KRIEGER: Calling it quits never easy

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Joe Mahoney, Darin McGregor and Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

John Lynch, Rod Smith, Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic have provided great moments through the years in Denver sports.

From a distance, it's always so easy.

Jerry Rice? Hang 'em up!

M.J.? Don't come back!

It's fun to conduct other people's careers for them, especially famous people. It's a vicarious thrill, like telling a rich guy how to spend his money.

It's a little harder up close. Harder to tell John Lynch he can't cover anymore when he and his wife, Linda, are handing out awards and scholarships to young achievers in his adopted home, doing just what we always say we wish athletes would do.

Harder to tell Rod Smith he can't get open anymore when he's giving his face and name to the Broncos blood drive or demonstrating every day what it means to be a team player.

Harder to tell Joe Sakic he's about to turn 39 as he and Debbie plan their annual August shindig to benefit Food Bank of the Rockies (this year featuring comedian Josh Blue).

Harder even to tell Peter Forsberg his troublesome right foot is more of a pain to us than to him, remembering him raising money for the Denver Children's Advocacy Center.

Rewarding kids who do the right thing, fighting disease, feeding the poor, helping abused kids - you don't even have to remember what great players they were to want them to stick around.

But it helps if you do. Nobody who watched the Avs win their two Stanley Cups wants to see Captain Joe go, in part because he's one of the greatest players in NHL history, in part because it would mark the end of an era we would rather not admit is over.

If you watched Forsberg register 14 points in nine regular-season games after being out of the league for 10 months, it's hard to make the case he can't play anymore. But how distracting or harmful is the continuing soap opera about whether he will be able to practice or play on any given day? It's an amorphous issue, which doesn't stop everybody from having an opinion.

Smith's recalcitrant hip took everybody off the hook, but it was already hard watching him become an afterthought in the Broncos offense toward the end of the 2006 season. Like Sakic, he represented not only a championship era but also a rare standard of individual accomplishment.

Smith's great pride as a self-made player, an undrafted free agent who became the Broncos' career receiving leader, made it hard for him to see the end coming. The magic of that championship chemistry stayed with him and he greeted every year as a chance to recapture that sublime feeling.

Lynch is a slightly different case because his greatest years were spent in Tampa. He wasn't here for the Broncos' championships, and other Broncos safeties, notably Steve Atwater and Dennis Smith, were better in their primes than Lynch has been somewhat beyond his.

The other day, giving out those awards to kids on behalf of his foundation, he admitted, with a laugh, taking a "haircut" from the Broncos.

Beneath the laugh, you could sense his injured pride at the salary cut, but there aren't many safeties in the NFL who will turn 37 next season.

Lynch will be given the opportunity to compete for a starting job, but there are no guarantees. He still presents a problem for opposing quarterbacks as a blitzing pass rusher, but not in pass coverage. That was part of the reason why the departed Jim Bates' defensive scheme failed last season. By keeping Lynch off the line of scrimmage, it failed to make use of what he does best.

For each of these players, the decision to call it a career is complicated by pride in their own ability and love of a game they have played as long as they can remember.

"It's very difficult to be honest with oneself at the end of your career," former big-league pitcher David Cone once observed.

Sakic's is perhaps the most difficult decision because it is clear he can still play. His career most closely resembles that of former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, who played 22 seasons for one franchise, gracefully transitioning from an elite player to a complementary, inspirational one at the end.

Sakic has played 19 seasons for a single franchise, most of them as an elite player. He could easily play two more and give himself a chance to represent Canada at his hometown Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, a goal he mentioned after the NHL lockout three years ago.

The question is whether his pride will allow him to make the transition Yzerman made, to admit that younger players must take more of the load now.

Even Smith has yet to formally retire. Although he has come off the Broncos roster and his hip surgery makes coming back almost a pipe dream, he has not quite come around to closing the door on that dream.

Lynch will give it another shot in a season that could prove uncomfortable all the way around if he does not win a starting job.

Sakic and Forsberg will think about it a while, trying to figure out if chasing the ghost is still worth it to them.

However awkward the endings, we've been lucky to have these four in this town, as players and as people. The best way to show them the respect they've earned is to let them make their own decisions in their own time.

And to understand that of all the difficult things pro athletes do, letting go of greatness is the hardest.

• May 12, 2008

  3:20 a.m.

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  dj80long writes:

  Thanks for the memories.

• May 12, 2008

  9:16 a.m.

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  Bookem writes:

  Great column. Its difficult as a Bronco and Avalanche fan to say good bye to these guys if and when the time comes. I can't imagine how hard it is for them.

• May 12, 2008

  9:54 a.m.

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  DougH writes:

  Same here, Great Column about a group of guys with real class. They have brought more to the people of Denver more than just athletic achievement, good for them

• May 12, 2008

  11:12 a.m.

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  OhBrother writes:

  why is this story not as big as Melo's DUI, barry bonds/roger clemens steriods or somthing else bad...oh that's right it's not bad. Anything that potrays the positive things a majority of sports stars do normaly won't get the ratings those big wigs want. These guys deserve more praise for off field action then on, good people, good story.

• May 12, 2008

  1:48 p.m.

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  Shaupeen writes:

  What a great column. Thanks for making my Monday.

  And OhBrother, why not just enjoy this story, and leave the whining for the negative stories?

• May 12, 2008

  6:35 p.m.

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  Pigskin writes:

  There are many sportswriters in Denver who ought to retire. Or just go away.
  Krieger is not one of them.

• May 12, 2008

  11:55 p.m.

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  Finn writes:

  Oh Brother and Yella, so why are you guys reminding us of the negative right now? Geez, I wasn't even thinking about it until you felt the need to bring it up. So much for the positive.

• May 13, 2008

  12:34 a.m.

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  Broncoflow writes:

  Spoken like a true columnist who never caught a five yard slant in his life. Denver.....Do you want more players like Marshall or Walker? Keep it up then. This heartless column has no recollect of greatness.

• May 13, 2008

  7:45 a.m.

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  UncleBuck writes:

  Hey I'd take 10 more Brandon Marshall's. Where they at?

• May 13, 2008

  7:50 a.m.

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  mel writes:

  I wonder if my friends think of me in my old age, like everybody thinks of john lynch. I saw him last year, and the only reason he looked slow on pass plays, was because he was having to cover the run for all of those dead-beats on the line. You all need to wake up, and realize that he is probaly the best safety in the NFL.

  mel griess
  honolulu, hi

• May 13, 2008

  8:52 a.m.

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  TheeDude writes:

  Wave goodbye to Lynch....so long and thanks for all the phish....oops I mean fish. It was great having him here, but let's face it he was no Atwater....or Dennis Smith....and most of all he wasn't even a Tony Lilly.

  Rod Smith will always be beloved, but he'll never be in a place to contribute even remotely like he once did...as evidenced by his pizza commercials. Sorry, them's the facts.

  Super Joe could keep going 2 more seasons...if he can keep the eye of the tiger.

  Foppa? The guy has a target on his back, which all other NHL players hone in on. True his injuries are a distraction, but his presence on the ice raises the Avs another tier....although sometimes it is tear.

• May 13, 2008

  9:51 a.m.

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  myerda00 writes:

  Glass-Half-Full view is, Lynch maybe kept as player-coach but probably not as a starter.
  Hamza and McCree will start IMO. And look for Josh Barrett to get a lot of time.
  BOY I can not wait for camp.

• May 13, 2008

  10:06 a.m.

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  millertime3852 writes:

  That was a really good article! It's true that Denver has been blessed with some great people/athletes as role models. That's not always the case in sports towns. Todd Helton is another one that they'll be writing about here shortly. He probably should have even been included in this story, though he still has some years left in him. But him making the transition definitely fits into the topic here.

• May 13, 2008

  5:06 p.m.

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  CaptainObvious writes:

  "This heartless column has no recollect of greatness."

  Broncoflow, This HAD to make sense in your head as you typed it. Please explain it to me. Unless it's opposite day and I completely spaced it...

• May 14, 2008

  8:11 a.m.

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  TruthHurts writes:

  As usual Krieger has found the heart and soul of sports. I must admit I am one of those fans that prefers the team of unselfish no names, which captures the imagination and over achieves in one special season and shows what teamwork can accomplish. It is probably my age. Don't get me wrong, I do like rooting for home teams that win and are playoff bound. But it is just a little more special when it is a team made up of athletes of character than over paid self indulgent superstars who whine and cry THEY don't get enough attention or respect. To them I say, you EARN it. The athletes in Krieger's article certainly have.

• May 14, 2008

  8:53 a.m.

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  Jaeks75 writes:

  Lynch is a presence in the locker room as well as the field. With all the new guys here, we need him just for that.

• May 15, 2008

  12:37 a.m.

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  Broncoflow writes:

  Hey sailor....In response to this obsolete column, Do you think that other good sports writers in other cities treat their potential hall of famers like Denver’s' do? Do you think Bettis was scrutinized in Pittsburgh? How about Jimmy Smith in Carolina? How about Marshall Faulk in St. Louis? Maybe a few, but key players in the tail-end of their careers deserve better than this column. This column was the perfect reason why most athletes always say, "I don't read the newspapers." Who are you to tell somebody that has given so much to a professional sport, "Hang it up?" C'mon now....obviously....