The article by Woody Paige heaped a lot of blame on Denver fans for not showing up at the Monday night game. Don’t blame the fans. It’s not their fault. Blame Denver and the Broncos. Denver has cycling, skiing, freaking mountain climbing. Pittsburgh has, well, Pittsburgh. And the Steelers. Surely you can now appreciate the impact the city has on us, the unspoken bond that binds us, and the reason we own Monday night. You know why we’re glad when we win? It’s because we know we won’t be depressed all week because we lost. You can’t say that about Denver. Cripes, it’s probably going to be sunny all week!

Blame the Broncos too - not the team - the organization. We respect the team. But brace up. We don’t have cheerleaders. We don’t have a styrofoam headed mascot. We don’t have some total babe riding a horse dahntahn. We come to take care of business. Win football games. We don’t play Mcmann to the announcer’s Carson and shout out “in” “com” “plete” when the other team misses a pass. We don’t get all bent out of shape just because we got a first down. We don’t bleed black and gold. We make sure the other team bleeds whatever color they want to. And if they don’t we show some goddam respect, blame ourselves, and brace for a weeklong depression under a misty, dark, and unforgivingly cold sky.