Kiszla: Broncos play weirdest home-opener in team history, as lone father in Section 106 cheers Dalton Risner on field

If quarterback Drew Lock throws a touchdown pass and Broncos Country doesn’t roar, it’s still worth six points. But the score feels hollow, because it doesn’t resonate where football counts the most, deep in the gut of 75,000 screaming fans that bring an NFL game to life.

“It was definitely really weird out there tonight. The no noise … It was just quiet,” Lock said Monday, when the coronavirus prevented Broncomaniacs from attending a sad 2020 home opener.

Silence is never so dead as in defeat.

The Broncos couldn’t hold a late lead and lost 16-14 to Tennessee when Stephen Gostkowski, who missed four earlier kicks, drilled a painfully easy 25-yard field goal with only 17 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Denver blew this woulda-shoulda-coulda game 10 different ways.

During the final minutes of the fourth quarter, with both his offensive and defensive units on the field, the clock management by coach Vic Fangio can only be described as somewhere between clumsy and irrational.

The absence of injured stars Von Miller and Courtland Sutton certainly hurt a team that lacks an abundance of Pro Bowl talent.

But during Tennessee’s final 12-play, 83-yard drive, I couldn’t help thinking a raucous, capacity crowd might have gotten the Broncos one, last crucial stop to preserve a victory.

“Mile High would’ve come in there big time for us at the end,” Lock said.

At 81 minutes before kickoff, I strolled a lonely main concourse, past hot dogs with nobody to love them and empty bathrooms, looking for the father of Broncos guard Dalton Risner, when my phone rang.

“It shouldn’t be hard to find me,” Mitch Risner said, as the sun sank behind the stadium.  “I’m the only guy in Section 106.”

Sure enough, I found a football fan as strong as a bull, standing all alone 20 rows above the 40-yard line. He wore a sleeveless Risner-Up shirt that revealed two things:

No. 1: Beautiful tattoos of an old, rugged cross and rope adorning chiseled muscles of his left arm.

No. 2: Mr. Risner apparently never got the memo that in middle age it’s OK to have a Dad bod.

During 61 seasons of pro football in Colorado, there’s never been a home-opener like this one. When the coronavirus pandemic mercifully fades, let’s hope there’s never one like it again.

It felt as if Lock was playing at the library rather than in Broncos Country. The second-year quarterback said he considered talking in a whisper inside the huddle, so Tennessee defenders couldn’t hear his play call while standing at the line of scrimmage.

“I can’t wait until we all get back to normal. But no fans will block my view and nobody will have to ask me to sit down after a touchdown,” said Risner, whose son wears No. 66 for Denver. “Nobody’s here. But I’m from Wiggins (pop. 996), so I’m used to it.”

On a warm late-summer night, the elder Risner was among a select group of 500 friends and family allowed to cheer the sport Colorado loves best. A devoted father, who has coached his son since Dalton was a kid, followed his usual game-day routine.

“Dalton wants to know on Play No. 7 of the game, whether he had a misstep off the line or leaned forward too much against a pass-rusher,” said Dad, who takes copious notes on every detail of his son’s blocking technique. “It’s not that I coach him. He has NFL coaches to do that. But after the game, he wants to connect with his Dad on that deep football level.”

Can you keep a secret? Football isn’t the same without you, the 75,000 spectators that make Broncos Country so beautiful.

“Very disappointing,” said Miles Power, the Aurora resident who had his personal attendance streak of 268 games, never missing a single play at home or on the road since 2004, broken by the safety precautions that prevented loyal season ticket-holders from being in the stands.

Echoing the heartbreak of Broncomaniacs, Power said last week, upon realizing his 16-year-old streak was doomed to end: “What has stung me more than anything is the lack of care and outreach by the Broncos. While I always knew my love was unrequited, the lack of care and consideration throughout this process has made it more glaring than I could’ve ever imagined.”

It’s a sad football season in Colorado, no matter your opinion of the regulations enacted to curtail the number of deaths from a wicked disease. The restrictions also threaten the life of restaurants, movie theaters and businesses that make hard-earned income by entertaining us between Broncos games.

Nothing stops the NFL money machine. While it was good to see Denver native Phillip Lindsay toting the rock, what I really miss is the Friday night lights that have been turned off on prep football players.

Nobody understands what the game means to an adolescent boy more than Mitch Risner. He’s a high school football coach in a rural Colorado town, where farmers lean on the fence behind the home team’s bench and second-guess him after every failed third-down play forces the Tigers to punt.

AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post

Mitch Risner watches his son, Denver Broncos lineman Dalton Risner, during the first quarter against the Tennessee Titans on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020.

“I will admit, it’s a really difficult time right now. And not just because kids cannot have games of football that they love,” Risner said. “It’s everything else the sport does for adolescent boys in giving them motivation to keep their grades up and having the time to bond at every practice and keeping them busy after school while their parents are at work.”

Depending on the day, Gov. Jared Polis and officials from the Colorado High School Activities Association either sound as if they’re itching to resume a season put on hold by coronavirus concerns, or give the impression they will punt again until spring.

“We’re getting so many mixed messages: There is going to be a season. There isn’t going to be a season. It’s getting to the point where everybody is confused and nobody knows what to believe,” Risner said. “All this uncertainty is hurting these young players. It’s such a roller-coaster ride for these kids.”

While Risner takes great pride in seeing his son wear a Broncos uniform, what he really wants to see is the joy of football return to teenagers on his hometown prep team.

The NFL is football’s biggest stage.

But touchdowns count more in Wiggins, where every score is a childhood dream come true.