This is SportsCenter...These are Feuding Airports

Only a few more days left, boys...

BONUS HILARITY!
The Twitter account for Denver International Airport has been going at it all week with the Twitter account for Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport. It's been pretty great to follow.

Sick burn example, DIA:

Hey @SeaTacAirport - stop by Elway's on B Concourse for food, drink, and the Lombardi trophy #SB48 #Broncos http://t.co/wSbGQ0gRj9
— Denver Int'l Airport (@DENAirport) January 30, 2014

Sea-Tac puts its rep on the line:

Game on @DENAirport Loser of #SB48 must fly the flag of opposing team in public for 24 hrs #BlueWillLookGreatAtDIA http://t.co/2kvlMcpjl2
— Sea-Tac Airport (@SeaTacAirport) January 27, 2014

Horses Vs Birds

I confess: I'm not entirely certain who I want to win the Super Bowl. On the one hand, I don't care because the Ravens aren't playing, and I'm not particularly emotionally invested in either team. On the other hand, I usually root for the underdog in Super Bowls not featuring my team, and that would be the Seahawks this year. On the first foot/third hand, the Broncos are my city's team, and I do love me some Peyton Manning. I have several Broncos fans who would be overjoyed at their team winning the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998; I like those people, and I want them to be as happy as I was last year. (I will NEVER be that happy ever again.)

I'm pathetically, hopelessly dead last in the work playoff pool this year after having won it all taking my team in every game for big points. One of the women in the pool didn't even play last week, and I'm STILL behind her!! I plan on letting my dog make my picks for this one. I'll be filming it and will obviously post it here for all to see.

So I guess I'll just cheer for both teams but say that the Broncos will win the Super Bowl this year.

Playoff Hopes and Dreams

The time for participation in my work's playoff pool has arrived, but so far only three people (myself obviously included) have signed up. Shawn said that if we don't get more people by tomorrow, he will have to cancel the pool. I asked him to forward this to the other invitees, as he had bcc'd everyone, so I couldn't email them directly.


Dear fellow playoff pool members,

I understand that last year was a difficult one for all of you. I rode the dark horse all the way to the Super Bowl and playoff pool victory and didn’t even have the courtesy of buying you all drinks. (My credit card balance, however, felt that I had made the right choice.) This year, however, my beloved Ravens aren’t in the playoffs, so it seems that you will all have a good shot at winning. Remember, my first year here saw me getting a pathetically low amount of points, as I had no team to believe in. I find myself in a similar position this year. My only dreams remaining are that the Broncos and the Patriots will be sitting at home on Super Bowl Sunday, watching the same commercials I am and wondering when their lives went so terribly, terribly wrong.

So I implore all of you to join in the fun again this year so we can keep the tradition of mocking Shawn’s single-digit final score alive. Without a high number of participants, Shawn will cancel the playoff pool, and I’ll find myself devoid of any interest in football on Sundays for the remainder of the month. Please, give me something to live for; my Ravens certainly didn’t this season.

Sincerely,
Nikki Cimino
Reigning Playoff Pool Champion

AFC North: A Clusterf*ck of a Division

The first week of NFL football was a complete wreck, at least for fans of the teams of the AFC North. The Ravens were CLOBBERED by the Broncos. I was at that game, and all I could do was laugh. Nothing was going right for us, and Peyton and his receivers were throwing the ball over our defense like they were eighth graders, and our guys were fifth graders. Mile High was a dangerous and hostile place to be if you weren't a Broncos fan.

I was able to take solace in one beautiful fact though: while the Ravens lost to a future hall-of-famer, the Steelers lost to the TENNESSEE TITANS at their home stadium in Pittsburgh! They also lost four of their starters to injuries. It was basically a banner day for a loser who's less of a loser than other losers.

Tailgating Our Way to Victory!

The Ravens fans from all over the world (thanks, Gordon, for letting me be able to say this!) gathered at 10:00am MST on the day of the big game to tailgate in the parking lot of a Baptist church a couple of blocks away from Sports Authority Field at Mile High. (Because blasphemy is the best.) As you already know, the day was gray and cold as a witch's tit (to use an underutilized idiom). That didn't stop us from playing cornhole, blasting some phat beats (including some Baltimore club music), chugging beer and booze, and huddling around the few heaters in the lot for warmth.

Good turn-out! There were even more people than pictured here.

Oh, thermal jackets. How I wish I owned one of you.

Cornhole!

Victory!!

Our "invisible" DJ? ;)

S-s-s-so c-c-c-cold-d-d...

Meatballs, crab cakes, and other hot foods provided by Captn Crabby

The next group of pictures are of some of our fans, getting drunk* and pumped for the game.

*The pregnant lady in this photo is obviously ONLY getting pumped, NOT drunk.

Pictured: Steve (back left), Sarah (front left), and Amy (right)

We're #1!!

One of these things is not like the others...hint: it's the dude in the Ngata jersey instead of the Ray jersey. ;)

My bro James is in the back in the O's hat! <3

Maggie with a COMPLETELY LEGAL beverage in a stylish brown paper bag.

We're a welcoming, open-minded group (except to Steelers fans), so we allowed these Broncos fans to hang out with us.

Reppin' the purple in a sea of orange

The only team that mattered to us that day. <3

Defeating Mr. Bundchen

Me: "How do you spell Gisele's last name?
Steve: "I don't know because I don't care."

After last year's GLORIOUS Super Bowl loss, Tom Brady's wife Gisele gave some hecklers a piece of her mind about Hubby's team mates' skills...or rather, lack thereof. Brady quickly lost ANY cred he may have once possessed, as he now looked like a whiny Pee-Wee footballer whose helicopter mommy swooped in to yell at the coach and the other kids' parents.

Sorry this post is out of order chronologically. (It should have been posted on Monday after the Ravens' win in Denver.) I found it on my phone while posting something else online, and after checking my post list for the blog, realized it'd been omitted.

EDIT: The geniuses at the Ravens sub-Reddit came up with this great drinking game for today!! Follow the rules all the way to the emergency room.

Pre-PRE-Game Party - Ravens Fans Edition

Last weekend Ravens fans from all over - Colorado, Utah, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Scotland! - met at Stoney's Full Steam Tavern in downtown Denver to party hard. In addition to our usual Denver crew, we had a large contingent of fans fly in from Baltimore through the social group BMORE Around Town. Some of the fans even made it onto ABC 2 News in Baltimore. (My scene was, unfortunately, cut, which is balls, considering putting a girl in a pandahat on television would be AWESOME.) Behold the craziness of some of the best fans on earth.

The front bar, which ended up being PACKED by the end of the night

Small part of the back bar. It was also packed, but mostly with fans from out of town

Gordon, our Scottish superfan, was one of the people who made the news broadcast (obviously!)

 

Speaking of news broadcasts, this is the videographer who filmed an interview I did with ABC 2 News (the video of which I can't find, much to my frustration) about my role in convincing the Baltimore Orioles to make an anti-bullying video for the "It Gets Better" campaign. We thought we recognized each other, but the story was filmed a couple of years ago, and pandahat can be an excellent disguise.

Time to party!!

Steve, my adorable novio (in theory, that shirt is purple; it doesn't show well in the picture)

I have no idea WTF is going on in this picture.

Dave and Caroline, two of our Denver regulars

Rockin' the Joe Flacco jersey from his time at the University of Delaware (Go Blue Hens!)

Hannah is Dave's girlfriend; they actually met through the Ravens group! Here were are showing off our matching Ravens scarves.

Charlie is our youngest member and one of the greatest cornhole players our Denver group has.

For organizing all of our Ravens activities through the seasons, including the AWESOME "home game" weekend, the group present Nicci, a.k.a. "Mama Bird", with a Certificate of Appreciation.

Bill is second-in-command of the Denver group and also received a Certificate of Appreciation.

Here I am congratulating Bill with an awesome selfie.

I was given an award too - a Team Spirit Award for "Most Intense" (although I maintain that I should have been "Loudest" and our friend James "Most Intense")

When they asked me what superlative Steve should get on his Team Spirit Award, I suggested (and it was agreed) that he get "Most Patience."

We had to use Maggie's long(er than mine) arms to take this sweet selfie of us. She and I ALWAYS sit next to each other at the bar during games. We're intense like that.

INFILTRATED BY THE ENEMY!!

WE'RE COMING FOR YOU, NEW ENGLAND!!

Pre-PRE-gaming - Broncos Edition

I came to work in my Haloti Ngata jersey today so as to keep up my half of a pinkie-promise that Finance Guy Marshall and I had made last night. Guess who DIDN'T show up in his Broncos jersey?! You NEVER break a pinkie-promise, am I right? I also brought an extra, "professional" purple-and-black outfit to wear in case my Broncos fan boss didn't like my choice of attire; she ended up not caring! So I've been walking the halls and manning the front desk of work rockin' #92. Good day.

I haven't gotten as much crap from coworkers as I thought I would. Many of them ARE members of the Broncos loyal fan base, but we all understand that it's just a football game. My view going into the game: if we win: LOLOLOLOL PEYTON MANNING OH EM GEE WE MIGHT HAVE A SHOT AT THE SUPER BOWL AGAIN YOU GUYS. If we lose: I got to see Ray Lewis's last game in the NFL; that's a special moment.

Here's how my Broncos coworkers dressed up today, and here's the week's final retirement party picture.

Breaker of the pinkie-promise

Kristie, our Facilities lady, bleeds orange

I kept my Purple Power towel (waved at M&T Bank Stadium last season when we swept the Steelers) and Lyndsey's Broncos towels (waved at Mile High this year when they beat the Steelers) at my front desk for most of the morning. Shenanigans ensued.

I later decided to tape them to Shawn's wall. See, it's a subtle put-down of the Steelers.

Shawn's...special

Transcript:

Troy: "Broncos v Ravens? What's it going to come down to? A Ray Rice miracle play? A rookie kicker? A Peyton TD pass at the last minute?"

Ray: "CHINCHILLAS! WE'RE GONNA THROW THEM AT PEYTON! THEIR FUZZINESS WILL DISTRACT HIM, FORCING MISTAKES!"

Celebrity Couples

Transcript:

Troy: "Mr. Lewis, congrats on your playoff win. Can the Broncos and Ravens form 1 team this week, called the Bravens or Roncos? That way I don't have to think about what team I dislike more."

Ray: "...TROY, WE AREN'T CELEBRITIES LIKE "BRANJELINA" OR "BENNIFER." WE CAN'T COMBINE OUR NAMES!"

Shawn's grammatical errors are eating away at my soul, so I fixed them in the transcript. Feel free to click on the photo to see the dialogue in its original, uncorrected form. In Shawn's defense, he's an IT guy, so grammar isn't high on his list of things on which to focus.

I'm not entirely certain where he came up with the concept of combining the teams' names to form one super team that can carry the scorn and loathing of Steelers fans cranky that they'll have to watch the play-offs and Super Bowl from the comfort of their living rooms. He's been under some work stress lately.

The retirement party for Mr. Lewis will continue later today and will be updated at least once a day this week, so stay tuned!!