Changing The Guard

Given the number of concerned phone calls I received yesterday afternoon, you might think that a family member or close personal friend had passed away. Happily, this was not the case. All of these kind wishes came as a result of the firing of the Denver Broncos' head coach, Mike Shanahan. Why all the fuss?
I've made no secret over the years of my attachment to professional sports, and my devotion runs deepest to those Denver Donkeys and their travails. The fact that Mike Shanahan showed up and guided John Elway not once, but twice to a Lombardi Trophy makes it hard to say goodbye. This is the guy who finally got us past the "almost" hump. We were champions. Twice. After years of showing up as a team to set records upon, the Denver Broncos won a couple of Super Bowls. After thirty-some years of "next year," it finally came.
But that was ten years ago. Since then, there's been a lot less joy in Mile High Mudville. Once Casey left, in the person of John Elway, no one seemed interested in stepping up to the plate, much less strike out. Brian Griese, Jake Plummer and Jay Cutler are merely part of a list that includes Norris Weese, Craig Penrose and Frank Tripuka. They never won a Super Bowl either. Come to think of it, neither has Mike Shanahan, without John Elway.
Still, it would be easy enough to let the guy play out the string until he wanted to retire. He hasn't put any truly miserable teams out on the field. Not like the Detroit Lions, but the Broncos have been stuck in second gear for a decade now, and not showing any real indications of making any hard charges upward any time soon.
Then there's the circumstances of the way he was fired. After fielding one of the worst defenses in the NFL this season, Mike Shanahan refused to fire his defensive coordinator. When my school's test scores continue to lag behind expected norms, all of us teachers were asked to interview to get our jobs back. Some of us came back. Some of us didn't. Whether that was the best way to bring up test scores remains to be seen, but it was clear that we needed to show an interest in change, and that the status quo was no longer good enough. I suppose I can give it up to Mike for sticking to his guns, but he wasn't being all that realistic. Change, after all, is what this year has been about.
It reminds me of being a junior in high school, the day after our basketball team won the state championship, the local news came to our school to get some footage of the pep rally. Someone stuck a microphone in my face and asked me what I thought. I said, "As long as we've got Coach Smith, I think we can take state every year!" We went to the finals in my senior year, and lost. A few years after I left Boulder High, so had he. The dynasty never really happened. Boulder High Basketball has one trophy in the case. Coach Smith was a science teacher when he wasn't coaching, and he probably got a better gig at another school. That's the way these things go.
Mike Shanahan will land on his feet. I'm not worried about him. He should land another job before they play Super Bowl Forty-Three. And that's the way these things go.