13
Jan
2012
ReadAndReact’s 2012 NFL Divisional Playoff Picks
John Elway riding a Tebow Centaur ... what? (Image via kissingsuzykolber.com)
While the entire world seems to be gripped by Tebowmania (as evidenced by ESPN’s Tebow Hour and the latest, now-ubiquitous “Tebowie” skit by Jimmy Fallon), there are a few other quarterbacks with super bowl rings who will also be competing in the NFL’s divisional playoffs. Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning - you may have heard of them – will each take the field this weekend to try and lead their teams to the conference championships, despite being overshadowed in the media by their Jesus-loving Denver counterpart. And all of them are much better QBs than Tebow, by the way.
After jumping out to an early 3-1 lead with his Wild Card picks, The DarkHorse will try to keep it going for the Divisional round. Here are this weekend’s picks from R&R HQ (CLICK TO EMBIGGEN):
So, it seems our “experts” are split down the middle on the 49ers-Saints and Packers-Giants, while Artie is the only brave soul to ride the Tebow Centaurs to the promised land over New England, and steverodgers is the only one who likes the Texans over Baltimore.
Surprisingly, all of our super bowl picks are still alive, but that’s going to change on Sunday, when either the Packers or Giants will be sent packing. As always, these picks are purely for entertainment purposes … we are mediocre at this on our good days, so feel free to share your picks and mock us in the comments.
10
Jan
2012
Your Obligatory Tim Tebow GIF post
On the heels of Sunday’s “Mile High Miracle”, the Tim Tebow photos, highlights, and most importantly, GIFs are everywhere this week as everyone’s favorite Jesus freak continues to make believers out of us all and dominate the national conversation.
So, without further adieu, here are the best Tebow GIFs from the Broncos playoff victory over the Steelers … enjoy!
- Timmy is FIRED UP!
(Image via mocksession.com)
- TIMMY SMASH!
(Image via SBNation.com)
- John Elway has seen the light!
(Image via mocksession.com)
MORE GIFs AFTER THE JUMP
12
Dec
2011
All Tebow Does Is Win (GIF & VIDEO)
(Image via mocksession.com)
Yep, it happened again. After 3-3/4 quarter of some of the worst football you’ll ever see, Tim Tebow and his Broncos somehow pulled out another improbable victory with their 13-10 OT win over the Bears.
And now, after leading the Denver Broncos to their their sixth straight victory (seventh in eight starts), Tebow has officially made believers out of me, his teammates, the city of Denver, John Fox, John Elway, Marion Barber and Bears fans everywhere. While some credit certainly needs to be given to the Broncos defense and Matt Prater for the win, all anyone can talk about today is Tebow.
The naysayers will continue to claim that Tebow didn’t do anything particularly special himself yesterday (despite throwing for 236 yards and a TD), and Brian Urlacher went so far as to call Tebow “a good running back”. But there is just something remarkable about the attitude that he brings to the field, where his teammates all fight until the final whistle, and never stop believing. And after witnessing it in person, I can tell you that it’s a feeling that permeates throughout the entire stadium, with fans understanding that with Tebow on their side, they’re never completely out of any game until it’s truly over.
Plus, the very idea that Marion Barber would inexplicably run out of bounds to stop the clock in the 4th quarter, and then fumble the ball in OT – allowing the Broncos a chance at the win – smacks of divine intervention. Believers will tell you that Jesus himself pushed Barber out of bounds on that play. But regardless of whether you believe God actually has a hand in wins and losses on a football field (we don’t), it’s becoming obvious that someone upstairs has Timmy’s back right now. And the faith he’s instilled in this Broncos team since taking over is nothing short of amazing to watch.
There will undoubtedly be tons of over-analysis this week as to the religious implications of Tebow’s success, and what it means for the NFL in general, but the bottom line for us is that all the guy does is win … as the following clip succinctly demonstrates:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
29
Nov
2011
Fake Kyle Orton Says Goodbye to Denver (VIDEO)
After being released by the Broncos and picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs last week, Kyle Orton likely has some mixed feelings about his tenure in Denver. After all, Orton has been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride since joining the team, with Josh McDaniels, John Elway and (most of all) Tim Tebow making his football life anything but simple. So he’s probably looking forward to starting over in KC, and putting this chapter of his career behind him.
Fortunately for us, the guys over at comedy troupe Landlocked Pioneers put together this spoof video of Orton bidding a fond farewell to Denver, with a dead ringer playing the role of a surly, beer-swilling Kyle … who is also clearly hurting inside:
“My rockin Neckbeard!!!
And living in Colorado, I can tell you that they nailed the local references to IKEA and the DIA “demon horse”. Awesome.
18
Nov
2011
Tim Tebow Tebows after Tebowing the Tebows to Tebowry (VIDEO)
(Image via instntrply.com)
Oh boy … get ready, folks. If you thought Tim Tebow-mania had already reached its pinnacle in this country, you ain’t seen nothing’ yet.
Last night, after turning in his usual sub-par performance for 3-1/2 quarters, Tebow once again stepped up as the hero, leading the Broncos on game-winning 95-yard drive to defeat the Jets 17-13. Tebow capped the impressive drive himself with a 20-yard touchdown run (video below), and now, after leading his team to a 4-1 record as starter, even his biggest doubters are genuinely starting to believe that there’s something special about this kid.
Critics will continue to argue that Tebow doesn’t have an NFL caliber arm, and going 9-for-20 for 104 yards passing won’t exactly change anyone’s mind about that, but the bottom line in this game is winning, and you just can’t argue with his results. Tebow rushed for 58 yards on the final drive alone, but his greatest skill might be his ability to avoid the big mistake … something Mark Sanchez knows all about after throwing a crucial pick-six that may have cost the Jets the game. By not making costly turnovers, Tebow has been able to keep the Broncos in every game he’s played until the end, and that’s all you can really ask for from a quarterback in this league.
And as he proved once again against a talented Jets defense, Tebow’s ability to make the big play when its most needed is simply uncanny.
“I like winning,” Tebow said after his third comeback in a month, “but I wish it wasn’t this stressful.”
Well, if he keeps winning games like this – and evoking the comeback prowess of one John Elway for Denver fans – I think everyone will learn how to manage the stress level just fine.
PS – Lost in all this Tebow talk, it’s really the Broncos defense that won this game for Denver. Oh, and Von Miller is quietly running away with the defensive ROY award. Just sayin’ …
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
16
Sep
2011
Broncos Fans Planning Pro-Tebow Billboards = Foolishness
Yeah, this is really going to work (ESPN rendering via Patheos.com)
This story has been making the rounds for a couple of days now, and we’ve mainly ignored it because we don’t want to encourage these clowns. But it’s become painfully clear that the whole pro-Tebow quarterback controversy in Denver isn’t going away any time soon, so we might as well adress it now.
As you may have heard, a group of Broncos fans are planning to buy two billboards in downtown Denver, calling for the team to bench QB Kyle Orton and start Tim Tebow instead. The campaign is being spearheaded by Jesse Oaks, a Broncos fan from Independence, Kentucky of all places, who says that he and his friends devised the plan after watching Denver lose their season opener 23-20 to the Oakland Raiders on Monday night. During the 4th quarter of the loss, it became clear that at least some of the Broncos faithful had seen enough of Orton, and even as the QB was trying to rally his team to victory in a winnable game, a handful of liquored up fans started the chants for Tebow, which seemed to gain momentum as the game wound down.
Oaks and his friends had been saving up for a trip to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, but after watching Orton go a middling 24-of-46 for 305 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 fumble and 5 sacks, determined that their money would be better spent on a message to the Broncos and Head Coach John Fox:
“We believe in Coach Fox. We’re just tired of Kyle Orton,” Oaks said. “We were sitting around after Fox said he didn’t hear the chants for (Tim) Tebow and we figured if he’s deaf, we hope he’s not blind.”
“It just feels like we’re a team that’s settling for mediocrity,” Oaks said. “We’re not blind. We know when we see good football … We see other teams making good plays and we don’t see that from our team. We can sink or swim with Tim Tebow. Why wait a few more years?”
22
Jan
2011
The 25 biggest headaches for the Cleveland Browns since 1990 — #25: Gary Baxter
After Gary Baxter's 2005 campaign was cut short by injury, his 2006 season -- and his career -- ended abruptly on this play. (Source: Daylife.com)
The past two decades represent a drawn-out, frightful voyage into deep wilderness for the Cleveland Browns franchise and its faithful followers.
Fans of 31 NFL teams are left disappointed each season, but you’d be hard-pressed to name a more snake-bitten enclave than Cleveland’s. Their troubles are well-documented, from soul-crushing AFC title game defeats to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the 1980s; to Art Modell‘s splintering of the franchise with the move to Baltimore in 1995; to the focused, passionate fight of Browns fans to keep the team’s colors and history tied to Cleveland forevermore.
All of this happening BEFORE the team returned in 1999.
Cleveland’s re-emergence on the NFL landscape was cited as a striking triumph for the city over the tentacles of greed tightening around pro sports.
But victory trumpets were quickly silenced.
7
Jan
2011
Can John Elway return Denver to their days of glory?
Elway spoke to the Denver media on Wednesday (Photo: Denver Post)
There was some fairly big news in Denver this week that seems to be flying under the radar of the national media, what with all the other coaching changes in the league and the build-up to the playoffs. On Wendesday, the Broncos introduced John Elway as their new executive vice president of football operations, in hopes that the Hall of Fame QB can restore his former team to greatness.
As we all know, Elway led the Broncos to 5 Super Bowl appearances including back-to-back championships during his 16-year career in Denver. All week, Denver sports radio has been atwitter from the announcement, with people who believe he can return the Broncos to their days of glory. On the heels of the Josh McDaniels era, which left the franchise as something of a laughing stock, the Broncos fanbase is ready to latch onto anything that might bring a glimmer of hope in turning things around. And there’s no question that with Elway, you’re getting a guy who has no agenda other than winning football games for the city of Denver. The guy has been an icon around Colorado for almost 30 years, from football to car dealerships to steak houses. And he has already injected an air of excitement around the Broncos not seen in ages. Well, in at least 12 years, when Elway went out on top after winning the Super Bowl in January of 1999.
And Elway is clearly a proven winner, having won as both a player and a football excecutive, albeit for the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush, who he built up from nothing as its co-owner and CEO to win a championship in 2005. During his press conference, perhaps one of the best things Elway said was “I know what I don’t know”, and that he’d work to overcome that inexperience as fast as possible. Although, with a Stanford education (despite the clunky sentence structure in the quote below … I’ll chalk that up to nervousness) and a father who was a career head coach, you have to like his chances at success:
“I do not know everything about this job, but I cannot wait to learn as much as I can about the job,” he said. “I am thrilled to be back with the Broncos, I am thrilled to be back in football. I get on the football field and it makes my heart pump.”
“Why am I here? I love the Broncos,” Elway said. “I understand what the Broncos are all about. They are about the integrity, about the winning and about the things that you do and how you handle yourself.”
3
Apr
2009
Broncos Fans: Welcome Back to the Weeds (Coors Light on sale)
Jay Cutler was a franchise quarterback, or at the very least that was where he was trending. The town thought he was good (he’s no Elway, but he’s better than Jake the Snake); the NFL obviously thought he was very good; and the Broncos could have spent the next 5 years plugging in anybody around him in their quest for the Super Bowl and the fans would have felt all right. For fans, having Cutler as your franchise quarterback felt just like you did as a child sleeping in the back seat while your dad drove through the rain: the car is going to stay on the road, just close your eyes and you might wake up at Uncle Super Bowl’s house. But McDaniels traded that guy away. Not having a franchise guy is like when your oldest friend in high school first gets his license and is passing other guys in one-lane school zones and smoking Parliament Lights and you get the feeling that there is a good chance you are going to end up in a fiery wreck and will soon be watching your arm smolder 10 feet away from your body through the broken windshield.
Sure, Cutler was acting like a wild brat, I get that. But why would Josh McDaniels throw your franchise to the wolves? This is your franchise guy, not some fly-by-night girlfriend. This is your wife, the mother of your children, for rich and for poor. You hold on to your franchise quarterback like you do your wife: you make it work, you get down on your knees as you make promises, you massage their feet, you take them out to dinner, and hang out with their parents, you do everything you can to keep them because if you don’t you know you are going to end up in a one-bedroom apartment surround by beer cans and take-out drinking yourself to death. An NFL team can pretend all they want, but without a QB like Cutler they are out in the NFL borderlands, waist deep in the weeds, while your fans watch you in the distance bumbling through the growth, heading down paths that all lead to the same place: mediocrity. Teams die out there. And they die alone.
Cutler had taken the Broncos away from all that; the Broncos were out of the weeds, they were in that clear, magical space that NFL teams find themselves in when they have their franchise QB. NFL rosters begin and end with the guy under center, and a team without him is like putting a nice stereo in a Chevy Nova– you are not fooling anyone, you still drive a Nova. The Broncos finally had the guy to replace Elway. He was their GUY! If I’m a Bronco’s fan this morning, I feel sick because I know it could take years– decades even– to find that new guy. Ask the Buffalo Bills who are still looking to replace Jim Kelly or the 49er’s who are trying to replace Jeff Garcia (though in fact they are still trying to replace Steve Young). The boys in Dallas aren’t that far removed from Quincy Quarter and they’re not sure if they are sold on Tony Romo. The Browns have been around since 1999 and they haven’t had one single QB their fans can feel good about.
Not having a QB will suck the marrow off a fan’s bones. It will take you and slowly squeeze the life from you as you watch mediocre QB, after mediocre QB toss 4-yard passes on 3 and 8. If I am a Broncos fan I am confused. I am betrayed. I am done with Josh McDaniels who somehow can’t change the mind of a 26-year-old kid who had his feelings hurt over trade rumors, a guy who decides that Kyle Orton and his fabulous neck beard can step into John Elway’s Hall-of-Fame-sized shoes. If I am a Broncos fan, I am taking a day off from work, I am retreating to my basement, I am opening the first of 30 Coors Lights, I am staring into the dark screen of the TV, and I am wondering if it will be worth turning on this year, or next year, or ever again.
31
Mar
2009
Playing against type…
If you’re old enough to remember former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, he was known primarily for his unorthodox, yet effective, playing style. Bernie was one of the only National Football League passers who regularly threw the ball sidearm. In addition, he was SLOW. While Kosar’s arch enemy, Broncos quarterback John Elway, rushed for 3,407 yards and 33 touchdowns over the span of his career, Bernie rushed for a mere 265 and 5 touchdowns, averaging only 1.4 yards a game. That said, watch him ROCKET through the Broncos defense in this clip! (Courtesy YouTube and NBC Sports)
