Just Joshing

It feels so good to be right.

It doesn’t happen very often.

To me.

But when it does...

WOO-HOO.

April 22, 2010.

Josh McDaniels was right.

Oh so right.

That was the day McDaniels made Tim Tebow the future of the Denver Broncos.

A year and change later Tebow is the hottest quarterback in the NFL right now.

McDaniels wiggled his way into the 25th overall pick in that 2010 draft.

He traded three precious draft picks to do so.

And he selected Tebow.

A winning quarterback who did everything wrong.

Everything.

He runs instead of throws.

Throws left instead of right.

Praises God, instead of making it rain.

The football world couldn’t believe McDaniels would put his faith in a no-talent nothing whose only quality was his faith.

Brian Baldinger, who played 13 years in the NFL and is now an analyst for the NFL Network, said...

“It’s a move that puts the Broncos behind five years.”

CBS Sports National Columnist Mike Freeman wrote:

Denver wasted a valuable first-round pick on a player who will do nothing for years unless they move Tebow to fullback or make him a missionary and have him snip foreskins. 

ESPN, who broadcasts the NFL draft, gave the Broncos a grade of F for taking Tebow.

But even with all the jokes, McDaniels got his guy.

And he couldn’t have been happier.

“He’s been a winner and you could see why,” McDaniels said.

“Tim’s a player that’s capable of doing different things.  He gives you an opportunity to create some packages.”

“You can get creative.”

That was April 22, 2010.

Just 592 days ago.

McDaniels was the head coach of them Broncos.

The man put in charge of returning this great franchise to glory.

Owner Pat Bowlen had given McDaniels the keys to his car.

And McDaniels was taking that car for quite the spin.

From the moment he arrived, the 160-pound McDaniels threw his weight around.

He got into a public spat with star quarterback Jay Cutler.

Two months later, Cutler was gone.

He got into another public spat with star receiver Brandon Marshall.

Within a year, he was gone too.

McDaniels was doing it his way.

Dammit.

Some thought maybe the altitude in Denver was causing McDaniels head to swell.

That was never confirmed.

But what we did know is that this guy finally got a seat in the big boy chair and he was calling the shots.

All of them.

At the ripe old age of 32, McDaniels was the third-youngest head coach in the history of the NFL.

But he didn’t get this job without some good credentials.

Eight years under Bill Belichick as an assistant coach with the New England Patriots.

Where he was the voice in Tom Brady’s helmet.

When they won three Super Bowls together.

McDaniels was the real deal.

And he paid instant dividends for the Broncos.

Six of them.

He became the fourth rookie coach in the history of the NFL to win his first six games.

Hall of Fame, here I come.

(RECORD SCRATCH SOUND)

Not so fast.

Out of nowhere, something went wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Like two wins in their last ten games of that 2009 season wrong.

Three wins in the first 12 games of the 2010 season wrong.

And poof, McDaniels was gone.

Just.

Like.

That.

Fired, with an F.

Exactly one year ago today.

Happy Anniversary!

Now a firing is never a good thing.

Especially these days.

But in the case of McDaniels you can put aside the kleenex.

The Broncos still owed him $7.5 Million when they let him go.

Which he will collect in full.

And after losing that job, he found another one.

As the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams.

Granted -- one of the worst teams in the entire league.

But McDaniels still has a future in front of him.

It will just be the past that haunts him.

A past where he was right.

When everybody said he was wrong.

Breaking the News

There’s a reason why the late Walter Cronkite is a legend.

Well there’s a lot of reasons.

But perhaps the main reason is for like 120 years, he was the only game in town.

Ok, there were three games.

NBC, ABC and Cronkite’s CBS.

But back in the day if you wanted the news, Walter was it.

Only you had to wait until 6:30pm.

5:30 Central.

That’s the way it was.

None of this round-the-clock, graphic-on-top-of-graphic breaking news.

Just the news.

Real news.

Now I watch as much TV as the next guy.

And when it comes to the news these days.

I love the live police car chase.

And the up-to-the-second trips to the weather center.

And those real-time sports scores.

Forget about it.

I’ve never really been a newspaper fanatic.

Unless it came to sports.

Funny story.

I was in my early teens.

We had a visitor staying at the house.

I asked if he wanted to see the morning paper.

When he said yes, I brought him the sports section.

I was shocked -- if not appalled -- when he asked where the rest of the paper was.

"What else is there?, " I thought.

To myself.

Back then, nothing was better than getting your hands black and messy from the ink of the box scores.

Of course the internet has changed all that.

For the better.

Anything you want.

Up-to-the-millisecond.

With a few clicks.

Ichiro career at bats as a pinch-hitter?

11.

Hits.

1.

Tom Brady wins in the snow, ice or below-freezing temps?

18.

Losses.

2.

LeBron James NBA Championships?

Zero.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

I didn’t need the internet for that.

But I do use the web for my news.

And these days, there’s one place I always start.

twitter.

It’s amazing what you can learn in 140 characters.

Or less.

Thanks to twitter I found out about the big east coast earthquake within seconds after it happened.

There were like a billion tweets before the world stopped shaking.

Ok, most of them were jokes.

And many of them were funny.

But I didn’t need Wolf Blitzer to tell me what was going on.

I just needed my iPhone.

Just today I was thumbing through my twitter app.

When I saw a tweet from @Denise_Richards.

She’s the one who escaped from Charlie Sheen Island.

I follow her.

With 2.1 million others.

Her tweet said:

EXTREMELY URGENT: #IN Shelter closing, all animals not adopted by 9/30 to be killed; pls RT http://hspcanimals.org/

Now I love dogs.

We have two.

And its a good thing we don’t live in Indiana.

Or we might now have three.

Or four.

But thankfully the word spread so quickly.

Within two hours all the animals were gone.

In the good way.

The thing about twitter is you can’t blink for a second or you might miss something important.

Like some @perezhilton gossip.

Or a restaurant update from @KevinsBBQJoints.

Or a great one liner from @DannyZuker.

Or something REALLY important from @ChristineCSE.

She, a self-proclaimed...

“bleeding heart liberal and sacred cow tipper who loves her leopard kitteh and wasted oodles of time engaging in economic wonkery.”

I’m one of her 79 followers.

Just an hour after Denise saved an animal shelter, Christine went on a quest of her own.

Tweeps - please write the GA Pardons & Paroles Board, tell them there is #toomuchdoubt to execute Troy Davis next week http://bit.ly/nkRC5R

I must admit when I read this I had never heard of Troy Davis.

Or this case.

But I have now.

Long story short.

Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing an off-duty police officer two years earlier.

He is scheduled to be executed in Georgia next Wednesday.

However.

Seven of the nine original witnesses have since recanted their statements.

And.

There has never been DNA evidence linking Davis to the crime.

And.

The murder weapon was never recovered. 

Hmmmmmm.

Davis’ execution has been postponed three times before.

The appeals have gone as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Former President Jimmy Carter has spoken out against the execution.

So has Pope Benedict XVI, SVU.

Now I certainly have no idea if Troy Davis committed this crime.

And based on what I’ve read the last few hours, I’m not sure if anyone does.

I’m guessing if Walter Cronkite was still doing the news.

He would’ve covered this story.

At 6:30pm.

But thanks to twitter -- and @ChristineCSE -- I was able to learn about this story.

Maybe before its too late.