meeting a Bronco part 1

Posted by admin | November 30, 2021

About 12 years ago now, my boss at ACEware Systems took me with him to a conference in Kansas City. He wanted to show me more of how he interacted with customers on a personal level. Plus, he wanted to teach me how to demonstrate our software to potential customers. During sessions, we would be dead, so he also wanted me to sit in on some of them.

One session I attended was the keynote. The speaker was Neil Smith. I remembered him playing football and knew he was one of the best defensive linemen, even though he played for the hated Chefs. I remember him sacking Elway way too often. He was talking about how important education is and was a captivating speaker. Then he started talking about his performance in the Super Bowl. I was like, the Chefs haven’t been in a Super Bowl in forever! He was talking about how he was in the backfield going after Favre (so he would have been playing against Green Bay in those days). Favre had handed the ball off before Smith could get to him and because he was out of position, he couldn’t tackle the running back. He started talking about nerves and how he was settling down in the game, standing up offensive linemen, and controlling where he wanted to be for the game to come to him. Late in the game, a teammate of Smith’s knocks the ball out. Because Smith wasn’t so overeager, he was able to jump on the ball. Lightbulbs went off in my head. I remembered that play! The connection was then made that Smith had played for the Denver Broncos. I then remembered that Elway had even told him that he was glad to no longer be playing against him.

In that moment, I admonished myself for forgetting something like this. Just because I was in enemy territory at the conference (seriously, I was surrounded by red jerseys), didn’t mean that everything was so black and white (or in this case red/yellow and orange/blue). I came away with a great respect for players in general, not just if they are a Bronco. I think that is why I also like Fantasy Football so much. I can celebrate personal player achievements even if I don’t like what team they are on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to hate them if they play for the Chefs, but I may put one or two in a lineup for Fantasy purposes.

Anyway, who knew meeting someone I looked up to on the football field would be so meaningful. Be looking for my next blog about a more recent Bronco encounter!