We all think that our actions have sweeping repercussions -- or at least that's what I tell myself after being admonished by my team of therapists each week. But this time, it seems to me, I really might have, maybe, sort of, spurred last week's sacking of longtime Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan.
Here's the deal.
Last March, I made a bragging-rights bet with Denver Post editorial-page editor Dan Haley about the Broncos' record in 2008, with me predicting the team would go 10-6 and lose in the first-round of the playoffs and him foreseeing an 8-8 finish and no post-season berth. Thanks to the squad's horrific December 28 defeat at the hands and feet of the San Diego Chargers, Haley was proven uncannily accurate -- and to honor my commitment, I penned a December 29 blog entitled "The Denver Post's Dan Haley Is the Greatest Broncos Prognosticator Ever."
The next day, Haley -- no doubt still feeling a pleasing jolt from his recent victory -- published another Broncos editorial, with this one calling for Shanahan to be removed as general manager or given the boot entirely. And later that day, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen showed Shanny the door.
Sure, there's a chance that Haley would have written the same editorial even if I hadn't just declared him to be the top Broncos expert on the planet -- and perhaps the aforementioned words had no impact whatsoever on Bowlen's decision. But I choose to believe that I set into motion this Denver-sports-scene-shattering chain of events simply by making a foolish wager about my clearly suspect knowledge of the Broncos, who I've only been following for a little over forty years.
Let that be a lesson to others in important positions. My power is awesome, if completely beyond my control. -- Michael Roberts
