It's amazing how many issues my beloved Denver Broncos continue to discover week in and week out.  First the drunk driving incidents, followed by Von Miller's suspension and then the one thing that had me worried just as it does every year...the dreaded injury bug.  Last year the Broncos completely escaped it, but this year it arrived in full force.  

Center J.D. Walton's ankle wasn't quite healed enough for him to play so Center Dan Koppen returned to fill the void, before tearing his ACL.  Thankfully Manny Ramirez has stepped in and saved the day.  But the injury woes didn't end there.  We all watched Cornerback Champ Bailey hobble off the field in the preseason and Tight End Joel Dreessen has been missing in action with a bum knee.   

But with this red hot start to the season, it seemed like the worst injuries were behind the Broncos, until the last few minutes of the New York Giants game.  In a matter of minutes, Strong Safety Duke Ihenacho, Defensive End Robert Ayers and Left Tackle Ryan Clady all had to head to the sidelines with grimaces on their faces and worry came over the good people of Denver.  

Thankfully Duke and Robert were fine, but not Ryan Clady.  The bad news has finally been delivered and Clady has been placed on season ending Injured Reserve with a lisfranc tear in his foot that will require surgery.   Any football fan knows that Clady is by far one of, if not the finest Left Tackles in all of the league, so to see him leave the field is certainly cause for concern and brings forth the question as to whether or not the Broncos are truly in trouble now.  

I don't think they are in the slightest. Will the offensive line be as flawless as before with Clady out of the mix?  Of course not, but there is something special happening in Denver and because so far this season the Broncos have proven that adversity and major personnel changes are of little concern because of the "Next Man Up" edict on the team.

It's been around since John Fox began to coach the team but the idea is simple, if the top guy goes down or is out for whatever reason, it is the job of the next man up to step up and do the same job as the man he is replacing.  We saw this come to life during the season opener against the Ravens with Von Miller and Champ Bailey out, the next men up did an amazing job in the lineup and provided some stifling defense.

I think the same thing will happen here.  Chris Clark will step up, do his absolute best at Left Tackle and protect Peyton Manning.  In fact I think Manning is one of the reasons the Next Man Up idea works so well on this team.  It's obvious Peyton's teammates want to see #18 hoist the Lombardi Trophy and letting him down or not playing to his standard will rob him and the team of that dream.  There's something very special happening with this team and the way they've played continues to show this.   We'll be just fine and if the wins keep coming like they have so far, those Lombardi Trophy dreams will most certainly come true.  

I got into the sport of football for an interesting reason, to see my father on the sidelines.  He is a professional photographer, semi retired these days and in my youth he shot many an NFL game. So I would watch the games on the weekends to see if by chance we could see him shooting the games.  

In fact on several occasions I had the honor of being able to go onto the sidelines with him to help out.  I still recall my reluctance to head out with him to a December game that I eventually went along with and well, we damn near froze it was so cold.  But it was also worth it.  I got to watch John Elway destroy the Bengals and I got to spend time with my dad.  In retrospect, it was an awesome day.  

But all those years of watching out for my pops made me a die hard Broncos fan, and oddly enough, as I focused more on the games over the years, I eventually and finally spotted my father on the sidelines, go figure.  But more importantly, my father getting me into this incredible sport also led to another interesting side effect if you will and I've been pondering on it since Thursday...the fact that I have now witnessed one historic moment in this sport after another.

I have watched passing record after passing record fall.  From passing yards to touchdowns, one quarterback after another has managed to shred records of yesteryear with seeming ease.   Hell, I've even watched the first team to go 18-0 in the modern era go 18-1, historic in its own right.  

But there is nothing, and I mean nothing that was as incredible as watching Peyton Manning tie the single game passing TD Record like he did the other night here in Denver.  Yet the surprise of seeing this record fall was not the fact that it did, but the sheer fact that it didn't even dawn on me until the second it was recognized after Baltimore's penalty was assessed. 

Yet something more incredible came over me that night, aside from sheer joy.  We are witnessing something beyond amazing.  Year after year, records continue to fall, and while I understand some of them are from a different time when players didn't get the same opportunities, I find myself wondering if we are fully appreciating the incredible feats we are now witness to.

I mean, Drew Brees broke the single season passing yards in a season record. Both Manning and Brady have replaced one another in the single season passing touchdown record and now, I got to watch Peyton Manning throw seven touchdowns in a single game.   

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with what we are witnessing, and yes I understand that the league is different today and that records are indeed made to be broken.  But let's take a moment make sure that we hold these incredible moments in the highest regard.  Every single one of these records is a big deal. The best of the best put those records in place and now the best of the best are clearly taking them right down.  Either way, I am truly in awe of what I saw on Thursday night and I am most certainly appreciative of it.  I may never see anything like that again, and I thank Peyton for giving me not only a win, but a legend to tell others of, the night he dropped seven touchdowns in a game. 

One of the things I have always looked forward to is the NFL season starting.  Growing up in Denver and being privileged enough to have a family that had season tickets to the Broncos games, I never knew how lucky I really was.  Going to see the classic Orange Crush defense in person, along with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history has been one of the finest highlights in my life.

Now I have been a fan of the other leagues, MLB, NHL, NCAA and NBA, but something about what the NFL has done has will always stay true with me.  A sixteen game season, no more, no less makes it easy to follow and understand that every game counts.  With such a short season versus the other leagues, you can sit back once a week and watch as your team does its best to thrust its way into the playoffs.  Not having to work around a preseason ranking, the NFL has assured you that every team has the chance to make a run to the championship.

With the big hits, last second catches, The Drive, and additional rules that have been implemented into the tradition over the years, we all come back week after week to see what will happen next.  This is the ultimate reality series (or personal drama), but in no way is it scripted.  Great plays make us cheer, bow our heads, cry, or just get outright crazy.  The conversations around your work on Monday mornings seem to solidify that this could be one of the greatest shows on television today.

If you are one of the thousands upon thousands that attend these events in person, you come away with a much different view of the game.  My personal experiences at the games seem to revolve around who I was able to go with, the conversations, the joy felt by the group, or just the way you learn how to clap.  My most memorable games at Mile High Stadium centered on special events.  A fantastic afternoon with my uncle where we witnessed a concussion on the first hit of the game, a blizzard where my mother and I sat through the entire game and I had to clear off three inches of snow from my hat every quarter break, and a birthday celebration where I sat just outside of the replay booth so I was able to heckle the officials as they made the wrong call.

Now the NFL has changed its culture over the years with all of the rule changes that have been implemented, but it is still fun and exciting to watch.  One of the greatest things about the league is that no one is able to outright buy a winning team, there is a salary cap and it is utilized.  Even the small market teams have to use a percentage of this number to put a team on the field, if they want to or not.  Everyone has a chance to win and money is not the deciding factor behind that.  It is an even playing field for all of the markets, you can sign any caliber player you want, but just make sure that you put them to good use, or else you will be stuck with a lemon for the rest of their contract.  

No matter how you watch your team take the playing field this season, be it at home, at a bar, or going to the games, just realize that you are always witnessing history in the making. Records will be broken, rules will change based upon a big hit and everyone will have an opinion of what should have happened on the second and two call in the third quarter.  It is a fantastic event that only happens once a week, so be ready for what will happen.  There can be only one at the end of the season, it may be your team, or it may be a friends, but all of the excitement starts this Thursday with Week One.  Are you ready?

We here at Girls of Geek believe firmly that anything that is geeky or that we follow with incredible passion and obsession deserves to be covered on this website.  There are some "genres" that we debate at great length and today's post is the result of one such debate.  

The question at hand was whether or not sports can be considered geeky and after hours upon hours of discussions at the office we agreed that yes, they sure are.  I know in my household, the Denver Broncos and John Elway are held in the same regard as Star Trek and Captain Picard.  In fact for every U.S.S. Enterprise I have on display you'll find a matching piece of Broncos memorabilia.

In fact I'm not sure I know how to not geek out when it comes to sports.  For the brainy side in all of us there are plenty of statistics and facts to pour over every single week, not to mention, every sport has a mythos as long and decorated as Superman himself.   

So with that in mind, and considering how often our discussions of what might happen next on The Walking Dead turn into talking about how bad the Colorado Rockies were last night, we are proud to introduce our new Sports section.  It is here that we will discuss the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and MLB and anything that goes along with them.  In fact to celebrate the opening of this new segment of the site, we will be announcing a contest in the coming days.  But until then, throw your jersey on and get the nachos ready because NFL Kickoff Weekend is days away and we hope you'll join us here as we celebrate the wonder of honor and glory.