I’ve covered all the sports, been in all the locker rooms.
Never have I seen a Bunsen burner.
I’ve searched, without a peep, and not once did I ever see a molecular trapeze or atom molecule.
Yet a sports team has never gone through a season without someone, at some point, proclaiming they like their chances because they have good chemistry in the locker room.
All locker room celebrations reek not only of champagne but the conviction that what made this particular championship unique was that it was achieved more from great team chemistry than talent.
I’m not a chemistry guy. It’s hard to like something you don’t understand. My favorite viewpoint on team chemistry came from Walt Weiss, a former Rockies shortstop. Having played, and won, on those bad boy Oakland A’s teams in the late 1980s, Weiss once said people have it backward when it comes to chemistry. Most people think you need good chemistry to win. Weiss said it’s really the other way around — you win first, and winning will breed good chemistry.
I passed on Weiss’ chemistry theory to Broncos coach Mike Shanahan during training camp this year.
“I agree,” Shanahan said.
This is good because whatever chemistry is, it’s difficult to believe the Broncos having it in the early weeks of the 2007 season. What can new cornerback Dré Bly know about defensive tackle Amon Gordon, other than Gordon is that big guy down D-linemen’s row who’s always smiling?
More important, if Gordon sheds his blocker and Bly covers his receiver, what difference does it make?
This year, more than any other year, Broncos players are known to each other only after looking at the names on the back of the jerseys. A collection of new talent was gathered, given Shanahan’s system and playbook, and placed on the field. Now play.
“I think the offseason program eases that,” Broncos safety John Lynch said. “If we just walked in here and saw all these new faces you would be saying who are you? Who are you? But nowadays, the offseason program helps us get to know each other before training camp.”
The New England Patriots was another team that had significant turnover, and they’re everybody’s preseason Super Bowl favorite. The Indianapolis Colts took some roster hits, losing six starters, but it was the same old precision-Peyton machine in the NFL opener Thursday.
I mentioned to left tackle Matt Lepsis how I thought chemistry was overrated.
“Think so?” Lepsis said. “Then how do you explain all the teams that start off 0-3 and go on to the championship game or Super Bowl.”
Carolina started 1-2 in 2005 and reached the NFC championship. The 2003 Philadelphia Eagles started 0-2 before doing the same.
The 2001 Patriots started 0-2 and 1-3 and were playing with a second-year quarterback. They won the Super Bowl.
Those teams and every other team of the 21st century have much in common. The way it works in a football locker room — there are roughly 85 players crammed in through the spring and summer of minicamps, training camp and the bulk of preseason. And then in a seven-day span, 32 players are cut.
“Now all the sudden, it’s, ‘Here’s your team,'” Lepsis said. “I think that’s why you see teams start 0-2, 0-3, and they wound up going to conference championship game because at the beginning of the season they’re not sure what their identity is as a team. And then they kind of figure it out.”
They arrive as individuals, but by season’s end, they assemble into one Broncos team. Just like atoms bond into molecules and molecules chemically react into individuals and individuals become team.
Hey wait a minute.
I should have known better. Lepsis is probably the last guy who would minimize team chemistry. One of the last five guys, anyway. Nobody on the Broncos’ offensive line blocks as one. Their famous zone-blocking system is predicated on blocking in unison, regardless of how well Lepsis on the far left knows newcomer Montrae Holland on the near right.
Stretch it out this way, let Travis Henry cut it back that way.
This, as they say in sports, is a running game with good chemistry.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
