I admit it.  I had enough NFL football for one season.  Maybe even enough for a part of my lifetime.

I am so sick and tired of watching the NFL being turned into a soap opera.  The NFL Network stinks.  The build up… the let down…then the blame game.

Once upon a time we tuned into Curt Gowdy because we respected him and what he had to say about a great game and that was quite enough.  Now we still have good announcers…but we also have a studio full of cue-card reading football is my ticket thanks to my other physical attributes.  I quote Don Henley from “Dirty Laundry” ….”See the bubble headed bleach blonde…”  I never thought I would ever quote Don Henley.  Things really must be bad.  I know…I know…I have the option not to watch and, in truth, I have seen less than an hour of NFL Network yammering since September got here.  I don’t watch it.

Things were really bad until yesterday.  With a Denver Bronco offense that sputtered and no one person to put the blame on in the first half…they had five turnovers in the first half.   Gary Kubiak, “Kubes”, I can still hear him as he was “miked up” in 1982 on Christmas Day playing in the Kelly Tires Blue-Gray Game.  It was the college all-star game we football junkies watched at noon Eastern time before the “Aloha Bowl” was played at 3:30 our time.  It was mid-morning in Honolulu.  Merry Christmas.

I suppose it was the first time I ever heard a player “miked-up” during a live game.  Heck, I know it was.  And I still have a crystal clear memory of listening to the quarterback from Texas A&M, not the Denver Broncos’ coach.  In the huddle, I can still hear Gary Kubiak telling his players… “Check me…check me…on two on two.”  Then he went up to the line of scrimmage. “TWO…TWO….”  It is a memory I would never trade in a million years.  I think of it every time I see Gary Kubiak on television.

So there I was Sunday, licking my wounds thinking about Ken Anderson and how I once cheered for the likes of him and Fran Tarkenton and John Elway.  Eli Manning, my favorite player,  just finished a nasty season.  What a mess that was in NY.

I sat there watching two TV screens with my brother-in-law.  The last of the 2015 season to soak in.  There he was dressed as a back up quarterback for the first time I can remember in the NFL.  Peyton Manning went into Sunday’s game as the 2nd string quarterback.

Peyton Manning came out of the game as the hero.

I don’t fault Brock Isweiler, Bronco QB who started the game.  He was in a spot.  Who in their right mind wants to be the man that follows the man.  It has only worked out on two occasions…Steve Young for Joe Montana and Aaron Rogers for Brett Favre.  Danny White was close following Roger Staubach.

I like Brock Isweiler.  He is a great quarterback.  I thought he was awesome at Arizona State.  He will be a great one and I hope Denver can find a way to hang on to him.  He looks at home in that Bronco uniform and I would bet he knows that.  P won’t be there long.  That is what we call Peyton Manning in my little corner of Indiana, we just call him “P”.  Maybe one day we will look at the TV when the Broncos are playing and wonder how “B” is doing.

Here is what I do know.  Before Peyton went into the game and completed 5 of 9 passes, I was looking forward to getting Super Bowl 50 in my rear-view mirror.  Now…with “P” in the picture, I hope things take their sweet time.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I will be married 20 years come this February.  We lived in a little house when we got married.  In August of 1998, I went out to the side of the house and manually turned our TV antennae on a pole to point toward Channel 4 to the North to pick up the Colts from our extreme Southern Indiana Harrison County home. We sat as far away as we could from the TV to make out the picture the best we could. (Thanks to Peyton, the Louisville market now sees all the Colts pre-season games and we can watch the games close or far from the TV.)   Peyton Manning threw a touchdown on his first pass that night in a game at Seattle…I think.  No matter, it was a memory, kind of like Gary Kubiak’s miked-up performance in 1982.

All I can say is…Go Broncos!  Keep Peyton upright and you can go anywhere!

I have yet to check on the “Black Monday” NFL coach firings today.  I hope Chuck Pagano did not get fired.  41 wins in four years and he went through four or five QBs this season.  I got news for you…the Colts don’t have Peyton Manning anymore.  He compensated some other shortcomings the franchise is looking at now.  And I am not talking about the QB position.  Andrew Luck is a good one.  I just doubt he told management he would kick their butt if they did not take him.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson