DENVER — It’ll be at least five months until Melvin Gordon has the chance to face his former team. But the new Bronco couldn’t wait to pour gasoline all over the flame that was lit by him signing with the Chargers’ division rival.
On Friday, one week after bolting from the Chargers to the Broncos on a two-year, $16 million contract, the Pro Bowl running back didn’t mince his words talking about the differences between his former club and his new one.
“[Denver] definitely has a way bigger fan base,” Gordon said, stating what everyone in Broncos Country already knew, but wanted to hear from a former rival. “Since I’ve been a Charger, I always felt like it was an away game when we played the Broncos, and pretty much any team. Definitely, at Qualcomm, it was always a sea of orange. We just didn’t have that many fans.”
“My year coming there, that’s when they started talking about the move, so we probably lost some fans that way. You can make excuses saying that the fans played a part of our wins and losses at home, but I don’t really think it did. It was more so just for morale, not — third downs, things like that, having our fans kind of making noise for the opposite opponent, but we didn’t have that. It is what it is.”
Melvin’s in for a heckuva morale boost. In his career, he’s gone from playing his home games in a 70,000 person “sea of orange” in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to a wave of orange playing in a soccer stadium in Los Angeles. Now, he’ll be playing in front of an ocean of orange in front of a fanbase that has an NFL-record 411-game sellout streak.
“You only hear great things about Denver,” the new Bronco said with his smile detectable through the conference call. “I’ve played there every year I’ve been in the league. I know how great the fanbase is. I like their scheme, watched film on them… I thought it was a great place to start off fresh and help boost my career.”
While the two-time Pro Bowl running back went 3-6 against the Broncos in his career with the Chargers, he does have one favorable memory that stands out facing his new team.
“Hurdling over a guy. That’s my memory. Hurdling over a guy. Catching an angle route and hurdling over a guy for a score,” he said, recalling back to Week 1 of the 2017 season, when Gordon left his feet at the three-yard line and flew over Justin Simmons into the end zone on Monday Night Football. “That’s what I remember most. And how electric their fans are.”
There’s Melvin talkin’ about Denver’s fans again. With the way Gordon continuously brought up Denver’s fans, it appears that was a reason he decided to take his talents to the Mile High City. Another reason, according to Ian Rapoport, is he wanted to stay in the AFC West to face his former team twice a year.
“It will be dope. It will be dope. I’m excited,” he said on Friday, when asked what it will be like to play the Chargers twice a year. “I was with those guys for five years. Great relationship with all those guys, man. It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be electric.”
It’s not just going to be dope, as he said, it’s going to be juicy.
“It’s going to be a lot of trash talking—I know them. I know their defense, they’re definitely going to let me hear it,” Gordon said with excitement. “But I’m going to let them hear it as well. It’ll be fun. It’s definitely going to be war out there, but it’s definitely going to be exciting. They are still my brothers. I still got love for my boys. Our bonds go beyond football. Obviously it’s business when we’re out there, obviously, I’m not with them no more. I’m going to do whatever it takes to win.”
The Broncos-Chargers rivalry lost some pizazz earlier this offseason when Philip Rivers, the man everyone loves to hate, left town. But Gordon’s words and actions, along with Chris Harris Jr. fleeing to Los Angeles, just lit the spark for another chapter of the rivalry to begin.
This time, Gordon will have the majority of the fans on his side.
