Are you happy now, Tom Brady?
You wanted respect and now you got it. After you and your two-time defending champions got dethroned in Denver last Saturday night, you've got every sportswriter in America crying that the Broncos didn't win the game as much as New England lost it.
Sport Illustrated's Andrew Perloff said "the better team lost that night in Denver."
Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com is guaranteeing the Broncos won't get to Super Bowl XL by playing the way they did against America's Team of the 21st Century.
But now, I can't take it any more. I put up with the entire world thinking the Broncos' terrific 13-3 season would come to a close last Saturday. I'm putting up with the accusations of poor officiating over Divisional Weekend, supposedly "giving" Denver the game.
No longer. I won't have it. With the Broncos finally winning a playoff game without John Elway, I won't let anybody tell me that my team is one and done. With the almighty Colts going home surprisingly early this January, I'm not going to listen to chatter that Denver might as well pack it in after just one victory.
Fine, the Broncos don't have any show-stopping, Sportscenter regulars. I'll admit it's not quite as glamorous to win with smashmouth football, as opposed to tossing up 80-yard bombs like Peyton Manning or racking up 200-yard, three-touchdown games like Clinton Portis or Tiki Barber (notice a connection between those three. Hint: It has to do with not playing anymore.)
So what? The Broncos do a better job of taking care of the football, don't they? Denver gave the ball away just 16 times this year.
Meanwhile, the Broncos forced their opponents into making tons of mistakes this season. The vaunted defense in orange and blue took the ball away 36 times, giving the Broncos a plus-20 turnover differential in the regular season, second-best in the league.
Conversely, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a good, but not great, turnover campaign, with 30 takeaways and 23 giveaways during 2005, a plus-7 margin.
They say one of the most challenging feats in football is winning a game despite losing the turnover battle. If that's true, Denver definitely will be a tough out for any of the three remaining foes.
The Broncos also have history on their side. They have an impressive 6-1 record in AFC Championships, whereas our friends in the Steel City have compiled a 5-7 mark.
The current coaches of each team have similar stories. Mike Shanahan is 2-0 in the Super Bowl with the Broncos, but Bill Cowher has a dismal 1-4 history in Pittsburgh's attempts to get to the Big Dance. Ouch.
Now I know I sound like a homer, and certainly in this situation, you're absolutely right. But the fact is, the Broncos are not the only victims of league-wide condescension this postseason.
I hate to call out SI, but just because the Carolina Panthers have pulled off a couple of impressive road playoff wins doesn't make them geniuses for dubbing the Black Cats as the preseason Super Bowl pick.
In order for Carolina to compete for the Lombardi trophy, they'll have to come up with one more upset, this time against the Seattle Seahawks, or Exhibit B of disrespected NFL franchises this week.
Seattle hasn't lost a meaningful game since Week 4 of the regular season when the Washington Redskins knocked off the 'Hawks 23-17; of course, Seattle exacted revenge last week.
Provided that Alexander, the touchdown machine, is healthy, there's no reason to think the Seahawks' run should come to an end on Sunday night.
Yet Carolina, a.k.a. the Steve Smith show, has suddenly become America's Sweetheart.
Don Banks, another East-Coast-loving writer at Sports Illustrated, has predicted that Nick Goings, the Panthers' third-string running back, will easily outrush Alexander, the NFL Most Valuable Player, on Sunday.
Sure, that makes sense.
Why can't Denver and Seattle get a little love here?
They both have home-field advantage. Neither one has lost a home game this year (9-0 each). They are the only NFL teams that were undefeated this year in their own backyards.
Perloff ranked the four remaining quarterbacks for SI.com yesterday, and sure enough, he's got Ben Roethlisberger and Jake Delhomme, of Pittsburgh and Carolina respectively, above Denver's Jake Plummer and Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck.
Interesting how they've got the Pro Bowl starter, Hasselbeck, under two Pro Bowl reserves, who are in turn under the only one missing out on Hawaii, Roethlisberger.
Sure, the Steelers and Panthers have played great football lately. But let's face it: they have been forced to do so for the past six weeks or so. In mid-November, the Steelers were stuck at 7-5, and have been living on the edge ever since.
The Broncos and Seahawks had a few weeks off before last week's divisional games. Carolina and Pittsburgh had no such advantage.
True, Vegas rightfully has both Seattle and Denver favored in this weekend's championship matchups. Make no mistake, however; the national media wants a Steelers-Panthers clash in Detroit, Bettis' hometown.
So if Brady wants to talk about disrespect, he should look no further than the team that just rained on his parade. Hell, he should go ahead and check out the upcoming Super Bowl.
The two teams that, for my money, he will be watching there, could tell him something about disrespect.
Aaron Brenner is a freshman intending to major in Journalism. Any comments on his column or his love for the Broncos can be sent to [email protected].
