Why I’ll Remember This Broncos Superbowl Win Forever
Last night’s Superbowl 50 win by the Denver Broncos represents so much more to me than a football championship. It represents a lot of deeply personal emotions. In fact, the entire weekend ripped my emotions to shreds — in the best and worst kind of ways.
This weekend has been a couple of decades in the making. We lived in Denver from 1994 to 2000, and my oldest on Brenton was three and four years old the Broncos won the Superbowl in 1997 and 1998. Denver was on fire for the Broncos those years, so he latched on and a lifelong, passionate loyalty to the Broncos was born in Brenton and eventually in all of us.
So Sundays with the Broncos became part of us — what we do, part of our identity — and we stayed with them through eighteen years of ups and downs since that last Superbowl win. In all the years our kids have been growing up we’ve been pulling for them to win again. The Broncos are woven into the fabric of our family memories.
Which leads to the stage of life where me and Christy are right now. We’re two-thirds of the way towards being empty-nesters. Breanna moved into an apartment with some of her friends just two weeks ago. Brenton has been in Austin and a student at University of Texas for nearly three years. And our youngest, Dustin, will be a senior this year and is starting to firm up plans to study engineering at Oklahoma State University.
To start this weekend, Bre and her friends hosted a housewarming party this past Friday night. For some reason seeing her there at the party stirred up my emotions for the first time since she’s moved. I feel so much pride in her but I just miss my little girl so much too. Then, this weekend Craig played this video during 30-Second Theology. Every single time I watched it I cried like a baby (and it just got me again right now as I’m writing this).
Anyway, on to the game last night. I was tied up at church until the end of the first quarter got home to watch the rest of the game with Christy. The two of us had so much fun cheering, yelling, and celebrating the win. We texted back and forth with Brenton in Austin and with Breanna and Dustin who were across town watching the game with their friends at two different Superbowl parties. And we reminisced about what Broncos really represent to us: seeing our kids, for whom we’re immensely proud, growing up.
That’s why the game was so special. It’s another defining moment in time. We look back and are grateful for that God gave us a chance to raise some remarkable kids. And we look forward to their exciting steps into adulthood and our new life as parents of adults. I may or may not have shed a few tears as I wrote this post — but they are good tears, the kind you hope to have because you’re so proud of your kids.
