People often say, “I recognize you from radio.” This seems like an indictment of my appearance and words. In truth, I am flattered that people appreciate what I do.
For 31 years, I have chronicled sports in Colorado, starting at The Colorado Daily and most recently at Denver7. I have penned stories about the University of Colorado, endless prep sports, the Colorado Rockies and the Denver Broncos. I have never been lost for words.
It’s why when the opportunity arose to become a columnist at The Post, I pounced.
As Jay-Z bellows, “Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is, um, Troy.” I know these lyrics not because I am cool but because “Public Service Announcement” has been my youngest son’s walkup song in college baseball for the past three years.
I am back. And since the day I was hired my routine has been the same. Wake up. Pinch self.
I love watching, analyzing and giving my opinion on sports, striving to make you think, laugh, simmer or cry. There will be times you like me. And times I offend you. But it won’t be about the Broncos. They haven’t done anything offensive in eight years.
As a beat writer, my previous life for 15 years at The Denver Post, the daily events became chapters in a book, weaving together a fabric of stories on drama, personalities, injuries and outcomes.
It was an endless stream of delight. And losses. Every year the Longmont Breakfast Optimist Club would ask me to speak, and I would respond quizzically, “You know I cover the Rockies, right?”
I loved MLB’s unforgiving schedule of nights and weekends and holidays. However, my wife deserved better than a Disneyland dad to our sons, even as my hobby became coaching them in football, basketball and baseball.
I shifted to the Broncos beat in 2014. Growing up in Colorado — Pueblo shaped my love of sports, green chile and The Bell Game (Go Bulldogs!) — I recognized the importance of the Broncos. My earliest memory came when they reached Super Bowl XII and lost to the Cowboys. Full disclosure: Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach was my favorite player, so this loss did not sting like the rest.
I wrote about the Broncos’ first two championships — watching an emotionally spent John and Jack Elway embrace in the locker room after the win over the Packers remains forever scorched in my brain. I covered the Orange Rush mauling of Carolina in Super Bowl 50. What has transpired since assaults the senses. Common, nasal or otherwise.
I followed the Rockies for 14 years at The Post, rewarded with Rocktober in 2007, an experience unmatched in my career. I don’t know whether Matt Holliday touched home plate, but I do know I have never covered a group of players who cared more about each other.
I left the Post in 2016 because I wanted to be a columnist. With that job unavailable, I wandered into broadcasting. It is a different medium. You have voices in your ear, a bright light in your face and clothes hugging your body like Saran Wrap. They call it “making TV.” Most would call it a hostage negotiation.
TV was a blast. And I still do daily radio spots and my own Broncos podcast. But I am a writer at my roots. I missed the caffeinated energy of the newspaper, whether it is in print or online. To be part of that as a columnist — allowing for the elasticity to follow the Nuggets, Avalanche and such — has long been my goal.
My column will be pointed and poignant. This position demands holding owners, coaches and players accountable. It can be done with fairness, thoughtfulness, humor and takes that do not require oven mitts.
Sports remain the greatest reality show. They bring us to our knees. They bring us to tears. They bring us joy. And, often, they bring us together. I aim never to forget that. Covering sports is fun, a diversion that blends athletic brilliance with pretzeled emotions.
I will continue my Renck&File dispatches in a new format of mailbags and musings. And there will be lively debates with fellow columnist Sean Keeler on a variety of topics.
This week alone, the schedule is a delight. The Avs face the Red Wings. The Nuggets, in a possible NBA Finals preview, host the Celtics. And Sean Payton and Russell Wilson broke up on my first day. All that is left is to absorb the $85 million salary cap hit and determine who gets custody of Thunder.
As I think of the challenge of this position, I smile. I understand the pressure. I always wanted to play sports in these conditions. I realized by high school I had a much better chance of covering professional athletes than becoming one. There is nothing like writing something that sings on deadline. Other than a handful of Chewy Sprees. OK, I have the diet of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Don’t judge me.
So, when a person came up to me in the grocery store the other day and said, “Hey, you are a broadcaster and taller than I expected.” I said no. And, definitely, no.
I am a columnist. I am back at The Denver Post. And it’s time to get to work.
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