Denver Sports Scene Suffers a Rocky Mountain Heartache

And the men who hold high places

Must be the ones who start

To mold a new reality

Closer to the heart, closer to the heart

                        —RUSH “Closer To the Heart”

It’s hard to quantify.

It’s also hard to understand how something that has always been there is suddenly gone.  It’s harder still in knowing that with the modern information age, the past habits are deemed to be losing their value.  The death of a business isn't that easy to deal with, however these are days that will leave marks and lines in the sand to measure trends and micro-societies for generations to come.

So I write this article as a tribute to an influence in my life that is going away as of this Friday.  The Rocky Mountain News staff received official notification on Feb. 26 at noon that the paper would cease to exist as of the next day's release. 

This coming two months shy of the paper's 150th anniversary.  Sad times in Denver indeed as it is for much of the nation as many businesses are closing shop and laying off workers in droves.  Newspapers are clearly not receiving any bailout during these hard economic times.

So much poison in power

The principles get left out

So much mind on the matter

The spirit gets forgotten about

—RUSH “Grand Designs”

As you get older you start to think you’ve seen it all, until something tops it all.  Losing a major newspaper that has existed exponentially longer than nearly everyone reading it is a scar and a sign of the times. 

Some have attributed it to greed, mismanagement, the Internet, and a sharp drop in ad revenue.  One thing is painstakingly clear: The keepers of the flame have broken a trust in letting this institution die. 

The writing was on the wall about a decade ago, but it still seemed impossible for Denver to lose one or both of these major newspapers.  Both the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post were placed under the same roof owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. 

As a youth, I remember writing some of my first articles between the ages of five and six.  I would torture my grandmother by having her read my version of the English language. 

I thought I was onto something by encoding my articles on paper without any spaces between the words.  Maybe it was the live-on-the-edge James Bond developing inside of me, maybe it was the John Boy journalist inspired by the future.  Inspired to become thoughtful, factual, credible, and an expert in whatever subject matter I’d report on.  Nonetheless, even though things have always changed, it wasn’t too shallow to believe in writing for a major newspaper. 

When you’re a kid you have the desire, but lack the insight and the general knowledge to be an effective communicator for the masses.  So life goes on and you learn from a spectrum of subject matter, seeking out your purpose in life.  This time in our lives is just as important as those younger years when it comes to finding our voice.  

As a kid I started following the Denver Broncos and Colorado Buffaloes football teams fanatically and passionately.  This all came about in large part due to the national TV coverage, the local sports highlights, and the local sports page. 

Growing up in Colorado was an amazing treat as a sports fan.  To see your local teams covered like they were the greatest teams of all time was clearly a gift. 

To see the Denver Broncos in the newspaper was in large part what fueled Bronco-mania circa 1977 during their first Super Bowl quest.  I still have some old clippings from those days that have always been a personal treasure. 

Those years were formative not only for myself but the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.  Years filled with events that were always reported on by the Rocky Mountain News. 

Some of the most special sports memories were covered in depth by the Rocky.  The Denver Broncos games and Super Bowl runs.  The Colorado Buffaloes national championship, Orange Bowls, and "The Catch" in Michigan.  The amazing runs of the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rockies.  In fact, they were covering the Nuggets' greatest season ever this year until this much-revered and anticipated change in plans.

The 1970s and 1980s were an age that saw tape-delayed broadcasts (dumbest idea of all time) of things like the famous USA Olympic hockey triumph over the Soviet Union. The shot heard 'round the world was on tape delay. 

Those were times that clearly never saw these days coming.

The advent of the Internet has been one of the most amazing inventions of all time.  We are all hooked on feeding machines and somehow missing the boat as we punch another text and get another score update on the latest and greatest cell phone. 

Just as the phone was intended to enhance communication and the newspaper was intended to enhance and report life experiences, it has become a relic unfairly judged, monitored, and managed. 

Just as the Internet has elevated the expectation for immediate information, those with the most money have somehow placed a greed emphasis on immediate dollars out of pomp and pride while gutting the system that served them.  The Internet was never intended to entirely replace the paper world, but to enhance the communication experience and the world around us.

Denver has expanded to seven television stations. It originally had four.  Still, for whatever reason, Denver only had two newspapers—that is, until today. 

This is not unique to Denver; however it may hurt more in Denver than anywhere else in the nation.  Longstanding businesses anywhere these days are hard to find.  With the Rocky people grew up in parallel to a region as it grew from an old, dusty cow town into a major-league metropolitan city. And yet all of these things have happened on our watch.

The Internet is full of amazing opportunities, not the least of which is sounding off in free form on a local blog or as an aspiring sports writer.  If the major outlets go away, however, there goes opportunity and what good is that?

This is as much an ode to the past as it is a hopeful wish for the future in uncertain times.  The opportunity is still great out there; it’s just not being harnessed appropriately at this time. 

If something positive can come out of losing an old friend like the sports pages, I’d like to know what it is.  Where is the nostalgia in reading an old Internet article?  The fact is it doesn’t exist and it may never exist.  With a newspaper you were there, you could touch it, feel it, smell it, and enjoy it.

It was always a part of the day to day…until today.