Inside the Mind of Mike Shanahan

The Wall Street Journal posted an article adapted from Stefan Fastis' new book, "A Few Seconds of Panic".

In 2006, Stefan Fatsis persuaded the Denver Broncos to allow him to join the team at its summer training camp as a placekicker, becoming the first writer to suit up for a National Football League camp since George Plimpton in 1963. In this excerpt from his new book, "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL," the author visits with the Broncos' meticulous head coach, Mike Shanahan, to discuss coaching, training camp and the suspension of his punter for violating the league's drug policy.

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The article shows a candid Mike Shanahan and asks the question, as Robert Lypsyte puts it, is Shanahan a, "mind-bending manipulators who make athletes believe they alone can make them winners."? As Lypsyte once described Vince Lombardi. It also directly addresses the situation with Todd Sauerbrun. You can read the rest of the article right here if you like.

As a fan of the Denver Broncos, and if you're a long time fan I hope that you're in concert... I agree with Pat Bowlen, Shanahan can have control of the team for as long as he wants to be here. Over the years we've caught glimpses of the man that controls this team, Al Pacino even chose to study and later channel Shanahan in Oliver Stone's genius film Any Given Sunday. Don't know if you caught it last night or not, but the NFL Network re-aired the AFC Divisional Playoff game against Bill Belichick's (then) New England Patriot's who had won the last two Super Bowls. The best part about the re-air is that they played Shanahan's microphone and at the end as Belichick and Shanahan embrace each other, you can hear Belichick tell Shanahan, "You're going all the way..."

That was January 14th, 2006. A little more than two and a half years later, the team sits with only a handful of players remaining from that team and have posted a record of 16 and 16 since. What happened? And did we fix it yet?

I'm interested in reading "A Few Seconds of Panic" mostly because of how candid the coach seems towards Fastis. The WSJ also offers an excerpt from the book, you can also check out Stefan Fastis' website here for more information.

- Is it Sunday yet?

Wow... "He's not my favorite person right now."

Another day, another Brandon Marshall story this one from The Denver Post revealing that Marshall had been arrested March 6th in Atlanta for battery, stemming from a March 4th altercation with his girlfriend (same one from earlier incidents). That's three times in a year for anyone with the scoreboard and at this point, the NFL may get involved. Jay Cutler's comment put into context makes a lot more sense now.

I mused prior to the draft, when all we knew was that Marshall had potentially ruined his right hand, that we would know how he really was based on who we drafted. Then we picked Eddie Royal with our second pick, this was, I believe, to fill the weak spot we had at Kick Returner and Punt Returner. It's not weird for the Broncos to have so many receivers going into training camp, Keary Colbert was signed March 2nd (two days before the alleged March 4th Marshall incident and four days before his arrest). However, the Darrell Jackson signing may have been a direct attribute to the Marshall incident.

We haven't posted up our break down on Denver's receivers yet, but let's look at worse case scenario. Keep in mind that Marshall's DUI case is still looming as well and has been postponed to September. So things just aren't looking great for him and I can't imagine him not missing at least a little time during the season due to a suspension. It would be almost hypocritical of Coach Shanahan to look past the multiple Marshall incidents while getting rid of people like Travis Henry and Todd Sauerbrun (at least Sauerbrun hits men). So as I said, worst case scenario, what does a Denver wide receiver lineup look like sans Marshall?

My best guess is Darrell Jackson at the X, Keary Colbert/Brandon Stokley at the Y and Samie Parker/Brandon Stokley/Eddie Royal at the Z. Not terrible, Bronco football without Marshall on the field would not be the end of the team, but he'd definitely be missed. Keep in mind, we'd still have Tony Scheffler, Daniel Graham and very good pass catching backs in Selvin Young, Andre Hall and Peyton Hillis.

Argh... Is it Sunday yet?