Biggest collapse in NFL history goes unnoticed?
 

No it is not the story about a Team from NY, or a ESPN Sports center segment about America's team. If you are reading a newspaper the story will be buried on the last page in the lower corner across from the obituaries.

Never in all of NFL history did a team go from 3 games up with only 3 games to play and not make the playoffs. It is the biggest flop in NFL history, yet nobody is reporting on this all time record set by the Denver Broncos.

Hour after hour of reports from Dallas and New York, but nobody is talking about this record breaking Hall of Shame team?

Is Denver still in the league? :D

More seriously though, this would probably have been a more notable story if it didn't involve a team with a mediocre record collapsing further into mediocrity to lose the division race to another team with a mediocre record.

In other words, this isn't the Mets collapse from a couple of years back, it's a .500 team winning the NL West over another .500 team.

edit to add: If Arizona had gone through a similar scenario & somehow lost the division to the 49ers you would have seen the same relative lack of interest in the story.

Call it the Ed Hochuli hex

Homer : Aw ... The Denver Broncos !?!
Marge : I think owning the Denver Broncos is pretty good.
Homer : Yeah, yeah.
Marge : Well, explain to me why it isn't.
Homer : You just don't understand football, Marge.

I'm with Jon here. If the Broncos had gone from 10-3 to 10-6 and missed the playoffs, it's a much bigger deal. Going from 8-5 (and an ugly 8-5 at that) to 8-8 and missing is nothing. The Broncos never looked like they deserved a playoff spot at any point in the season. This is more justice than anything.

It happened west of the Mississippi. There has some sort of bias.;)

In addition to what the others have said, I think we all know there is not going to be any sort of major aftermath to this. Yes, a coordinator may get fired, some players may be released. But they have been there, done that already. If there were rumors that if the Broncos did not make the playoffs, Mike Shannahan's job and/or power were in jeopardy, this would have been a much bigger story.

My Miami Dolphins were 9-2 in 1993 and lost the last 5 games to miss the playoffs.

I am a Broncos fan and I honestly don't care. That team sucked playoffs or no playoffs and Shanahan gets a free pass. They haven't had a defense in years. Granted they went through like 8 or 9 tailbacks but regardless, they still stink and would stink even had they won 10 games.

The Chargers went 4-8 for their first 12 games and made the playoffs. Maybe glass half full there.

The Mets finished 88-74 (.543). A 9-7 (.563) football record is better than that, so you're only really talking about the difference between the Mets and the Broncos being a tied football game (8-7-1).

In other words, this isn't the Mets collapse from a couple of years back, it's a non-major media market team in the Mountain time zone over another another non-major media market team in the Pacific time zone.

Well, the Mets were 83-62 (.571) before collapsing.

The bigger reason is that "games back" is listed among baseball standings so its part of the whole package. Everyone could see the lead shrink, and it's just more common to hear among baseball conversation than football. I might look at two teams separated in the football standings by 2 games, but I don't think I ever said "hell, they're two back of Minnesota."

Someone Apparently noticed.. Mike Shanahan has been fired..

I think you can also say that a 8-3 start with four non-playoff teams and one that snuck in at the end upcoming, and not getting a playoff berth is a worse collapse.

beat me to it

Tampa, NY Jets, and Denver all had historic collapses this year. I noticed all of these meltdowns.

Tampa lost two home games to close out the year, one to the Raiders.

The Jets were 8-3 and some were proclaiming them as the best team in the AFC until pro bowler Brett Favre threw away their season. The Jets lost to the Raiders, 49ers, Seahawks, and Chargers. If Favre throws 22 INTs playing 8 games vs the AFC West and NFC West, just imagine how many he'll throw next year if he comes back.

After Denver won at the Jets, it was all over. The Chargers were 4-8 and all the Broncos had to do was win one more game. They could not. They also lost to bad teams which cost them the division and Mike Shanahan.

Nobody is talking about how Taur and wrongway are the same person either

:eek:

The Raiders beat the Buccs, Jets, and Donkeys for three of their five wins.
Wow. Did not know that.

No crap! Wow.

To this day, I wish they would have / could have incorporated that little tidbit into the episode where Homer was trying to get into the Super Bowl (that Denver was in).

"Hey...wait a minute...I own this team!" and cut to Homer & friends in the vip boxes watching the game.

I agree with all of this, except that I'm a big Shanahan fan. Or I guess, I was a big Shanahan fan. :(

Two years ago weren't you sure that Oilers9911 was WW?

Shanahan's big mistake was thinking he could run more than the coaching part of the organization. Marty Schottenheimer (sp?) made a similar mistake. Just do one job and do it well and you'll be fine.

Aye. Coach and GM are both 60+ hour/wk jobs during the season. How one man could do both, and do both well, is beyond me.

Makes me wonder why Cowher is hell bent on this "total control" thing. You were successful as a coach in large part due to the wonderful personnel dept. in Pittsburgh. Why would you want a different model.

How much of the GM's job does an NFL head coach control over, anyway? I think it's safe to assume stuff about players, possibly facilities, maybe travel, but that's got to be it. I don't think it should be difficult to define the two roles in an organization so that the HC gets control where he needs it, but isn't responsible for everything for which a GM is.

I thought Cowher wanted to name his own GM, not be GM...

Mike Holmgren
Mike Sherman
Mike McCarthy


...

Anyone noticing a trend here?

Provolone loving fatties?