The 2022 Denver Broncos’ season will likely make it seven straight years of not making the playoffs. The fanbase is apathetic at this point.
ap·a·thy
/ˈapəTHē/
noun
lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern
That is where I and many other fans are at at this point. The pain of watching the Denver Broncos lose mostly every week has become nonexistent. I’ve been a fan of the team since 2006 and there are few things in life I look forward to more than Denver Broncos football.
It’s almost to the point where I’m considering doing something else with my time, and I never thought that I’d ever get to that point. Those who have gotten apathetic are not doing anything wrong at all. In fact, I’d start to get concerned if you still felt some sort of enthusiasm for the team.
The 2022 season might be the worst in the record column in the post-Manning years, but it also hurts for a different and more obvious reason:
The amount of hype that was put into this offseason between the trade for Russell Wilson and the exuberance of Nathaniel Hackett made it feel like Broncos football was finally back. Boy, was that ever so wrong.
Broncos football was never back, and it’s still stuck in that never-ending abyss that the team fell into in 2017. Honestly, 2016 was not a terrible year at all, but the failure to make the playoffs and Gary Kubiak stepping down seemed to have begun the spiral downwards.
The Broncos play seven more games in the 2022 season. In those seven games, if you care to watch, I would recommend watching individual players, perhaps some of the younger ones that can be contributors beyond 2022.
I would also keep the players in mind. They are grown, prideful men who are fighting for their jobs and livelihoods week to week. As much as it pains us as fans to see the team like this, the players and coaches feel much, much worse.