Thursday, March 10, 2016

ABOUT BROCK OSWEILER

99.9% of the time, this blog is about nothing but Denver real estate.  Today is that 0.1% of the time it’s about something different. 

Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler has signed with the Houston Texans.

Many of you know that at the end of 2015, my youngest daughter Elizabeth spent a total of 17 days at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, going through a series of three major surgeries that resulted in the loss of about half of her left lung due to a congenital birth defect. 

What was supposed to be a four-day bump in the road for a 15-year old high school freshman ended up turning into nearly three weeks of high stress drama, with numerous setbacks and complications that led to two additional surgeries and quite a bit of uncertainty about whether this chain of events would morph into a long-term hospitalization with potential lifelong repercussions. 

Her first surgery was on December 18th, which was also her 15th birthday. 

That day had started with great promise – Elizabeth went to the Jefferson County DMV at 8 a.m. to get her driver’s permit.  It ended late that night with her in grueling post-op pain, about one-third of her diseased left lung having been plucked, pulled and otherwise chiseled from her rib cage during a complex surgical procedure that took more than three hours to complete. 

The original proposition had been to either do this surgery on her birthday, with the promise of being home for Christmas.  Or celebrate her birthday at home but spend Christmas in the hospital.

As it turned out, Elizabeth spent her birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s Day hooked up to tubes, wires and breathing machines while being carted in and out of surgeries in a holiday season we will surely never forget.

So what was a dark time for everyone changed suddenly about 10 a.m. on Christmas morning when there was a tap on the door of room 4403.  A face ducked in, a face belonging to Brock Osweiler, quarterback of the Denver Broncos.  He was a wearing a #17 jersey and a blue and orange Santa hat, which almost brushed the top of the door frame as he made his way into our room.

“Is this Lizzie?” he asked. 

And with that, the room suddenly came to life. 

“I’m Brock,” he said.  “Does anybody here like the Broncos?”

His wife, Erin, walked in with a large bag full of gifts.  Good stuff… headphones, an iPod Touch, board games, blankets, socks, stocking caps, Broncos gear. 

Elizabeth smiled, and Victoria and Sherry looked at me in disbelief.

Soon, we were talking about the NFL, about whether Arizona State would be a good college choice for Victoria, about how he and Erin first met, about Lizzie and her prognosis for recovery, and what it felt like to have 300 pound linemen intentionally falling on your legs.

The Osweilers gave us about 10 minutes of their time, but it wasn't rushed, it wasn't choreographed and there were no PR people pushing them out of the room to make the next photo op.  I was struck by how legit it felt.

The girls took selfies with their suddenly new best friend, and Erin talked with Sherry about the pain of watching a young girl go through hard times in the middle of the Christmas season.

Finally, we took a group photo and Brock and Erin departed, moving on to the next room to share some holiday cheer with another family in distress.  

It almost felt like a dream, and as we processed what had just happened, both Sherry and I felt  gratitude and amazement at how we had been blessed in such an unexpected way at such an unexpected time.. 

It was Christmas morning, after all, and don’t players have families too?

Later on, one of the charge nurses told me it was at least the fourth time during the season that the quarterback had shown up, unannounced.  No camera crews, no media people. 

Just Brock and Erin, with an intern from the Broncos helping to hand out gifts that for us turned out to be nearly $500 worth of merchandise.

The nurse said that many of the athletes who show up at the Children’s hospital are doing community service, working off DUI’s or doing penance for fights at the strip club.  Not Brock Osweiler.

Three days later, Osweiler played the biggest game of his career, a high stakes Monday night matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.  It was still unthinkable to me that on Christmas Day, 72 hours before a football game that would not only determine the Broncos’ playoff fate but make or break his long-term contract chances, Brock Osweiler was spending his off day at the hospital, lifting the spirits of sick kids and their families.

Elizabeth has never been much of a football fan, but on that frosty Monday night in our cold hospital room, she was glued to the television. 

It looked bad early on, with the Broncos falling behind by two touchdowns.  As the team struggled, the pain in her chest seemed to intensify.  Her spirit was again deflating. 

But in the second half, magic happened.  And the Broncos rallied back, with Brock leading a spirited comeback and then engineering an overtime drive to win it.

There were late night whoops and hollers all up and down the pediatric floor at RMHC.

The girl who never cared about football suddenly couldn’t stop talking about it.  We high-fived in the dark hospital room and when we finally dozed off to sleep, Elizabeth in her hospital bed and me at her side on a cold vinyl sleeper couch, we were both feeling better than we had been in many, many days.. 

Some other amazing things happened over the next few weeks.  Elizabeth finally got out of the hospital during the second half of the fateful Broncos – Chargers game on the last Sunday of the season, leaving the hospital in a wheelchair right about the time Brock was being pulled in favor of Peyton Manning.  

Two weeks later, through the extreme generosity of a long-time business associate, Elizabeth attended her first football game by sitting in the front row of the lower level for the Broncos divisional round playoff game, directly behind the Pittsburgh Steelers bench.  These were legacy seats which had been passed down from generation to generation for 50 years, and they were offered to Lizzie free of charge in a tear-jerking display of kindness.  I got to share that remarkable day with her, one of the most memorable experiences in my 16 years of being a dad. 

We took pictures of both Brock and Peyton during warm ups and cheered like crazy for the Broncos throughout the game.  Elizabeth couldn’t believe the noise from the crowd or the way the stadium shook in the fourth quarter.  She left the stadium transcendently happy. 

You can question whether Brock Osweiler’s on-the-field resume is worth $72 million, but you can’t question the integrity of his resume off it. 

Osweiler’s autographed picture has been taped to Elizabeth’s bathroom mirror for the past nine weeks.

His sudden departure has turned into a tough life lesson, that sometimes people move on even when staying seems to make all the sense in the world.