CANTON, Ohio — There was concern at the Broncos’ Dove Valley headquarters that the offseason lockout would harm business.
The team had 3,000 season tickets that weren’t renewed — about double the usual amount each year. This was well before the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 512 points Thursday, so the dissatisfaction couldn’t all be blamed on the economy.
But while the NFL lockout was still on, the Broncos went to their season-ticket waiting list and resold 2,500 of those tickets in two weeks. The team held back 500 to put on sale as general admission single- game tickets.
Lockout? If we didn’t know better, the lockout seemed to help energize enthusiasm for pro football. The fear of not having the NFL on Sundays may have pinched some excitement into the fan base when fears were not realized.
And that’s not just theory. There’s data. TiqIQ considers itself the leading “secondary market” ticket indicator. It says the price of the Broncos’ “secondary market” tickets have soared 43 percent from last year — from an average of $120.66 in 2010 to $172.67 in 2011. Across the NFL, secondary tickets are up an average of 22.7 percent, from $152.04 to $186.62.
NFL vs. Steelers.
Dennis Allen got me to thinking the other day. When the Broncos’ new defensive coordinator said, “We want to be a violent, aggressive defense that plays within the rules,” my involuntary thought was James Harrison.
Thoughts, like dreams, are often scrambled. Harrison is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive end-outside linebacker who plays violently, but occasionally to the point where the NFL deems unnecessarily so.
Harrison and most of his teammates believe commissioner Roger Goodell is trying to legislate the game so that it’s not possible for a defense to be “violent” and yet play “within the rules.”
I’m with the commish on this issue. The NFL will never stop selling brutish collisions to its gladiator-worshipping fan base.
The league just wants to make sure violence leads with its shoulder and strikes below the neck.
The hits that got Harrison fined last year? It sure looked like he was trying to hurt somebody. Even when he’s a ball carrier, Harrison looks to punish. In a preseason game at Invesco Field at Mile High last year, Harrison picked up a fumble and took a step or two toward Kyle Orton, who ill- advisedly was trying to make a tackle, before unloading on the Broncos quarterback.
Afterward, Orton said it was not a clean play.
“Everything’s between the lines, so he got what he had coming,” Harrison said in response.
It was one time when Harrison’s roughness wasn’t fined by the league. Probably because he was a ball carrier.
But Harrison and many defensive players don’t understand how strong, fast and violent their collisions are becoming.
I’ve watched several reels of old football film during Hall of Fame festivities in Canton, and it’s striking how, in general, the contact of yesteryear wasn’t nearly as violent as it is now on any given Sunday.
Yet so many players of yesteryear can’t walk without pain — Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell can’t walk at all without some form of aid. What is it going to be like for today’s players when they’re tired and gray?
For the players’ sake, the league has to mandate that violence within the rules means under no circumstance can the neck and head be part of a collision.
Sayers vs. Davis.
When some Hall of Famers were introduced during the Gold Jacket ceremony Friday night, the loudest cheers from the crowd went to John Madden and Gale Sayers.
Before the Hall of Fame parade Saturday, Sayers was told that his name frequently comes up in Denver as the reason former Broncos running back Terrell Davis is worthy of Hall of Fame induction.
Sayers and Davis, a former league and Super Bowl MVP, were spectacular for about four seasons. Knee injuries shortened their NFL careers.
“I watched Terrell play a number of times,” Sayers said. “He was an outstanding player. We’ve got to get more guys in here. Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of Hall of Famers who have passed away in the last year or so. As a Hall of Famer, we need to get more players in here.”
Hall of Famers who died in the past 17 months: Merlin Olsen, John Mackey, John Henry Johnson, George Blanda, Stan Jones, Joe Perry, Ollie Matson, Andy Robustelli and Les Richter, who was enshrined Saturday with the class of 2011.
