I sat in a favorite fast-casual Mexican food spot the other night and ended up listening to the couple behind me getting into a not-so-friendly disagreement over the merits of red chile vs. green chile. I ended up leaving discomfited, and with the feeling that the chat may have had to do with a lot more than chile. Most of all, surer than ever that there is very little we can agree on any more.
It’s easy to avoid the real landmines any more in casual conversation, and not just at family gatherings. Politics, religion, and the meaning of the word “predominant” can all engender a firestorm of debate by simply naming the topic. But in a moment in history that seems to have fistfights breaking out over coastlines, clocks, or even chile, it’s sweet, sweet relief to find any danged thing we can actually come to consensus on.
And while bespectacled babies and the banality of Beowulf are easy slam dunks in any crowd, there’s another topic you can raise that gives you a chance to be a hero. Just introduce a little pigskin into the parley, and see how your popularity pops.
A Gallup Poll conducted earlier this year confirms that an astounding 70% of Americans watch football. A full 41% of U.S. adults mark football as their favorite sport, with baseball and basketball only able to reach 10% and 9% consensus’ similarly. The NFL currently enjoys a passion and breadth amongst their fanbase that the other leagues cannot catch, often even in combination.
In Colorado, it often feels as if 99.9% of citizens are not only football fiends, but Denver Broncos acolytes, and there is admittedly a swell currently filling the sails of Broncos fans everywhere. Wearing orange and blue anywhere within 100 miles of the state is a popular choice in any year, but sporting Broncos gear this year is quite likely to gain you a high-five or long-distance holler anywhere out and about, coming into a highly anticipated Broncos campaign.
If you are amongst the football faithful, you may have caught the kickoff game of the season, a nailbiter between last seasons’ AFC Championship combatants, one decided by a hair. Or more accurately, a toe. With the last three available plays of a hard-scrabbled comeback, Baltimore missed at two wide open opportunities, and then finally landed one an inch over the line. A heartbreaker, but exactly the kind of shareable family drama that can bring people together over even the most disparate of arguments.
Denver can only hope to be in a game so entertaining against Seattle to kick things off for their season this Sunday afternoon, and fans would be even more enthralled to kick the season off with a win, something the Broncos haven’t done since 2021. But even signs of forward progress will probably be received positively by a football-starved Broncos fanbase, and any good news will be a hot and easy topic for moments you find yourself out amongst the general populace.
Now, no one is saying yelling “PAT SURTAIN!” will stop a meltdown between a customer and barista at your local coffee house, but it may at least create enough confusion for you to step outside the yuck radius, or at least beyond the mocha madness. There’s only so much goodwill football can engender.
What may be possible, however, is a chance to rescue a beer amongst buddies, a fete amongst family, or even a get-together with grandpa with the easy phrase, “How about them Broncos?”
Football is back, and the sun is a little shinier, the shades a little rosier, and the faintest smell of shoulder pads wafts in the air. Take advantage, ride the wave, and know that for the next 158 days, there is something (most) all of us can agree on.
