Bill Thompson — better known as “Wild Bill” to friends old and new — stepped out from the mother of all party buses and scanned the parking spaces to his left. Then the ones to his right.
He sighed.
“To be honest with you, this is the lamest I’ve seen in close to 30 years,” Wild Bill said an hour before Chiefs 28, Broncos 24 at Empower Field. “People have given up a lot of empty (parking) spaces, too.”
It wasn’t the patches of Kansas City red that rankled Thompson, a Broncos ticket-holder for 37 years and a tailgating fixture for more than three decades. It was the patches of silence.
From the back row of lot E2, Saturday felt like a loss before the Broncos even kicked off.
“Half of the people that are here every game called and said, ‘I won’t make it today,’” Wild Bill mused.
“And I don’t know if they’ve given up. Or if it was the game being changed from Sunday to Saturday. My daughter couldn’t make it because she had to work. But it’s very, very sad. You hope there’ll be changes (with the Broncos) after this, in some way. There has to be.”
But what if there aren’t? At least, none of substance?
“I’ll tell you right now, there’d better be,” Thompson countered. “Because if not, then the fan base, they’ll be like this.”
He pointed to the empty parking spaces where grills used to be. And should’ve been.
Broncos Country didn’t speak with their wallets during Week 18 so much as scream. Scream from their couches. The no-show count for the regular-season finale was 14,571. In person, it felt a lot larger than that.
If this had been ancient Rome, and third-year Broncos coach Vic Fangio was a fallen gladiator, most of the locals, when asked for pollice verso, would’ve responded with a thumbs-down gesture to the sky.
Not all of them, mind you.
“Hey, I really love him,” Scott Shaffer said of the Broncos’ coach before the game. “I want Vic Fangio to stay.“
Shaffer, full disclosure, is a massive Chiefs fan who grew up an hour south of Wichita. Thirteen consecutive Kansas City wins? Bring back Vic, baby!
“I think he’s been great for the Chiefs,” Shaffer laughed.
“Not so much for the Broncos. No, he’s been great for the Chiefs. I hope they keep them around. Signed to an extension. Long-term deal.
“If he gets fired, I will cry. Chiefs Nation will mourn. We will be so sad.”
Which kind of says it all.
And not in a good way.
“Honestly, I just think (Fangio’s) play calls are really bad,” said Lisa Rodriguez, a Broncos fan from Denver who celebrated her birthday Saturday at Empower Field.
“And oh, my (gosh), his challenge record, the number of times he’s thrown the red flag and has lost his challenge. No, I’m ready for a new head coach. And hopefully someone to steer us in the right direction next year.”
Rodriguez brought with her a small, orange, hand-made sign with the words IT’S MY BIRTHDAY on it.
Guess which present was No. 1 on her list?
“First and foremost, I’d love to win,” she chuckled. “And then second, of course, I think we need a new coaching staff.”
That’s a lot to ask these days.
“I know,” she said. “But I’ve gotta stay hopeful. I’m really hoping we get a good coaching staff in and get some better quarterbacks. Even if it’s not for my birthday, then maybe for the (2022) season that’s coming. Honestly, they really need to get to it.”
They really do. Surely, they heard the boos raining down over the final two minutes after the Chiefs escaped once again. Surely, they won’t keep playing chicken with a fan base that’s sick and tired of being taken for granted.
Surely, they won’t use Saturday’s plucky effort, Drew Lock’s two rushing touchdowns, No. 3’s fist-pumping swagger, as justification to run it all back.
“They have to (change), and I think they will,” Wild Bill said. “And I think they will. I think they know.
“But I’m just saying that they’d better because … let’s put it this way: If they care about the fan base.”
They say they do.
Actions. Actions, not words.
And the actions of the next 48 hours are going to say everything.
“I mean, all you think is, ‘If Pat Bowlen knew this …’” Thompson said, voice trailing off.
He surveyed the lot again, doing a head count of absent friends, Broncos lifers who’d already surrendered.
“Unbelievable. But that’s part of the problem.”
