Broncos are showing Texans the potential of what they had

Gary Kubiak and J.J. Watt

Wade Phillips with Darryl Morris and Ross Madison

J.J. Watt and Antonio Smith

The Houston Texans have to be looking at the Denver Broncos and thinking about what could have been.
Patience and a good quarterback puts Houston, not Denver, in the Super Bowl. As it is, most of the former coaching staff for the Texans and a handful of players are headed to the NFL’s title game garbed Broncos orange and blue. Were the Texans premature in jettisoning Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips and company? Probably, but it no doubt seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Ties between the Broncos and Texans have always been strong. The Texans borrowed heavily from the Broncos when the team entered the league. Over the years there has been a lot of crossover between the two teams from the front office to the field. Kubiak and Phillips have had stints as the head coach of both teams (albeit Phillips was an interim in Houston). Currently there are eight former members of the Texans coaching staff and five former players on their way to Santa Clara, Calif., and Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers.
For years I have often referred to the Texans as Denver South. The Houston Chronicle ran a story Sunday referring to the Broncos as Houston North. No matter how you look at it, the two teams share a great deal of history and personnel. That’s why I think it won’t be a stretch for Texans fans to join me in rooting for the Broncos. Locally, we have Emmanuel Sanders from Bellville catching passes from Peyton Manning for the Broncos. (At the very least you can show gratitude to the team that kept New England from going back again.)
Naturally I am a huge Broncos fan. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Denver and my family has had season tickets since the late 1980s (and it goes back to the 1960s if you consider we got them from my ex-wife’s family). I’ve been to more Broncos games than I can count, including having a sideline photo pass when the Broncos played the Texans in the preseason this year. Walking on the field after the game it was like watching a family reunion with all the Texans and Broncos coaches and players hugging, shaking hands and giving well wishes.
Now comes two weeks of ecstasy and agony for my inner Bronco. I am thrilled beyond belief to have my beloved team playing in the Super Bowl again. That is tempered, however, by a 2-5 Super Bowl record. The wins are glorious but the losses are equally unbearable. We are facing an imposing opponent in the Carolina Panthers. They’ve only lost one game and it was a throwaway game late in the season to the Falcons.
The Panthers are my favorite team in the NFC because I lived in North Carolina when the team was founded and I did some coverage of their launch. I will have to set that aside for the next two weeks as they become a rival and obstacle to another world championship.
In all fairness, I should note that their quarterback, Cam Newton, did lead Blinn College to a junior college national championship in 2009, so there is an understandable reason why some here may want to root for the Panthers. In my humble opinion, the hometown ties with Sanders trumps that – just sayin’.
Many are saying that this Super Bowl is Peyton Manning’s swan song. He is the oldest quarterback to lead a team to the Super Bowl and I hope to God he goes out a champion. It’s only fitting for the man who owns so many NFL records.
In the meantime, the Houston Texans and the rest of the NFL can only sit back and dream about what might have been and what still can be. Next year Houston hosts Super Bowl 51. No home team has ever hosted the big game, but maybe that will change. I hope so. It would be glorious to see and to celebrate.
Until then, go Broncos!

Brother completes goal to run marathon in each state

Chip Southern at the
Maui Oceanfront Marathon

I don’t know if it was a New Year’s resolution or not, but this is one goal I doubt few people could top.
Chip Southern, my youngest brother, just completed his 50 in 50 before 50 challenge. Last Sunday he ran the Maui (Hawaii) Oceanfront Marathon. It was the last state in his goal to run a marathon in all 50 states before he turned 50. He is 47 and to date has run 54 marathons (26.2 miles), a 50-kilometer (31 miles), a 50-mile, a 12-hour endurance (51 miles) and a 100-mile race.
I looked online and as near as I can tell, only about 4,000 people have run a marathon in all 50 states. More people have climbed Mount Everest than that!
Chip, if you’re reading this, I want you to know how incredibly proud I am of you. That’s an amazing accomplishment.
If I’m working my calculator correctly, he has officially run 1,646.8 miles. That doesn’t include his first two failed attempts to run the Leadville Trail 100 (across three mountain passes) and the thousands of miles he has run to train for these events.
It’s interesting in that 30 years ago if you would have asked someone which of us (me and my two brothers) would have been most likely to accomplish this task, most would have chosen me. I was the three-sport athlete in high school and Chip was the brainy nerd who got the good grades but ended his athletic career years earlier with Little League baseball.
Today I am the fat, lazy one and Chip is the model of fitness. He was never fat or lazy, he just wasn’t athletically inclined back then. He told me he decided to take up running in 2007 when his clothes started feeling a little snug. Once he got into shape, he entered a half marathon in Denver. Another runner goaded him into doing the full marathon, and he did.
The next year he ran the marathon again. Repeating the race played with his head and he finished two minutes slower. The year after that, in 2009, he decided to run a marathon in Chicago.
“That’s when it hit,” he said.
That experience motivated him to push for a marathon in every state. Two months later he ran in Las Vegas. He did 10 marathons in 2010 and then averaged 8-10 marathons a year after that. He runs a marathon in about three and a half hours on average. He has never cracked the three-hour mark and in two states he was slower than four hours.
My hat is off to him. My running career ended 20 years ago when shin splints got the best of me. I was never a fast runner nor an endurance runner. I was a middle-distance runner in track in high school. I could out sprint the distance runners and out distance the sprinters with no problem. I could never bring myself to run so much as a 5K race, so even dreaming of a marathon was beyond reality for me.
As great as Chip’s accomplishment is, he wasn’t the only one reaching a major milestone in Maui Sunday. An acquaintance of his on the marathon circuit was also completing his 50/50 goal – for the 10th time!
I doubt Chip is ready to do that, but you never know. I don’t know what his next goal will be, but if I know my brother at all, it will be ambitious and he will accomplish it with a flourish. That’s just the kind of guy he is and I’m proud of him for it.

Texans need a quarterback to help them catch playoff success

Brian Hoyer

Did you happen to catch the Houston Texans playoff game against Kansas City Saturday?
Apparently the Houston receivers didn’t.
This game wasn’t won by the Chiefs so much as it was surrendered by the Texans. Five turnovers will do that to a team, especially under playoff pressure. Giving up a touchdown on the opening kickoff pretty much set the tone for the game. I’m not sure if it was poor play calling by coach Bill O’Brian, lousy execution by quarterback Brian Hoyer or a combination of the two. All I know is that it was a painful game to watch.
I can’t say that O’Brian has won me over yet for his ability to lead the team. The litany of clipboard holders he has shoved under center just isn’t impressive. Hoyer was just the best the Texans could scrape up from the bottom of the NFL’s quarterback barrel.
I’m really not sure how the team made it to the playoffs given their 2-5 start and the fact that there is no proven leader on offense. Not even the team’s defensive leader, J.J. Watt, could get the offense rolling when O’Brien put him in to take a snap near the goal line. He lost a yard and later left the game with an injury.
There are clearly a lot of changes that need to happen in the off-season if the Texans want to contend for the playoffs next year. I think it’s too soon to cut loose a second-year coach, especially one that took a 2-5 team to the playoffs. It’s not too soon, however, to cut your losses at QB and go after a franchise leader. I’m not sure what free agency and the draft will bring, but certainly the Texans can do better than Hoyer and company.
If you ask me (and to be sure no one will) I think there is some serious talent being wasted on the Washington Redskins’ bench. Although Colt McCoy may be another career clipboard holder, I can’t help but think he just might be the spark the Texans need. Even if he’s not a starter, he’s got the smarts, talent and experience to help polish a rookie to stardom. At the very least he is a solid backup, which is more than what the Texans have now.
On a side note, I couldn’t help but notice that all the home teams lost the Wild Card games last weekend. I hope that trend doesn’t continue, as the Denver Broncos are my favorite team and they have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I also like the Carolina Panthers, who are the NFC’s top seed.
Looking into my crystal ball, I predict that the AFC championship will come down to Denver and Kansas City. New England isn’t playing its best right now and the Chiefs are red hot with an 11-game win streak. The NFC will see Arizona playing at Carolina. I think the Packers and the Seahawks are about played out for the season and will succumb to greater talent.
It’s too soon to say who will make Super Bowl 50, but my heart of hearts wants to see Denver take it all and have Peyton Manning leave the game like John Elway did 17 years ago as a world champion and Super Bowl MVP.
Then next year maybe we can see the Houston Texans get their due in the big game. Before that can happen, however, they need a field general capable of leading the charge. Here is hoping they find the right man for the job.

It’s not too late to make and keep your resolutions

Question: If you have not yet started one of your New Year’s resolutions, does that mean you have broken it already?
One of my resolutions was to exercise regularly. I haven’t started yet. I still plan to; I just haven’t made the time. Not only do I want to lose a lot of weight, but I want to become physically fit as well. The only real step toward that goal that I’ve made so far is to write down the goal and to download a calorie counting app onto my phone.
Writing things down is another of my goals, and so far I’m keeping up with it. I began to journal on Jan. 1 and so far have not missed a day. Of course, at the time of this writing we are only four days into the year, but still…
I realize that these two goals are vitally important if I want to have a successful and prosperous year. More than just the year, make that for life. In the last several years I have listened to audiobooks written by some of the world’s leading self-help and personal success gurus. I have listened to, implemented and ignored a lot of good advice.
Numerous authors have pointed out the importance of writing things down. Journaling has regularly been one of their top suggestions, followed by leaving yourself reminders and notes of inspiration and motivation. I have long ignored this advice because it takes precious time out of my day to journal and because these same gurus tell us not to dwell on the past but to be in the present and to plan ahead. Journaling to me was always looking back and thus a waste of time.
Still, I could not help but notice that the advice to journal kept cropping up across the board from a wide variety of experts. Why is that? What’s so important about keeping a journal?
Apparently when we journal, even writing down a few lines a day helps our brains process what we have experienced. It helps clarify and classify what is important to us. It also helps reduce pressure on our faulty memory. One of the advantages I have of being a columnist is a preserved record of my writings. In a way, it serves as a journal of sorts.
Whenever I look back at some of my old columns I am reminded of just how much I do forget and how far I’ve come in my personal and professional life. Those periodic looks back at previous works are a vivid reminder that I really have accomplished a lot in my career and that my life hasn’t been wasted. Sometimes it reminds me of things I still want to do.
I’ve also been forcing myself to take the time to finish writing the book I started last year. Although it’s a photo book, there is still a great deal of writing to do and it has been easy to neglect that part. Writing a book has been one of my top goals for the past 30 years and it’s time to put up or shut up. It amazes me how much writing I can get done when I set aside a block of time, turn off Facebook and other distractions and just get to it.
Publishing the book is a top priority for me this year. If I can get it done soon enough, I have another book project that can be completed by the end of the year, giving me two books finished in one year. For my own sanity, that really needs to happen.
Unfortunately, writing books and working as a newspaper editor requires an enormous amount of time sitting in front of a computer. That is not conducive to an active lifestyle or doing anything to promote healthy eating and physical fitness. That brings me back to my goal of eating less and starting to exercise.
It really doesn’t matter what I accomplish with pen to paper if I neglect my body and it fails me. I’ve learned that physical activity stimulates the mind and body and gives you more energy. I need that. You need that.
Even though I have not started exercising yet, I will not look upon that as a failure of my resolution but instead a delayed start. With that in mind, I think I will stop writing now and go for a walk. Care to join me?