. …It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty… a child, I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and …tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. Because that’s exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen.  There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.” - Bono