No Steak Dinner

Flirtatious: "Want to join me for a braised filet?"

Real Mood: Hopeful

Prediction: The Sun will make an appearance in Denver tommorrow.

I was told at a local steakhouse, "Del Friscos," that whenever the Broncos win? The next day team owner Pat Bowlen brings the coach and some key players in for the biggest steak they can digest.

Well, there'll be extra tables at Del Friscos tommorrow night. The team digestive systems probably wouldn't be working very well anyway. 

Pittsburgh won the game and the gut check. And for all the teams that get to this level? These are losses it takes more than a massage to get over.  It's an unfortunate reality that there will be a least one case of domestic abuse involving a player on one of the two losing teams today.  I'd love to be wrong on that.  But I can't remember a year when that wans't the case.  Make a liar out of me. Please!

On a not so understandable level, it's the same case with the fans.

On one plane a loss is a good thing for the town in mourning. Fans will not get high on every thing from glue to cocaine and hit the streets. There won't be any cars turned over and set on fire. There won't  be any gunshots fired randomly in the air. Liquor store windows will remain unbroken.

Yet too large a percentage of us attach our self worth to the success or failure of our favorite sports teams. It must be a tough choice for cops. 

[SQUAWK]

"All units respond to riot in lower downtown."

[SQUAWK]

"All units, DISTRICT ONE, respond to report of domestic violence, 9th and Adams."

I suppose I'm letting those of you who are students know that this is something you can expect. You as journalists will be expected to cover it. It's not fun for anyone.  I feel for you.

I'm just afraid we'll never be able to return philosophically to the idea, "It's just a Game."  I'm not a pessimist.  I have high hopes for future generations. I love people.  But I don't love what winning and losing BIG GAMES seens to do to us.

I think I've been critical in the past of people who point out "problems" and offer no "solutions."

Lets try this. 

Win? Everybody forms a circle around the stadium, hold hands, and blurts out just one, "YEA TEAM." Then we go home.

Lose? We all meet in the middle of the field for a group hug. Just don't squeeze too hard.  Then we go home.

Don Meredith had the right idea.  The party's over, but life is not. There really is "always next year."