Hello Broncos Country! So I know that we are all wearing big frowns now that our season has come to an end. It’s always hard to envision our lives without football for the next few months. But with the end of a season comes the excitement of preparing for a new one and improving upon our mistakes. And if it makes you feel better, just remember that we are not alone in our sadness – Detroit became the first team in NFL history to go winless and finish 0-16, and both New England, the defending AFC Champions, and Dallas, the preseason Super Bowl favorites, failed to clinch a playoff spot.

Hello Broncos Country! I hope you were able to watch the game on Sunday even though it was at 11:00 a.m. instead of the usual 2:05 p.m.! The season thus far has seen many of our outstanding veterans become injured and unable to contribute on the field. And out of the adversity of this situation a rare phenomenon has occurred; the young players on our team have been given a unique opportunity. For some this may be the biggest challenge they have faced as athletes. Still trying to prove themselves as professional football players, they are being placed in new positions and unfamiliar roles and are expected to perform as well as players with years of NFL experience. This is an immense physical and emotional task, and I think the stakes are higher than many of us realize.

When a rookie makes a team, he knows that he may be a backup to one or two very strong veteran players. His focus for the year is to keep his roster spot by constantly improving. This year the mission at hand for our rookies has become a different one – assuming the roles of veterans and facing some of the biggest talents in the league at short notice. This past Sunday taught me a lot about the spirit and the character of our rookies - they may be new in the league, but when Coach Shanahan put them on the field, they delivered performances befitting our proud Denver Broncos Football Club and justified Coach Shanahan’s faith and trust in them. To be a professional football player, it takes more than muscles, speed, and physical endurance – it requires extreme mental strength. No matter how talented an individual may be, if he cannot endure the pressure, stress, and unexpectedness of a game, he simply cannot make it in this league. Sometimes it takes years to acquire the mental toughness needed to succeed in this league, but for our rookies, it is now or never.