Denver, you were at your rabid football fan best last night.
The press box quaked a bit more than it usually does, and the parking lots surrounding Sports Authority Field reeked a bit more of beer. It was perfect November football weather, and at the end of the night, the .
Congratulations, kudos, etc. It’s just that to the rest of the country, .
This has s and everything to do with the fact that next Sunday in Foxboro, the two highest-profile quarterbacks of their generation will square off, and football has begun to wonder just how many more of these meetings it’ll get.
You see, the Patriots are still good. Plenty good. Good enough to upend these Broncos, even, and oh, wouldn’t that be a story? That story has celebrity, faces, history — all the things that one side of this nascent Chiefs-Broncos sparring did not. Could Tom Brady, with the weakest team he’s had in years, be the one to deal the next blow to Denver?
Certainly.
There’s some nostalgia to all of this, too. , NBC has been preparing for the broadcast since early in the summer. Chiefs-Broncos didn’t have a drama-infused poster image circulating on Twitter a week before, one in which the opposing quarterback looks like some undead football specter put on this earth to bring down his Broncos nemesis. It didn’t have a name, either, and NBC is billing this game as Manning-Brady XIV.
If the combined winning percentage of the Broncos and Chiefs going into Week 11 — .944 — , the history of next week’s game earns it the same billing.
This won’t be the last time Manning faces Brady. It could happen again this winter, for that matter. But remember Manning’s neck, how this rivalry could have already been over. Remember that Brady is lacking weapons, that he’s already looking like a bit less of himself. Remember their ages: Manning is 37, Brady 36.
Remember that these are the biggest names in football, or they were, and soon they’ll be legends. How soon, it’s unclear, but the thought of football without either is at least a little bit jarring. This is their league, even still, even as they creep toward 40.
So sure, . It really was. But the bigger deal is still to come. Sunday in Foxboro will be a little bit about legacy, a little bit about history, and still very much about another talented team trying to leave these Broncos flailing on the turf.
Joan Niesen: jniesen@denverpost.com or
