Let there be new light. Make it royal blue and orange. Picture a perfect Rocky Mountain Front Range sunset Monday evening. The timing will be just right for a coronation.
Russell Carrington Wilson’s fascinating lineage includes an English king. With maximum drama, and in the heart of his former kingdom, King Russell ascends his new throne tonight. We’ll learn immediately how Seahawk fans respond to their former sovereign.
Bronco fans have already pledged allegiance. All around town, and at Nuggets, Rockies and Avalanche games, King Russell has been saluted with love and hip-hip hoorays.
We do so despite the Wilson-led Seahawks humiliating our slightly favored Broncos, 43-8, in awful Super Bowl 48 (XLVIII). Bronco fans let those bygones be gone long ago, just as we should with using Roman numerals. Besides, two years later, our good King Peyton regained Broncos Country glory in Super Bowl 50.
King Peyton perpetuated Denver’s desirability as the place for Hall of Fame quarterbacks to finish football careers — and raise young families. Before King Peyton, there was King John who decided, post-Stanford, to grow fame, fortune and family in Colorado.
King John’s reign was lengthy, and proved what successful monarchs have always known: Winning is everything.
Steve Busick, a double Rose Bowl winner at USC and NCAA national champion (1978), joined a stellar Broncos’ linebacking corps (Gradishar, Jackson, Swenson) for the first half of the 1980s. Busick told me this weekend that “Denver is the best football town in the NFL.”
Busick is thrilled about Denver’s super-wealthy new ownership, energetic coaching staff and especially the Broncos’ new quarterback. When asked if Wilson is the real deal, Busick told me: “The proof is in the pudding and he’s shown it for the last 10 years. His leadership skills are second to none. I can’t be more excited.”
The Broncos won regularly in the 1980s and improved when they acquired Elway in 1983. Watching King John when he could run and throw was exhilarating. Elway was even better in the 1990s, and MVP of Super Bowl 33, after winning SB32 the year before. Elway’s wife and children were also Colorado celebrities, existing in a public spotlight with which a royal family might commiserate.
The Broncos are the dominant sports team in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain time zone. The enormous recent sales price for the Broncos, $4.65 billion, reflects the value of the brand and kingdom.
To honor King Russell, let’s discard what divides us and let the Broncos unite us. Time and again, the Broncos have brought our community together. Sometimes, we grieve. Other times, we celebrate. But we do it together.
Traffic dies down when the Broncos play. Sports bars fill up. Television rooms at dormitories and senior centers fire up. When it comes to fandom, age and gender don’t matter. Neither does race or religion.
Perhaps there should be a warning for young fans. Fanatic feelings can become too intense. My father liked to bet on pro football long before it was legalized. While he’d thoroughly analyze each week’s picks, the Broncos’ bet was automatic. We were homers.
It was sacrilegious to root against the Broncos. We Silverman males went each week to our eastside bleacher seats on the South 35, about 43 rows up. We regularly dropped transistor radios, coats and binoculars, which we’d retrieve the next game, after stadium staff picked them up.
I’d walk the sidelines during third quarters, relishing my proximity to the action. Once, the late great Floyd Little slithered down the sidelines with a winning screen pass and banged into the chain link fence and my face pressed against it. The impact cut my lip, a wound I wore with pride on Monday’s DPS bus taking me to Hill Junior High.
When the Broncos lost, which was often when I was young, I’d be in no mood to ride the bus and hear the other kids’ inane analysis. The painful loss was too fresh. I preferred to be alone in my thoughts so I’d walk the three miles.
To this day, I prefer watching Broncos games on my own. My dad and brother are now deceased. We shared similar Broncos intensity levels.
Try as I might, my mood remains ridiculously subject to Bronco game outcomes. When the Broncos lose, it hurts me in my native Denver DNA. Bronco fans need not be native to be afflicted. Recent converts are welcome and are often the most zealous. Take the Wilson family. They’re now true blue and orange.
Our Broncos now feature the finest royal couple west of Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen. Colorado’s thoughtful new queen, Ciara Princess Wilson, is a fabulously successful musical performer who can jumpstart our state’s entertainment culture.
The Wilson family embraces its royal status, with celebrity children named Future Zahir Wilburn Ciara, Sienna Princess Wilson and Win Harrison Wilson. Few royal families have ever taken finer family photos.
The concept of royalty is not rational. Tradition, faith and some fanaticism are involved. From his first snap to his last, may the reign of King Russell be wonderful.
Go Broncos. Let’s ride.
Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun and an active Colorado trial lawyer with Craig Silverman Law, LLC. He also hosts The Craig Silverman Show podcast.
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