Shanahan stays squeaky clean

ShareThis

The image that comes to mind is of Gen. George Custer, the last man standing, holding in one hand the reins of his horse -- or Bronco in this case -- and an empty pistol in the other hand.Except, it is assumed, Custer didn't shoot his own men as Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has done, now nearly out of others to blame.The dismissal of Ted Sundquist means little in the big picture, any more than Jim Bates or Larry Coyer before him, or others who have come and gone, Ray Rhodes and Alex Gibbs and Gary Kubiak and Mike Heimerdinger, just names, really.To put it another way, only seven coaches remain from five seasons ago, these years not exactly the golden age of Broncos football.It is not quite clear what Sundquist did for the Broncos or any of the others, come to that. That is what comes with a top-loaded organizational chart in Denver, the top being Shanahan and all the rest just temporary name tags.Sundquist generally managed the Broncos in the same way that a flight attendant flies an airplane.You know how when you are being told to fasten your seat belt by a kind young thing the pilot will break in and, in a more serious and remote voice, tell you the same thing? You do not need to be reminded who is in charge, but he who is in charge needs to remind you.The weight of this, strangely, is that the glory that was the Broncos belongs only to Shanahan, now a decade later, while little of the struggles since are his fault.The poor play, the bad drafts, the awful trades, the misjudgments, the alienations, the losses, all the fault of circumstance or at least the last guy out the door.None of these things are Broncos-only failures. Every team has some of them. Some teams have all of them. And when they do, they usually turn to Bill Parcells.No such thing will happen here. The Broncos are Shanahan and will be Shanahan until he leaves, and Shanahan will leave only when he wants to.At some point, he is going to have to be held responsible for what the Broncos are, and these days they are NFL afterthoughts, no longer considered either a threat or an attraction.The Broncos have settled into the mundane middle of the NFL, without apparent possibilities, without a star save cornerback Champ Bailey, a place where light does not really shine on anyone who was not Deion Sanders.None of this matters, none of the internal chair changing, this coach up, this coach out. What matters are wins and losses. That's what matters to Broncos fans as it must to Shanahan himself.Each lost season goes on Shanahan's record. To paraphrase an old sportswriter, when that one great scorer comes to mark against Shanahan's name, he will not only ask who won and who lost but what were you thinking with Travis Henry?He will give you Ashley Lelie, but not Javon Walker.Shanahan is like one of politics' so-called super delegates, his importance and influence far beyond his meager title.He fits in with only a few over the history of the NFL, not counting owners/coaches like George Halas or Paul Brown. His command is that of a Parcells, or Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll or Don Shula, a distinguished class and even among those only Noll made a clean exit.The next, and likely last, stage of Shanahan's legacy depends on quarterback Jay Cutler. Shanahan was in love with Brian Griese and then he was in love with Jake Plummer and now he is love with Cutler, who has yet to fall out of love with Shanahan.We will have to concede what even Shanahan would not admit last year in Cutler's first full season, that the Broncos are rebuilding, that all the pieces are not in place, that all the steps for a while will be baby steps.This is, in fact, how it has been -- including the AFC title game year -- since that old Super Bowl gang was broken up, beginning with the retirement of John Elway and the deterioration of Terrell Davis.Since then it has been patch and restart, fire and hire, rise and fall.This coming season is not a defining year for Shanahan any more than the last one was or the next one will be.But he is running out of people to cover his back.(Contact Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News at lincicomeb@rockymountainnews.com.)