The Broncos

I was in third grade when the Broncos went to the Super Bowl for the first time. My teacher brought in cupcakes with orange frosting and we listened to “Make Those Miracles Happen” on a scratchy, popping 45 while we ate the treats. I had no idea what any of that shit meant because I was football illiterate at eight years old. Craig Morton. Orange Crush. Bowls that are super. What?

My mom caught the fever though and would turn the channel on and cheer and scream at the TV. I don’t know what I did, but it wasn’t that. I had to learn the rules to football in physical education. Once I read an article in Cosmo about how to talk about sports with men. That article must have been well written because I can speak with knowledge about the line of scrimmage. My brother played football in high school. I was a CU Buff during the Orange Bowl years. And I live in America, so football is hard to ignore. It seeps into your brain through osmosis. For years though, I managed to check out of all things football pretty well.

I am not sure how old my son was when he got bitten by the football fever, but he had my mom for that. She would cook a big meal and she and Shayne would watch the Bronco game. It was their thing. Since the development of his illness, most of Shayne’s interests have ebbed away, but he still loves football. In my quest to help keep him tethered in reality, I try to share his interest. So football it is. I watch the games with him, discuss the players and coaches, rejoice and commiserate in the triumphs and fails of the weeks. So when I got the opportunity to take him to see the Broncos play at home in Denver, well, how could I turn that down?

Shayne has been to Bronco games, but I have not. So he was telling me what to expect and he said something about a horse. I said, “Wait? There is a horse? In the stadium? I like horses.” In theory, I know they are the BRONCOS, but a real horse? And my idea of watching a game, is being in the same room as the television and drawing or playing a game on my phone. I guess I missed the horse?

Somebody described schizophrenia like this to me once: The brain gets all sorts of information all the time, but it knows how to filter and focus on the most important details. But with schizophrenia, the filtering device is broken, so all the information is the most important at the same time. So as we were walking up the ramp in the arena, I saw the sign about the stadium holding 75,000 people, and heard the loud pop music, and saw the giant screen highlighting the morning NFL games, I looked over at Shayne to see how this is going to be for him. He was laughing at something only in his head and he seemed happy, so I thought we’d just roll with it.

I am not going to lie, being in that stadium was not what I expected. It was freaking cool. People were all dressed up and dancing and laughing and it was the biggest party I had ever been to. The opening act was a mariachi band. It was almost like having my dad there. The singer, Isabel Maria Sanchez, was incredible. It brought me back to Radio Mexicana of my youth. And then the most beautiful white horse pranced across the field. I could have gone home right then, completely satisfied, but the surprises just kept coming. During the national anthem, two giant flags were unfurled on the field, the stars and stripes and the Colorado. Seeing the fabric ripple in the air was truly awe inspiring. I told the woman next to me that it was my first game and she pulled a button out of her bag that read, “my first Bronco game.” I proudly pinned it to my shirt.

Shayne was equally excited. He did get lost once coming back to the seat. He went up and down the stairs a few times and someone noticed and helped him get back to the right section. He made the Lion King noise (that cry when Simba is presented to the animals) when the screens asked the audience to make noise and he got inappropriately angry at a call, but no one really noticed because everyone else was making noise and getting inappropriately angry too. At one point he said, “Why don’t we live in a place where I could do this every time?” Uh. I had no answer to that. And the best part? The Broncos won, even if it was lucky, they still pulled it off. We left the stadium high with joy of winning in Bronco country. Actually that wasn’t the best part. The best part was when we got home, Shayne hugged me and said thank you for the best day of his life.

I never would have thought that going to a football game would rank high on my list of memorable events. It was like being in a storybook with anticipation and fear and magic and happily ever after. I loved sharing that with my son. It’s nice to have a memorable moment that is joyful. Our moments of exhilaration have been few and far between. It gives me hope that there will be more. Shayne said that the road will turn for the Broncos. I don’t know about that, but for me, I will always remember my first game. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.