The Changing of the Guard Is Here (yet again) for Colorado Sports

“There is nothing permanent except change.”
– Heraclitus

I recently watched a friend’s workplace make a change in the uniforms they wore on the job, and got a close-up view of the attendant conversation from the staff. You’d have thought is was the French Revolution. For uniforms that were exactly the same, save a color change, the staff was ready to riot. You sit outside such a small thing and think, “wow, what’s your problem?”, but when it’s your universe that’s undergoing change, suddenly you might be the one up in arms for some existentially similar version of a sleeve-color change.

(most) People hate change. Study after study shows the lack of control, fear of the unknown, aversion to loss, and burden of learning anything new make the larger part of the population antsy just contemplating it, and it makes all the sense in the world. There is safety in what you know and what you’ve seen work. Outside of that? Possible chaos.

And yet, as Heraclitus so aptly threw down, it’s really the only constant of our lives. Changes in life, job, loves, family, ecosystems, technology, and more throw us some form of new curve ball every 47 seconds or so. I took a stab there, don’t quote the math. We crave that stability for ourselves, but that’s not always the case for the things surrounding us. When you’re a fan of sports, say of a place’s teams in particular, you might want to see some minute shifts in what your team does, or who they do it with. Luckily, time and the collective owners of Denver, Colorado’s Broncos, Nuggets, Avalanche, and Rockies are all here to oblige.

The Rockies biggest changes came into play coming into the season they are already in, with an overhaul of the front office that started last season becoming a full-blown shift in leadership and strategy coming into the new year. Walker Monfort, Paul DePodesta, Josh Byrnes and others went about shifting how the team actually approaches the game. Whether or not it will pay dividends is a longer game than this first 70-plus games will tell, but the air feels different around Coors Field for the first time in a long while.

The Denver Nuggets have barely changed anything at all coming out of last season, but that statement feels as if it should be capped off with a screaming YET. While their all-time center is still one of the league’s elite, there are a number of players now wanting to take his best-in-the-world recognition. In the recent league draft, Denver actually moved back when they didn’t like what they saw available at their first round slot, and added future second round picks that are premium trade-sweeteners in today’s NBA. They also drafted a couple guys at positions where the team is at its deepest. If anyone on this list is in for a literal “changing of the guard”, it’s the Nuggets.

The Denver Broncos, life has been more about the little tweaks to a team that possibly came an ankle injury away from a Super Bowl appearance. It will be of as much interest to see how off-field shifts like Davis Webb’s play-calling and new wide receiver and cornerbacks coaches making their marks. Sean Payton will have the full might of a re-upped five-year deal behind him in doing whatever he thinks right to get the team a couple steps more down the line, and no one will be mocking him this time around for such lofty expectations. But some players wonder if this might be the last go-round for them if the team can’t make that next leap… or even if it can.

For the Avalanche, the seismic shifts have already begun. Jack Drury, Val Nichushkin, and others find themselves wearing new sweaters next season, and you have to wonder if the team is yet done with the shifts they’ll be looking to make after such an abrupt halt to such a promising year. They are back to Super Joe Sakic calling those shots for now, with former GM Chris McFarland making a shift of his own.

The changing of the guard has come to Colorado sports, whether you wanted it to or not. Maybe you’re thrilled to see the Rockies making shift, but not so happy to see the Avs swapping things around. Or maybe it’s the other way around. The inevitability of it all doesn’t necessarily tell you which side of the roller coaster your favorite club is on. Pull those lap belts down low and tight, and keep you hands inside the car. This changing of the guard has a 360 degree loop hidden somewhere down the track.