Weston Gentry2013-05-18T23:21:34-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=weston-gentryCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Weston GentryGood old fashioned elbow grease.Kyle Orton: The Anti-Tebowtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9570162011-09-13T12:07:29-04:002011-11-13T05:12:02-05:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/
Why did Orton -- a physically gifted, statistically superior, incumbent quarterback -- have to worry about his job security? It wasn't by anyone's assessment about his ability to perform on the field.
Orton's 2010 season was as solid statistically as any of his predecessors. He passed for 3,653 yards, 20 TDs, and 9 INTs. His passer rating was 87.5. Decent numbers especially when you consider that he missed the last three games of the season.
To put his numbers in perspective, he had fewer INTs in 2010 than Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. He passed for more yards than Jay Cutler, Joe Flacco, and Mark Sanchez. The glaring difference between Orton and the aforementioned quarterbacks was his inability to lead his team to the postseason.
His numbers are even more impressive when you compare them to John Elway's. Elway -- the gold standard by which any Bronco QB is judged -- passed for more yards in a single season only three times (1985, 1993, 1995) in his 16-year career and threw for fewer than 10 INTS only in his rookie season. Elway's career passer rating was 79.9.
So why was finding a Kyle Orton jersey in the sea of orange at Mile High (excuse me ... Sports Authority Field at Mile High) on Monday night like trying to find Waldo? Allow me to submit a theory. It isn't about Orton's inadequacies, but has more to do with his competition's non-football related strengths.
Kyle Orton is the Anti-Tebow. He is the polar opposite of the preseason sentimental favorite for the Bronco QB job in almost every way. The controversy wasn't about skill -- it was about his image.
Consider the following three factors (feel free to submit your own in the comments section):
1. The Pretty Factor
Orton, after hard day's work, looks a little something like a sweaty sheepdog turned upright. He isn't hideous, but I think even he realizes that his arm -- not his face -- is his future.
Tebow, on the other hand, is a square-jawed, underwear model adored by single women the country over and not just Christian girls waiting on the right guy.
But this is football and looks don't matter right? Think again. Mark Sanchez and Tom Brady have both done magazine shoots for GQ. Brett Favre's rugged good looks caught the eye of Wrangler jeans execs. Even Peyton Manning ... well ... the argument isn't bullet proof, but you get the idea. The bottom line is that the United States is a beauty-obsessed culture and looks always matter, even in the most macho of all sports.
2. The Political Factor
Orton's political pedigree reads something more like a Boulder liberal than a Colorado Springs conservative. (Both are broad generalizations, but you get the idea.)
He's a politically savvy, environmentally friendly, private school graduate. That's not a bad thing, but bad if you are playing week in, week out in front of a primarily conservative, Republican audience.
You can disagree with my assessment of the NFL fan base, but statistics don't. A 2010 poll conducted jointly by Nielsen and Arbitron indicated that Republicans are more likely to watch the NFL and college football among other sports while Democrats are more likely to watch Major League Soccer, Tennis, and the NBA.
Liberal and football are oil and water. The response Orton is receiving on the field is akin to the reception that Nancy Pelosi might receive if she drove the pace car at Talladega.
Conversely, Tebow is a Southerner by birth, the son of a Christian evangelist, and an outspoken conservative. His Superbowl ad on behalf of Focus on the Family in 2010 against abortion drew the ire of many a liberal pundit, but confirmed that he wasn't going to leave his conservative values in Florida. That plays well with a football audience.
3. The Role Model Factor
Orton's career as serial bar hopper is probably better documented than his on-the-field exploits. So much so, that he was admitted into the inaugural class of the Deadspin Hall of Fame in 2006 alongside the infamous Viking's Sex Boat. In case you are lost, that isn't good thing. To his credit, he has matured since then, but unfortunately Google NEVER forgets.
Now, he is an unassuming, model citizen, but fans don't need a prodigal when they have a charismatic, squeaky-clean leader waiting in the wings. His past moral shortcomings don't make him the Anti-Christ. He just has the misfortune of being compared to Tebow, who is arguably the most virtuous professional athlete in the modern era.
In totality, my assertion is that football attracts a primarily wholesome, conservative crowd and is always going to favor players like Tebow. His story and his lifestyle fit the audience and storyline better. That being the case, the Bronco quarterback controversy wasn't an Orton problem. It was a Tebow problem. He's so likeable and so perfect that Bronco and football fans as whole can't appreciate how serviceable Kyle Orton is.
He isn't going to win any popularity contests, nor is he going to keep butts in the seats if the Broncos continues to lose games because he is the Anti-Tebow. That contrast will always keep him from being first in fan's hearts, but as long as he is healthy he will rightly be first on the depth chart.
]]>Aspiring Writers Take Note: Not All Can Live the Life of ESPN's Reillytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8622112011-05-16T14:33:10-04:002011-07-16T05:12:02-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/ESPN.com columnist and 1981 University of Colorado alumnus -- delivered what amounted to a farewell speech to CU's School of Journalism and Mass Communications on May 5th. True to his journalistic style, he offered a mixture of advice and risqué one-liners that kept graduates in stitches and school administrators in a cold sweat.
His advice ignited anew the tension between bloggers and conventional journalists. At one point he quipped that bloggers were only good for "holding down couch springs in their mothers' basements." Reilly further advised some 280 graduating media professionals:
When you get out there, all I ask is that you: DON'T WRITE FOR FREE! Nobody asks strippers to strip for free, doctors to doctor for free or professors to profess for free. Have some pride! What you know how to do now is a skill that 99.9 percent of people don't have. If you do it for free, they won't respect you in the morning. Or the next day. Or the day after that. You sink everybody's boat in the harbor, not just yours. So just DON'T!
My stomach went into a knot and I quietly murmured to myself, "That's easy for you to say, old man."
Reilly is one of the highest paid journalists in the business. His weekly column at ESPN.com draws an estimated $3.4 million a year and he owns homes in Denver and Hermosa Beach, Calif.
The thrust of Reilly's message -- take pride in what you do -- was timeless. But with all due respect Mr. Reilly, demanding pay from an industry that is financially reeling will do as much to get you to first base as showing a date your Beanie Baby collection. I know from experience. (The former... not the later)
He cut his teeth in a different era. During the speech, Reilly should have had an expiration tag attached to his robes dated 1979. That was when he got his first journalism gig as a sophomore in college at the Boulder Daily Camera.
Things were different in '79. The Empire Strikes Back was in production, Starbucks was a mom-and-pop coffee shop in Seattle, and a network dedicated solely to sports -- that was sure to be a flop -- called ESPN was launched. No Internet, no blogs, no Twitter... different time, different world.
Journalism was reserved for a privileged set of trained professionals. It was an exclusive fraternity and Reilly was a prized pledge. The heralded jokester hasn't seen the unemployment line since his days at the Camera. He quickly rose through the ranks of some of America's most respected print publications -- The Denver Post, the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN The Magazine.
Much to Reilly's and many journalism purists' chagrin, writers are no longer bound by journalism's power structure. The Internet has provided a means for writers to hot-wire their way to the top through blogging. Bloggers are undesirable second cousins that Reilly and company would prefer not to call colleagues. Unfortunately for him, some of them get pretty good.
Take Reilly's ESPN counterpart Bill Simmons (aka "The Sports Guy"), one of the web's first sports blogging sensations. Simmons landed a job with ESPN in 2001 after being spurned for years by newspapers and "reputable publications." For four years, Simmons forwarded an AOL column he wrote for free about the Boston sports scene to family, college buddies, and anyone else interested. He tended bar at nights to pay for his writing habit. He built a following, and eventually ESPN took notice.
Today, his ESPN.com column draws an estimated 2.5 million hits a week and Simmons is in the process of starting his own sports and culture website on ESPN's dime. On a Boston radio show in 2005, Simmons mused on his experiences,
I tried to do this [writing] conventionally. I spent three years at the [Boston] Herald and even tried to make my mark at the [Boston] Phoenix. The bottom line is that newspaper unions have killed this business -- writers stay too long and never leave, and young writers who would kill to have their jobs never have a chance.
I've been an avid Reilly follower since junior high, but asking him how to eke out a writing career in the current journalism economy is a little like asking Kate Middleton where to find a reasonably priced wedding dress. Young writers should follow Simmons' lead and be more worried about exposure than a paycheck.
P.S. - Mr. Reilly, if you need an unpaid intern that can give you another decade's worth of pithy, culturally savvy zingers feel free to tweet me... if you know what that means.]]>Bell Gives Colorado Hell, More Religious Opportunists to Follow?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8590042011-05-09T16:11:32-04:002011-07-09T05:12:01-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/swing state. It attracted a who's who of American politicians from both major parties: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and the list goes on. Without a doubt, the state has gained a reputation as being "up for grabs." Almost anyone of any political persuasion can draw a crowd and find a following in Colorado.
For some of the same reasons, Colorado also seems to be shaping up as a popular target for religious ideologues. Last month, Rob Bell, a Michigan-based megachurch pastor turned best-selling author, committed almost an entire week of tour stops to Colorado promoting his book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. The book offers a controversial reassessment of the Christian notion of hell.
Bell isn't your typical silver-tongued evangelist. In fact, upon first impression, he probably looks and talks more like someone who would be teaching you how to use GarageBand at the Apple Genius Bar. Don't be fooled by his geeky veneer. Bell's ideas are generating buzz on par with any political candidate.
Love Winsdebuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list less than two weeks after its March 15 release and has remained on the list continuously since. It has incited both criticism and praise in the Christian community. Bell summed up the thesis of his book this way:
A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It's been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and that to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.
One-third (three of nine) of Bell's official book tour stops promoting Love Wins in the United States have been in Colorado. Last month, his speaking tour brought Ikea-like lines to four Front Range speaking engagements even without the enticing lure of Swedish meatballs.
Students and visitors had to be turned away at the door an hour before he spoke informally at Denver Seminary -- a historically conservative Evangelical Christian institution in Littleton, CO -- on April 8 in order to comply with fire code restrictions.
The engagement wasn't part of his official tour, but indicative of the type of reception Bell received at all his Colorado stops. Longtime professors at the school said that it was the most well-attended event in recent memory. Denver Seminary even hosted a follow-up forum on May 3 to debate his ideas.
Bell's disproportionate focus on Colorado might seem out of place to some. Colorado graded out as one of the most irreligious states in the union in terms of regular attendance in a 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Its religious apathy was bested only by a handful of states in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Not surprisingly, the most religious areas were Utah and the Deep South.
The only explanation for the Bell phenomenon in Colorado seems to be opportunity. Due to its lack of religious zeal and uniformity, Colorado may be the closest thing to a religious frontier that still exists in America. Historically, Colorado seems to be a place that has been more keen on diversion than dogma in part because of its unique landscape.
Coloradans, on the whole, are probably more likely to impose their dog's droppings on their neighbor than their religious beliefs.
Bell's visit could be an indicator that Colorado's traditionally laissez-faire approach to religion may be a pheromone attracting spiritual leaders seeking nationwide traction.
Get used to names like Rob Bell and get used to Colorado as religious battleground state. If you aren't religious, beware. Unlike politics, religion isn't bound by an election cycle.]]>Denver Nuggets on Course to Be "Lebron'd" by Carmelo Anthonytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8205772011-02-09T12:31:34-05:002011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/
Barring a lapse in judgment on the part of Knicks GM Donnie Walsh, the Nuggets appear to be on a crash course toward being "Lebron'd" by Melo.
Not familiar with the term "Lebron'd?" If you are from Denver you should become so. You won't find it in Webster's. You can however find it on the keeper of all worthwhile pop-culture knowledge Urbandictionary.com.
LeBron'd ( adj.) ( n.):
1. Meaning to vacate a position or status of locality for one that is more lucrative and full of theatrics; cowardly betrayal; a homegrown disloyalty.
2. Leaving for more money and better scenery; particularly those near the ocean.
This reality has cornered the Nuggets to negotiate almost solely with Gotham's only two basketball franchises--the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets and the New York Knicks.
It appeared for sometime that the New Jersey Nets would snare Melo. However, the Nets owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, got as sick of negotiations with the Nuggets superstar as the city of Denver is of him being in blue and gold.
When negotiations stalled, the Russian Billionaire killed the trade. We are talking Russian dead. Cast naked into Siberia in winter dead. Left to rot in the Gulag dead. Lead waits at the bottom of the Moskova River dead. I don't know about you, but when a Russian says something is dead, I trust them.
Sadly for the Nuggets, I doubt the Knicks are seriously interested either.
In spite of trade rumors to the contrary over the last week, I suspect Knicks GM Donnie Walsh is too smart to mortgage his team's future for two additional months of Melo's service.
He will be able to get him in free agency after the season is over if he wants him and it won't cost him any prospects. In fact, Melo may even be willing to take a pay cut to play home games in Madison Square Garden.
Even though the Knicks stand a good chance of making the playoffs this year, they don't have the horses to run with the top tier Eastern Conferences teams like Miami and Boston. Walsh realizes that.
He will maximize what he has right now, which isn't much, but then again this is the same guy who turned Rik Smits and a wiry shooting guard named Reggie Miller into title contenders with the Indiana Pacers.
It won't be in a drawn out press conference, but that won't make it any less painful. High and dry is something that the city of Denver already is, but the Nuggets are about to be left higher and drier. Melo is leaving and Denver will have nothing to show for it save a few less drunk driving arrests.
Don't buy into the trade rumors. Denver is about to be the new Cleveland minus the dreary weather. Mark it down. Another NBA superstar is leaving for greener pastures and we will all be witnesses... again. ]]>Ted Haggard and Thirty Pieces of Silvertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8096182011-01-16T03:53:54-05:002011-05-25T18:25:24-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/ evangelical Christian community was rocked by a scandal involving former Colorado Springs megachurch pastor Ted Haggard and a male escort named Mike Jones. Haggard is already back in the pulpit and this past weekend he was back in the public eye.
The TLC Network broadcast Haggard's "comeback" story on Sunday titled Ted Haggard: Scandalous and is considering an entire spin-off series.
That's right...the same network that brought you the genius of Toddlers & Tiaras, The Little Couple, and Sarah Palin's Alaska may now be poised to give the evangelical black sheep a shot at reality tv stardom.
The show would hold no allure whatsoever if Haggard was just a minor character in contemporary Christian history. Reality is, however, that he was an influential figure who evangelicals can't simply pass off as an undesirable distant relative.
As an evangelical Christian myself, I am disappointed with Haggard's most recent foray into television but not because of his past moral failures. I realize that Christians are as flawed as the rest of the non-Christian world and anyone making claims to the contrary is delusional. Every Christian is a hypocrite to some degree because everyone consistently fails to live up to Biblical standards whether they admit it or not.
I know full well that if all my dirty laundry were put on display for the entire world to see, my mother would cry and my wife would divorce me. I take that back. My mother would cry and my wife would kick me squarely in the privates and then divorce me.
It isn't Haggard's moral shortcomings that bother me. It's his shameless attempts to profit from his failures in the name of God that make me queasy.
The embattled minister seems to have suppressed his passion for "massages" and methamphetamines, but it is clear that he hasn't quite quenched his thirst for fame and fortune.
My family and I endured the darkest hours imaginable in the public spotlight, and have spent the last four years fighting and struggling to rebuild our lives, our faith and our family...showing the world the new chapter of our lives will hopefully inspire others to find their own path to overcome their struggles and embrace the power of acceptance.
For someone so tired of life in the "public spotlight," he sure hasn't made much of an effort to avoid it. Since Haggard's removal as the pastor of New Life Church, he has appeared on Oprah, Larry King Live, ABC's 20/20, Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, The Today Show, and Divorce Court just to name a few.
He was also the subject of Alexandra Pelosi's 2009 documentary entitled,The Trials of Ted Haggard which traced his "exile" from Colorado and his attempts to function as a normal citizen.
He is as bad at being ordinary as he is at telling the truth about what happened with Mike Jones in 2007. His amended explanation of his encounters with Jones from his own website reads:
Initially, I publicly lied about my knowledge of Mr. Jones and his accusations, but after a few days I admitted to being "sexually immoral" because I had one massage from him that had become sensual and had purchased drugs from him as well.
"One massage that had become sensual?" I think Jones and the surrounding evidence would indicate otherwise. However, outright admission would make it unlikely that Haggard could serve in his present capacity as pastor, and as Pelosi's documentary shows, he isn't qualified to do much of anything else except mooch off other Christians.
Haggard has claimed repeatedly that he is in financial ruin, but I have a hard time believing it.
He is still receiving royalties from a dozen books he has authored or co-authored, he still lives in a house valued at over $700, 000 north of Colorado Springs, and he has a new gig as the pastor of a church that he started that currently boasts about 300 attendees.
If this is what financial ruin looks like maybe I should start emulating Haggard by fake baking, bleaching my teeth, and spouting spiritual generalities in an annoying voice.
Looking at the situation from a Biblical perspective, Haggard's drug and sexual escapades aren't all that different or worse than some of the great saints of Christian history. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer. Peter was a liar.
However, none of the aforementioned profited financially from their shortcomings. I can think of one Biblical character that did make a nice little mint from selling his friends and community out though. His name was Judas.
Public be warned. Ted Haggard is not looking for redemption. He's looking for a payday.]]>Why College Football Fans Really Hate the BCStag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8041612011-01-04T13:30:23-05:002011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Secondary to a fierce devotion to the game itself, college football fans and pundits love nothing more than to hate the BCS.
While they clamor for a playoff or "plus-one" system under the guise of fairness, I suspect their real frustration goes much deeper. Jocks hate nerds. It's that simple. They always have and they always will.
Jocks are especially peeved when nerds attempt to impose their nerdiness on others as they do in the math-heavy BCS system.
The BCS would be completely inoffensive to college football purists if dorks would have kept to their Rubik's cubes and allowed the "real experts" (ex-players, coaches, and the media) to crown a champion every January as they did in the good ol' days. But when the BCS changeover occurred in 1998, intellectuals began to infiltrate the college football universe.
Today, the BCS relies on highly complex statistical equations created by people like Jeff Sagarin (an MIT graduate) and Wes Colley (a Princeton PhD in Astrophysical Sciences) to determine objectively the best Division I college football team in the country.
Sagarin and Colley's rankings represent two of six computer rankings that together comprise one-third of the total BCS equation. The other two-thirds remains in the hands of the old guard (former and current players, coaches, and media). This may seem like a relatively small imposition, but so was the Alamo to Texas. To the jock community, computer rankings represent a full-fledged geek invasion into the heart their territory.
Perhaps the most difficult thing to stomach for die-hard fans and college football commentators is that the statistical ranking system usually gets it right.
This season serves as a great example. The BCS pinpointed Auburn and Oregon as the best two teams in country, which is a difficult conclusion to argue with (apologies to TCU fans). The precision of the computers illustrates why nerds are so uniformly despised in the first place--they are usually right.
In spite of its complexity, I actually favor the BCS system over a playoff or "plus-one" system. You may be wondering if I also cheered for Ivan Drago to beat Rocky in Rocky IV. I assure you that I am neither an enemy of college football tradition nor a communist. I just believe that given the pre-existing college bowl structure, the BCS makes the most sense.
It has fostered a competitive environment superior to other sports. In college football every game means something. Teams vie for the national championship every week not just one month of the year--no excuses and no mulligans. That kind of intensity and electricity is unparalleled in the sports world with the exception of perhaps the Olympic Games.
Even though I lean toward the BCS over other options, I do so hesitantly. I can empathize with BCS haters. It is a cruel irony that the champion of the meatiest of all meathead sports is being partially determined by computers, math equations, and people that probably only know the Statue of Liberty as something that sits in New York Harbor. (If you don't get that you joke, you are undoubtedly in the nerd camp.)
As a wannabe jock and armchair quarterback, I too am a little irked that the national championship of anything is computed at all. Like many college football enthusiasts, I have spent my entire life running from math and now it seems to be catching up to me in the most unlikely of places--football.
Shouldn't it be the people that have been chucking Nerf footballs in their backyards since childhood not the kids who were inside punching buttons on their TI-85 calculators that have a say in who plays for a national title? It reeks of injustice. Perhaps it is some sort of cosmic reward to nerds for enduring ridicule and wedgies throughout their lives.
The BCS is not despised because it is inaccurate. It is just annoying that nerds got it right... again. It serves as a visible reminder to jocks nationwide that our grade school teachers were right. Nerds rule the universe--jock world included.]]>Five Things All of Denver Wants for Christmastag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.8008702010-12-23T14:23:28-05:002011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/
Most of these wishes for Denver are unrealistic and not financially feasible, but so was my annual desire for a Fisher Price Power Wheel as a kid. I never got it and Denver probably won't get any of the requests that follow. Nevertheless, a boy can dream.
Without further delay, my wishes this Christmas to improve Denver are...
# 5 - That the RTD Light Rail would be extended into the mountains
Anyone who has been paralyzed on a Sunday return trip from skiing in Summit County knows that this one is a no brainer. A little piece of me dies every time I undertake that 60-mile stretch of frustration on I-70. I have no doubt the financial buy-in would be ridiculous, but temporary fixes like "zipper lanes" will prove inadequate to accommodate traffic as the Front Range continues to grow. If we can build a highway that goes through the mountains (Johnson & Eisenhower Tunnels), surely we can find a way to install mass transit through them as well.
It was heartbreaking to watch this staple of the West fold just a few months shy of its 150th anniversary in February of 2009. The Denver Post isn't horrible but comparatively it is pretty sterile. The Rocky had personality. Its history, depth, and tabloid-style layout made it a delight to read. Listening to ex-Rocky employees beam about their former employer is like listening to Texans brag about...well...Texas. Only a handful of two newspaper towns exist anymore but competition makes everyone better. That is especially true in media related fields.
Who would have thought that the state that produced Nicolas Cage and the Pet Rock could create something as brilliant as Trader Joe's. I've got to give credit where it is due though. Trader Joe's is amazing. Thank you California. With affordable gourmet goodies, cheap wine, and tacky decor it's a little slice of heaven. Trader Joe's avoidance of Colorado is trivial. They've expanded to Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas. That is almost every state in our part of the U.S. except Colorado. If it's a liquor law problem, just let me know which state legislator's house I need to picket.
# 2 - For the Denver Parking Police to chill-out
Denver has a rich history of many things. Unfortunately, that includes a band of overzealous parking police that will ticket you for looking at them wrong. They have quite a reputation for being sticklers for the rules. Sadly for most Denver inhabitants, parking tickets are a budget line item. The city whittles away our pocket books $25 and $50 at a time through covert street-sweeping attacks and other questionable tactics. They are so out of control that a couple of them got nabbed two weeks ago for abusing their power. It would make for a more joyful holiday season for all Denver residents if they would occasionally just issue a warning or if they were all slowly lowered feet first into lava.
# 1 - That the Broncos would hire a proven head football coach
The Broncos are THE sports team in Denver. To some extent, morale in the city hinges on the success or failure of our beloved gridiron heroes. At present, the organization is in shambles. We've peddled away most of our young talent and most reputable coaching candidates are avoiding the Mile High City like we have the plague. Those realities combined with the fact that we will be paying three head coaching contracts (Mike Shanahan, Josh McDaniels, and the future head coach) next season make it unlikely that the Broncos will be able lure anyone the caliber of Bill Cowher or Mike Holmgren to Denver. We need a Christmas miracle.
]]>Broncos Are the Latest Victims of the NFL Youth Movementtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7971202010-12-15T12:42:56-05:002011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/Josh McDaniels debacle. Don't hire a boy to do a man's job. McDaniels, who wasn't even 40 when he was hired (shout out to Mike Gundy), proves once again that in the National Football League young isn't synonymous with prodigy.
The NFL, like many other entities, is in the midst of a youth movement. The success of coaches like the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin (hired at 34) has owners and general managers jonesing for non-gray haired talent. Charisma, energy, and "relatability" to players seem to be much more desirable qualities than actual experience these days.
Undoubtedly, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen had visions of Don Shula (hired by the Baltimore Colts at age 33) dancing in his head when he chose the Bill Belichick protégé to guide the Broncos in 2009. With McDaniels' perfect teeth and cute dimples, who can really blame him? Too bad Bowlen was choosing a coach, not a prom date.
Successful young coaches are the exception and not the rule in the NFL. For every Jon Gruden (hired by the Oakland Raiders at age 32) there are ten Lane Kiffins (hired at age 31, also by the Raiders). In fact, the aforementioned Tomlin and Gruden are the only two head coaches under the age of 40 to ever win Super Bowls. They were both on the backside of their 30s at ages 39 and 36 respectively when they captured the coveted Lombardi Trophy.
Unfortunately, McDaniels was a lot more like Kiffin than the more successful Gruden or Tomlin. Like Kiffin, McDaniels was a "brilliant" offensive mind that moved quickly up the assistant coaching ranks. Also like Kiffin, McDaniels came from a coaching family. Supposedly, they also both have near genius level football smarts. (Is that phrase an oxymoron?)
Unlike Lane Kiffin, McDaniels doesn't have his dad to lean on any more nor does he have notoriety obtained from his name being dropped in rap songs.
Giving Josh McDaniels the reins to the Denver Broncos proved to be like potty training a kid on the grown up's toilet. The environment was just way too big and intimidating. Metaphorically speaking, McDaniels soiled himself. He took a playoff-caliber team, stripped it of its talent, and reduced it to mediocrity.
I suspect the obsession with young coaches in the NFL stems from our culture's fascination with successful young people in general. Magazines love to compile catchy lists like the "Most Successful 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40." And for good reason, since they make for interesting reading and periodicals like those fly off the shelves.
The simple fact is you can't create such a list with NFL coaches because there have only been 22 head coaches under the age of 35 in the history of the NFL. I would wager that you have never heard of most of them. Successful young coaches are few and far between. Pardon the pun, but the NFL proves to be a whole different ball game compared to other professions.
NFL franchises aren't like other businesses. Take Microsoft and Facebook, for instance. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg both seemed to navigate the business world with relative ease in their early 20s. But tech companies are not quite football teams. Gates and Zuckerberg are leading armies of software engineers that subsist on Mountain Dew and Hot-N-Ready pizzas from Little Caesars. They aren't managing sculpted, egomaniacal athletes.
I don't have a lot of advice for Pat Bowlen other than this. Learn from your mistake. Shell out the money for a proven coach or reward a long time coordinator who has put in his time. Prodigies don't grow on trees, especially in the NFL.]]>The Now Infamous Denver Nativity Scene: Is It Pushing Christianity or American Culture?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7914222010-12-03T10:37:16-05:002011-05-25T18:15:22-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/City and County Building in Denver.
Helping spearhead the cause is an angry little elf named Marvin Straus who is the co-founder of the Boulder Atheists and represents the Colorado Coalition of Reason (COCORE). Responding to the Nativity scene displayed in front of a public building, he told 9NEWS on Tuesday, "the message is there should be no government supported religion, and that's what we have here."
Straus and COCORE are attempting to ward off what they perceive as the encroachment of religion, specifically Christianity in this case, on the Christmas holiday. Forgive me for being the bearer of bad news to COCORE, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
While it is well within their rights as citizens to protest, I often wonder if they are genuinely concerned about the separation of church and state or just discontent with the way religion has shaped American culture as a whole. All they really seem to be accomplishing with their protests is tarnishing a time of celebration for most everyone else--religious and irreligious.
It reminds me of a familiar Christmas story involving a certain green villain.
Straus earns the label of Grinch this year because he and COCORE will be renting three billboards in the Denver area for the next month at a cost of approximately $1,000 to protest the Nativity display in front of Denver's City and County Building.
The message of the billboards will read, "Stop government support of religion. Move this Nativity scene to a church."
Allow me to invoke my nearly half-decade of experience as a beverage engineer (barista) as a means to illustrate a point.
For a Starbucks barista, Christmas time is like a bris--quick but painful. After my shifts I would retreat home exhausted, reeking of curdled eggnog, my retinas burning from overexposure to the holiday cups, and worst of all with the same ten Christmas songs on repeat in my brain for nearly a month.
Christmas music in moderation is good. Christmas music on loop in public places is pure evil. The crown jewel of annoying Christmas songs is "Santa Baby." Starbucks loves that one. If you want a sure-fire way to get spit in your latte just serenade a barista with that holiday "classic."
Along with "secular" songs like "Santa Baby," Starbucks also plays many traditional Christian Christmas hymns. As a student of Christian theology, when a Christian hymn would start I would always freeze, watch my customers, and brace for impact. But to my surprise nothing ever happened.
We never received a complaint about the Christian hymns even though I expected it every time those songs played. After all, those hymns are chock-full of Christian theology. Take the first stanza of a popular Christmas hymn that Starbucks likes to play called "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."
God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day; To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.
Christ Our Savior? Save us all from Satan's power? Gone astray? WHAT?! Is Starbucks making me pay four bucks for coffee and preaching at me to boot?
Before you rush out to picket your local Starbucks, hear me out. Howard Schultz isn't a Christian. He's Jewish. So why would he allow Christian doctrines to echo in his hallowed temples of caffeine?
It's because Schultz and the Starbucks brass understand what Straus and COCORE don't want to accept. Christmas hymns, Nativity scenes, and the like have and will always be part of the American Christmas experience, not just the Christian one.
In fact, Nativity scenes have become such a part of American culture that some of the Nativity characters have begun to assume Western characteristics.
Take the Nativity scene in question in front of Denver's City and County Building. I can't tell you what Jesus looked like exactly, but I assure you he and his mother weren't pasty-white and blue-eyed. Furthermore, I seriously doubt Jesus wore a bleached white onesie and was smiling ear-to-ear at birth.
If the scene were really accurate, the baby would have a lot darker skin, he would be covered in amniotic goo, and he would probably be screaming at the top of his lungs.
The point is Nativity scenes don't solely portray the Gospel story, but they also incorporate elements of the culture of which they are a part. For some the Denver Nativity has a profoundly Christian meaning, but for others I suspect it's akin to Christmas hymns at Starbucks. It's just background music in the midst of many distracting treats.
Neither point-of-view seems bothersome, but it does seem very Grinch-like to ruin the holiday season for everyone else.
The City and County Building Nativity Scene in Denver has survived 40 years of legal challenges, and I'm sure it can withstand one more. COCORE might have an easier time trying get rid of Santa Claus.
Hopefully, Straus and COCORE's hearts will grow a little bit this year. Maybe they could even put the $1,000 earmarked for inflammatory billboards toward something that might be remotely effective like feeding the poor or clothing the homeless.]]>Thanksgiving in Five Points: Poverty and Plentytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7883832010-11-25T10:16:59-05:002011-05-25T18:15:22-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/transitional neighborhoods in big cities -- me included. However, living in these areas often puts you face-to-face with some sobering realities of life in the city.
My wife and I live on the border of Whittier and Five Points in Denver. Our neighborhood is a mish-mash of everything from Section 8 housing to renovated Victorians. We rent a modest turn of the century row home.
I can't tell you how many times a week I name-drop where I live. I love the variety of responses I receive.
If I am talking to older Denverites, they usually respond with shock. They remember my neighborhood before it began to gentrify and can't fathom a skinny, white guy surviving in the "hood."
Young, hipster-types always think I am very edgy and "authentic." For hipsters, one of the cardinal sins you can commit is moving to the suburbs. In reality I'm not a hipster, I'm just cheap.
My older sister gets scared when I talk about my neighborhood. This really works to my advantage because she won't just drop her kids off for me to babysit. She's terrified of coming near my house. For her, Downing Street (which borders my neighborhood) might as well be the 38th parallel.
In spite of what anyone thinks, Five Points and Whittier are both a far cry from what they were twenty years ago. They aren't the hives of shady characters that most people perceive them to be from afar.
I've never been mugged, and the closest thing I've ever seen to a gang fight has been watching a pug and French Bulldog nip at each other in the dog park that's a few blocks away.
Crime isn't the biggest problem in my neighborhood. Poverty is. In fact, it's a problem in all of Denver. According to the most recent census data, the number of impoverished families in Denver has increased from 10.6 percent in 1999 to 14.7 percent in 2009.
This reality really hit home a couple of weeks ago on the way home from an afternoon jog. I witnessed an incident that I'd previously only seen in underdeveloped countries.
I happened upon two Latino mothers foraging in the dumpsters behind my house. Each of them had a toddler bundled up and seated in the front seats of bobsled-style double strollers.
The mothers had the back seats of their strollers piled high with aluminum cans and an assortment of other reclaimed household goods. They were both hunched over garbage cans with their backs to me, so I stared with complete impunity.
The disparity of the situation struck me. A few steps behind me in my house were all the amenities that I can't seem to live without as a middle class American. My 1080p flat screen television, stainless steel appliances, and Fig Newtons are just a few of my "essentials."
I gazed long enough that one of the boys caught me. When we locked eyes, I knew that the gig was up so I hastily retreated into the comfort of my home. I quickly closed the blinds and insulated myself from the scene and the child's piercing brown eyes as best as I could.
He was young enough that I doubt he will remember me or the incident. But I won't forget him anytime soon.
Most people this time of year begin to suffer from compassion fatigue. So I'm not going to waste time lecturing or soliciting. It would be impossible for me to top Sarah McLachlan and her one-eyed puppy commercials.
The economy is bad and the job market is bad. However, if Thanksgiving isn't as decadent or Christmas as lucrative as it usually is, it could always be worse. That was the lesson I learned from my alleyway encounter.
Give thanks and if you have a little extra spread it around.]]>The Tim Tebow Story Everyone Is Waiting fortag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7864272010-11-20T16:52:47-05:002011-05-25T18:15:22-04:00Weston Gentryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/weston-gentry/
Sure he hasn't even started a game yet. But when he does it won't be much of a revelation to anyone.
Even though Kyle Orton is having a pretty stellar season (he's 2nd in the NFL in passing yards for peet's sake!), the consensus is that he is just keeping the QB seat warm until Superman is ready to take the reigns.
Tebow will start it's just a matter of time. I would bet Orton's mangy neckbeard on it. It won't be shocking news to anyone when it finally happens.
The real story to be had about Tim Tebow is when will he falter morally. Right now that's every Denver journalist's "white whale." When will the too good to be true, "super-Christian" fall from grace?
Don't worry he will. That's as inevitable as Lil' Wayne going back to prison.
The ubiquitous media will eventually catch him refusing to purchase Caramel DeLites from a Girl Scout or improperly disposing of the his leftover Muscle Milk in a drain that leads to a river.
They might even get a picture of him doing something scandalous like kissing a girl. (*GASSSSSSPPPPPP*)
Should it really be news when we finally have evidence that Tim Tebow is indeed human? When we have proof, at long last, that he doesn't poop diamonds.
I wake up every morning expecting to see documentation of Tebow in a compromising situation on sport's journalisms best impression of TMZ, Deadspin.com. They make a living incriminating major sports figures. Just ask Kyle Orton. I bet they have a photographer devoted to Tebow full-time.
I would even wager that more than a few local journalists have the skeleton of a Tebow moral failure story already written and are just waiting to plug in the specifics. Think I am crazy?
This really happens in the journalism world, usually with obituaries, but it occasionally happens with other "inevitable" stories as well.
Personally, I've already written obituaries for both Larry King and Lindsey Lohan. I just can't seem to get either of them to die. I guess in Larry King's case it's more of a problem of getting CNN to acknowledge that he is actually dead but you get the idea.
I know you are thinking that I must have one killer Tebow man-crush to go to bat for him like this. On the contrary, I curse him almost weekly for defeating my beloved Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS National Championship Game a couple of years ago. I still see his massive thighs running rough shot through the OU defensive line in my nightmares.
Or maybe you think that I must be attempting to covertly push Christian or Southern culture on Colorado by lobbying for Tebow.
Just to put your mind at ease let it be known that I don't watch NASCAR, I don't hand out pocket-sized Gideon Bibles, I don't drink sweet tea, and I really like living in a city that is religiously and culturally diverse. I could care less what Tim's personal preferences are. He could sacrifice stray cats on a pagan altar and then deep-fry them for all I care.
The point is that he is a role model without an attitude or a lot of baggage and I like that.
He's a modern day white knight. I can enjoy watching kids scamper around in number 15 jerseys without fear that they will be crushed when they find out what their hero does off the field. Is that too utopian of me?
I know that he's going to fail eventually in some capacity. He's human after all. When Tebow finally does make a mistake, do me a favor. Cut Tebow some slack. He's not Jesus. He's just doing his best to imitate him.
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