Sportscenter: E-S-P-N

Ladies and Gentlemen if you were listening today to ESPN radio at 2:30 you would have heard the question posed, "What is the biggest question facing the Broncos this season?" The cool thing is if you would have listened a little longer you would have heard the question answer by your humble author. That's right I got on national radio. I called up and the bouncer producer asked me my name and where I'm from then I waited to hear from the host John Seibel on the program Sports Nation. John started off saying, "According to Sports Nation 50% of voters from Utah believe the biggest question this season has to do with Jay Cutler but you Spencer believe it's something else, what do you believe is the biggest question facing the Broncos this season?" Then I answered. In my next blog entry I'll go over my answer.

Eric: the Exposé

Most people when they think of the word "Exposé", they think of the Lost episode 314. However we will use the other meaning of the word Exposé as it relates to Eric.

The Sweetest Thing

This is Joanie, my beautiful wife of one year. She's over in Europe having fun on the islands of Greece that are almost as beautiful as she is. I miss her so much! Every moment I'm not preoccupied with something else I'm thinking about her. I've planned a second honeymoon the second she passes through airport security back into my arms. I won't reveal all of my plans but it will all be spent with Joanie having a great time. I plan on making up 5 weeks without her into one weekend. That weekend will include a lot of the activities we love doing together.


Joanie is so fun to spend time with. We both love go to different places together. Last year we had a great honeymoon! We got the crazy idea to drive up to Glacier National Park and camp there while going on a 13 hour hike over several mountains. Joanie's one of the few women who would do that and be excited to do that.

Last year we also went camping up at Red Pine Lake. We got the perfect spot on the lake. Our tent had spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and canyon. It was so fun to spend that night with my gorgeous wife alone in a tent.

Over the Christmas break we got to go to Germany together. It was so much fun to spend that time with her. Joan was so great helping to fix the house. Then we went on our vacation from our vacation and went on a round trip down to Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Koenigsee, and back home. The first night in Dresden we slept in a bed that wasn't as comfortable as the princess bed but it forced us into each others arms for the whole night. The next few days were winter cold but it was always great to see Joanie in her attractive outfits. We had such a great time traveling around Europe in our Audi with the Navi to guide us. Joanie even drove over 120 MPH.


Joanie has been really great letting me feed my obsession with football. She never complains and she even watches the Denver Broncos with me and on occasion we make it a great date and head on down to Iggy's and watch the game on the big screens while eating a hamburger and sharing Carmel covered cheesecake.

We have a lot of fun activities yet to do like: camping on Grasshopper Glacier, going to the last 2 of the 50 states: Alaska and Hawaii, and maybe one day making it to Nepal to hike around the Himalayas.

I expect more and more great times with Joanie. When we have children we won't be able to do as many exotic activities alone but we'll have great times being parents together. I can't wait to see Joanie with our child in her and I can rub her belly. I think Joanie will look so beautiful when she's pregnant. I will also get her anything she craves when she's pregnant like Extreme Moose Tracks ice cream to anything crazy she wants to cover with peanut butter.

Joanie will be a great mother. She'll take great care of our children. I'll love to listen to her as she reads our babies bedtime stories. I'm sure we'll dress our girls in pink and our boys in Broncos blue.




20 Reasons I Love Joanie

20. Joanie loves to play games with me (I just avoid playing her after 9)

19. Joanie's dedication

18. Joanie's fun to sit next to in church

17. Joanie's yellow personality

16. Joanie knows "We can make this work!"

15. Joanie loves to be right next to me

14. Joanie's fun to take a shower with

13. Joanie loves to travel to distant places with me

12. Joanie loves to go camping with me

11. Joanie protects me (from Raiders fans)

10. Joanie learned all the football rules

9. Joanie lets me watch football

8. Joanie gave me a great Christmas present

7. Joanie always tries to make me happy

6. Joanie's long beautiful blond hair

5. Joanie's smile when I kiss the back of her neck

4. Joanie's fun to go out on dates with

3. Joanie has the most beautiful lips when she smiles

2. Joanie has the voice of angels when she sings

1. Joanie's a great lover


Joanie I love you so much!

How important is a good LT in the NFL?

Ah, the trenches of a football game. Many astute observers of football believe football games are won and lost in the trenches between the offensive line and the defensive line. The casual fan thinks it just the quarterback and the "skill" position players. It's true that the top teams always have an good to elite quarterback but look at the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Brady is a lot better than little Manning but his offensive line lost the battle to the Giants defensive line. Quite frankly I thought New England played too conservative in their defense. And so it goes the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. Yes it was bigger than Broadway Joe's Super Bowl prediction.

The Left Tackle (LT) is only one of five members of the offensive line, so why does he get the most attention? He gets it because he's protecting the team's most valuable asset from the opposing teams best pass rusher. Of all the 32 teams only Arizona has a left handed starting quarterback and he gets benched in favor of a much older quarterback. A right handed quarterback's blind side is then his left side. He is much less likely to see a pass rusher coming from his left and get rid of the ball then from his right side. A pass rusher coming from the quarterback's blindside has that extra fraction of second to sack or better yet strip the quarterback of the ball. If a quarterback gets hit too many times in the back or has defenders around his legs his production will dramatically drop off. Just ask Tommy.

The Denver Broncos used their first round pick, 12th overall, to select perhaps the best left tackle in the 2008 NFL draft. Miami used the first overall pick to select a "tackle" but many experts see him as a good right tackle because he's a little too stiff. A first round selection is a big deal in the NFL. Is using it on a potenitally good Left Tackle a wise investment?

All the successful teams in the NFL have good quarterbacks which means they need good left tackles and offensive linemen to protect them. The interesting thing is that most of the good teams did not take a left tackle in the first round.

New England: 2001 second round Matt Light

Indianapolis Colts: 2007 second round Tony Ugoh (but they traded a 2008 first round pick to take him in the second round)

Dallas Cowboys: 1998 second round Flozell Adams

San Diego Chargers: 2006 second round Marcus McNeill

Green Bay Packers: 2000 second round Chad Clifton

Pittsburgh Steelers: 2000 second round Marvel Smith

Jacksonvillie Jaguars: 2005 second round Khalif Barnes

New York Giants: 2003 fifth round David Diehl


All these successful teams didn't use a first round pick on such an important position. This shows successful teams don't need to use a first round pick on a left tackle. However when you look back on the last decade in the NFL which left tackles have been considered the best?

Orlando Pace first round 1st overall Super Bowl winner

Jonathan Ogden first round 4th overall Super Bowl winner

Walter Jones first round 8th overall Super Bowl runner-up



The best three left tackles of the last decade were all first rounders. Being picked in the first round doesn't mean sucess; just ask the Raiders with Robert Gallery. However if they do work out they dominate for 10 to 12 years.



What usually dooms highly rated tackles is poor footwork. Poor footwork usually means a move to guard as was the case with Tony Mandrich and Robert Gallery.






The Broncos have a lot to look forward to with Ryan Clady. He's got the best foot agiltiy of any lineman Mike Shanahan has ever seen. That experience comes from being on 6 teams that went to the Super Bowl. Clady should be protecting Cutler for the next deacade and opening up running holes for whatever running back goes for 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 yards in a season.

Pencils Down, Time is Up

Remember way back when I did a mock Wonderlic test? I promised I'd provide the answers and now I will. By the way Arwen was the only one with courage enough to send in answers all you cowards!

1. True
2. 84 cents
3. 1
4. 3
5. 300 feet
6. 6 feet
7. September
8. .33
9. 17 (tough one!)
10. $560 (tough too!)
11. not certain
12. 40 years old

13. surgeon's masterpiece

Thanks that is all.

Nerd Alert!

The year was 1985 and I was but a mere tike but for some strange reason I wanted to watch a grown man on a bike.

A man with lipstick, blush and a cheap gray suit. His name is Pee-Wee Herman. It was back in the days of Friday night sleep-overs before the Saturday morning soccer game.

I ended up recently watching it again after 2o years.

I remember 3 things from the movie:

1. Large Marge: who could forget her awful story? And which person didn't keep rewinding the VHS tape to see her face freak out? That was awesome!

2. The trick gum Pee-Wee gives Francis and his dad: all that black coming out was hilarious.

3. The line "I am a loner, Dottie. A rebel" I didn't know what a loner or a rebel was back then but I've spent every day since then being one. (That last line I said sarcastically Joanie)




And You feel like no one before

Bird Brains

Ladies and Gentlemen I join you after a month off. I come to you out of the jaws of death. A gruesome death at the hands of... I mean the talons of a man-killer, otherwise known as the Peregrine Falcon.

May I live to be a 100 years old I'll never forget those brown spots in its feathers! I wake up in a cold sweat after nightmares of those spots. I'll never forget those spots!

Let's go back to last week. I was innocently fixing the overhang on the roof. I had my ladder in place and I prepared to climb the two and half stories to get to the roof. I looked up and noticed some wasps flying around the roof and I thought I was in some real danger. Little did I know where the danger would come from! I heard a noise that was eerily reminiscent of the sounds raptors made in the movie "Jurassic Park". As we may recall birds descended from dinosaurs and I met the raptors nearest ancestor, the Peregrine Falcon. The fastest animal on the planet!

Little did I know that those noises were directed at me! Then out of nowhere swooped down death's messenger. I just happened to duck in time to watch that bat out of hell go over me! Then he came around again with that noise of death. I ducked again and he flew over. But the third time I wasn't so lucky. Satan's little helper dive bombed me on the head. I took a direct blow. They sunk my battleship!

I felt that blow for the next 2 hours. Meanwhile they dive bombed me again at least 30 more times that night. I came prepared for the next assault in my bike helmet and sunglasses. Those birds of prey flew literally 3 feet from my head then made an instant 90 degree turn and flew straight up the side of the building. I decided to put my competitive nature away and concede the night to them and just return the next time to finish the roof.

The next morning I could still hear those menacing shrills in the distant. Those birds like in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" were still in the trees across the street. Surely they couldn't be there that same evening.

As I did the evening before I prepared my ladder and made my accent. Helmet-check. Sunglasses-check. I carefully made my way to the top of the ladder. As I was about to begin my work out of Satan's womb came these birds. Two them to more effectively knock me off the ladder. I ferociously defended myself as flashback's to Hitchcock's "The Birds" entered my mind. Was my life to be done in? It felt like Pearl Harbor as I made my way down the ladder. Bombing from every direction.

Temptation seeped in my thoughts to show them who really is at the top of the food chain. I wanted to get my tennis racket and show these vile birds the true meaning of "The Grand Slam". I however did not. The sun went down and the reverse of Count Dracula happened and they disappeared. I fixed the roof and was done with it.

Flash forward to this week. I was at work and I heard the quaint chirping of a bird in distress. On our roof was a cockatiel. He had flown away from his owner and looked like a fish out of water. He couldn't fly. I got up on the roof and saved his little bird life.


He now has a name: Petie. Petie now inhabits my office pooping where ever he goes. But I'll take poop over those brown spots any day!





You're free to fly the crimson sky