Pop A Rat

I realize that I'm late to the blogging party on this, but a few brief words on the firing of Mike Shanahan by the Denver Broncos.

1) The only reason this is a surprise is that Denver doesn't have a very strong media. If the Rat had spent the last ten years in a major East Coast market not making the Super Bowl after the departure of Star Quarterback, there would have been noise about him getting the axe.

2) I'm not sure it's possible to talk about how much fantasy football owners hated this guy. Seriously, he made us own Tatum Bell. He had us draft Travis Henry in the first round. The running back carousel was non-stop, and he was respected enough as a talent evaluator that it seemed like every team in the league went there. Plus, he also went strongly down the path of Vulture Back at the goal line. Just a total nightmare, every year. I'm looking forward to the next Broncos team actually having guys you can draft without taking a stiff drink (or six) first.

3) Given his record of, for the most part, not getting it done without John Elway paired with a healthy Terrell Davis, and a godawful defense that threw away a pretty good year from Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal... winding up with an 8-8 year in a terrible division, including a last-month choke job for the ages... well, why *should* he still have the gig? And how is it that the Broncos are necessarily going to stink on ice without him?

All they need is a tolerable defense. The Rat wasn't giving it to them, but it's not like they couldn't get there next year with a decent draft, a free agent or two, health for Champ Bailey and just a little bit of luck.

So while Media People might think that the Rat Pop means that NFL teams are just crazy impatient and unrealistic in their expectations... I, personally, think there's more than a fair amount of cause here, and that Bronco Fan is probably more than a little pleased by the idea of a new regime. Provided, of course, that they are interested in winning in this century...