I’m right a lot. I know that can be frustrating for those who disagree with me and I feel for you, but such is life, as they say.
Of all the columns I have written, the one that has elicited the most direct and consistently critical feedback was one in which I was as right as I have ever been. Sorry critics.
Back in September I professed my Bo-lief. Cynics have chided me for months. One even expressed surprise upon seeing me in my “Bolieve” jersey that I am indeed a devout man of faith.
It should be known that the news of Bo Nix’s season-ending ankle injury diminished my joy and not my faith.
For reasons above and beyond my desire to take a victory lap with this column, I wanted to see him complete the journey. Alas, Bo-ses was forced to stand on Mount Nebo, looking down into the land while Joshua, or in this case Jarret Stidham, worked to bring our people home.
Sadly, the time has not yet arrived for an end to our wandering in the wilderness, but despite the loss in the AFC Championship Game, Bo-lieving is proven to be the righteous path.
A wise man said, “the ultimate test of any great leader is whether they have the ability to inspire others to rise above their perceived limitations to attain new heights of success that they previously imagined to be impossible” (Jordan Friedman, Intermountain Jewish News, Sept. 4, 2025). I acknowledged at the time that the unfolding of the 2025 season would be the administration of this test.
And it has since been passed!
If you were in Mile High Stadium on Jan. 18, you witnessed this as it happened. Early in the fourth quarter, the Broncos ceded their lead to the Buffalo Bills and with just 4:11 remaining, fell further behind by four points, needing a touchdown for a chance to win. It was the kind of dispiriting moment that for nearly a decade before Nix arrived that you would shake your head and think, “here we go again.”
Only now, we don’t think that way anymore. Instead, there was almost a certainty that the game was not lost. Behind a third-string center, down a starting running back on injured reserve, and missing two wide receivers lost in the game to injury, there was little reason for hope, unless you Bolieved.
Would it come to pass that with just 55 seconds remaining that Nix would find under-used return man Marvin Mims for a dime in the end zone? Of course! Broncos took the lead 30-27.
When the Broncos do finally win an AFC Championship, it will be because they have come to believe that it is possible to do things that seemed impossible not that long ago.
Losing to the Patriots was tough, but not demoralizing because the feeling created in the Bills game will last. It is a sense that when things seem bleak, Nix will come through. Even more importantly, there will be a guy on the other end of the ball who works that much harder to see that it does. That is what it means for a great leader to elevate others.
Bo Nix brings a never-say-die attitude that is infectious. Because he combines that attitude with outstanding play in critical moments, others feel that they can succeed too.
The wideout who doesn’t play much before he becomes the hero or the defender who sees the play through to rip the ball away from a receiver at the last split-second — these are moments of transformation when a person becomes more than he thought he could be.
That is what it means to Bolieve.
We live in a time when great things seem elusive. We are instead mired in pettiness and tumult. A manufactured crisis about illegal immigration leading to a brutal and overbearing militarized law enforcement, a President’s bruised ego over losing out on a medal from a Norwegian committee because Barack Obama got one, and saber-rattling at Denmark over Greenland leave us to wonder if this is indeed the dumbest era in human history.
Sports are not an antidote for the ills of the world, but sports can remind us that human beings still have the capacity to leap beyond the confines of who we are right now to transform for the better.
To find our untapped potential, we need leaders who can show us a future of what is possible rather than making achievement impossible. We need leaders who inspire us to make a magnanimous extra effort for the benefit of our fellows rather than seeing the world as a selfish zero-sum game.
Most of all, we need leaders who enable us to rise without first making others fall.
That is an awful lot to put on the shoulders of a young quarterback and I’m not saying Bo Nix is the savior of the world. He is merely the savior of Denver Broncos football. Still, from his example we can learn so much more than just football. We can see and feel what it is like for people to grow and transform.
Amid the other 76,000 people at Mile High Stadium, I know I was not the only one who felt that being behind does not mean that we have lost.
I was not the only one who had the sense that a great accomplishment was waiting to happen. It would take one more thrilling drive for the Broncos to finally defeat the Bills 33-30 in overtime, but before that even happened, the sense of despair that once permeated Broncos country dissipated thanks to Bo Nix.
Although the Broncos fell one game short of getting to the Super Bowl, this season taught us that we can get to the promised land, even if it is not this year, if we just Bolieve.
Refuah shleimah, Bo. May you heal in body and mind speedily and soon. We need you.