A New Year, Full of Sports Things That Have Never Been

“And now we welcome a New Year. Full of things that have never been.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

After Mr. Rilke (above) got done changing my perspective entirely after reading Letters to A Young Poet for the first time, I tried to get my hands on every bit of his writing I could, to see if there were further perspective changers in the mix, and there certainly were. I was midway through my third reading of the book above when I took on a job with a health and fitness company out of Santa Monica whose name rhymes with Smeachbody, trying to help them build momentum off of some of their most popular programs and move over to a digital platform from the DVD- and (I kid you not) VHS-based sales they were currently experiencing.

I’d worked for other retailers previously, and spent my first few months gearing up for what I anticipated to be the usual Thanksgiving-to-Christmas rush where most consumer product-based businesses make their hay for the year. While other experienced co-workers told me I’d be in for something a little different, it was still a little astounding to see the reality of it all.

In retail fitness, our sales didn’t just drop between those two holidays, it plummeted. Nobody is looking for P90X when they have just had their third helping of turkey or pumpkin pie. No one wants to give a Christmas gift that is basically an underhanded message sating, “I think you could stand to lose a few (dozen) pounds”. The retail rush I had been accustomed to was a tumbleweed-trodden ghost town over the moments most others were making hay.

But then… Resolution time came around. New Year’s Day hit, and we struggled to not have servers crashing. The reality of those holiday indulgences were hitting the waistlines of millions, and they were now out shopping for solutions. While I had never been one to decide to flip my life around due to a date on a calendar, it was moving and motivational to see just how many folks out in the world were ready to experience “things that had never been”, as Herr Rilke had so movingly put. The power of shifting your motivation with the timing of a new page was pretty self-evident.

As we sail into 2026, there have been newsworthy moments of late for all of the major Colorado sports organizations, even the currently- and blessedly-idle Rockies. With every one of the four seeing a lot of hope on the horizon, here are a few possible, maybe even plausible resolutions to take them each to higher heights.

Let’s start with those Rockies, who have found themselves the cellar-dwellers of their oft-astounding division time and again over the last few years. While much fun has been made of them for the nepotism everyone saw in ownership handing the reins over to their offspring, Walker Monfort has had a hell of a productive offseason, bringing in a group of management talent beneath him that surely seems like they might have the chops to turn this ship around.

It’s hard to imagine their much-maligned data department efforts of the last several years won’t take a 180 with the names brought on board to make those changes. Here’s hoping their 2026 resolution is to stay the course with these possibilities long enough to see if they can actually take root and shift the nature of altitudinal baseball back to a home-field advantage. There are certainly a lot of currently skeptical Rockies fans out there who would love to jump back on that bandwagon.

Right across the street, the Denver Nuggets seem to have resolved to end their 2025 with injuries to as many key players as possible, with four of their five starters currently missing time due to injury, a key backup limping off behind them on Wednesday night, and a cadre of kids surrounding the few vets left standing. While there little to do to get the walking wounded back ahead of schedule, let’s hope the Nugs 2026 resolution is to simply make it into the playoffs with their entire roster intact.

They have shown little care for how pressure-packed road games can be, and can probably flip their advantages back to home court easily if they can simply get their with all their pieces back on the chessboard. Similar to the Heat team they faced in the championship, there may not be a more dangerous team coming out of the lower half of the Western Conference bracket if they can simply hold it together enough to get themselves there while nursing all these key pieces.

Just a little further up the road, your Denver Broncos have been laughing back at all of those who mocked Sean Payton for speculating they might acheive one or more of a few goals with the talent they had this season. The first goal was winning their division, which they have already accomplished with a resounding “check”. The next was taking the one seed in the conference, which seemed like a lofty something to say given the teams they face in the hotly-contested AFC. With a win this weekend, they will actually check box number two on that list. The last of Payton’s seemingly impossible goals involved a ring and a trophy at season’s end.

While many scoffed at such a premise, that notion seems far less preposterous coming into the New Year. If there is any resolution Payton and the Broncos might want to offer themselves as we flip into January and playoff time, it is simply to keep making those minimal improvements and step into playing their best football all of the time. While both sides of the ball have suffered inconsistencies along the year, they may be the most complete team in football when playing at their best. Resolve to just keep shutting out the ever-growing noise around them, and just simply take that next step.

Taking a U-turn back to Ball Arena, if there’s a team amongst the four that looks like they should change a damned thing, it’s the Colorado Avalanche. After having lost an astonishing two games in their first 39 contests, they are out to what is now much more than a hot start. Their defense, offense, points totals, scoring streaks, all measure amongst the best hockey anyone has offered in the history of the sport. Nearly halfway through the season, the best possible resolution the Avs can make is to simply stay the course.

While the second half may or may not be the juggernaut the first half was, there isn’t a team in hockey that wants to face Colorado come Stanley Cup time, especially if they are playing like this when we’re hitting late Spring. Stay healthy, stay focused, stay optimistic, and see if there are records to be broken on bring that beautiful silver cup back to the ice it belongs on. As simple as it sounds, that may be the toughest resolution amongst the four.

What have you resolved for yourself for 2026, DNVR family? Are you starting with the New Year? Have you already broken any resolutions a few hours into the calendar? Which of the above feels like the most likely realistic resolution for that Mile High Quartet?