{"id":1314091,"date":"2019-08-28T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/carney-column-and-were-off-and-running\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T03:24:00","slug":"carney-column-and-were-off-and-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/carney-column-and-were-off-and-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney Column: And we\u2019re off and running"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Friday marks the official start of high school football season, and I couldn\u2019t be more excited. When football starts back up, especially at the high school level, it gets the competitive juices flowing once again, even if I\u2019m nearly 10 years removed from playing high school football.<\/p>\n

Rifle hosts Grand Valley Friday, and Olathe travels to New Castle to take on the Coal Ridge Titans, so the first week will be pretty busy locally, at least for football.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s time for me to take some vacation time with my wife and son. We\u2019re traveling back to the east coast Friday morning and won\u2019t be back until Sept. 9, so the sports coverage will look a bit strange while I\u2019m gone. This isn\u2019t a spontaneous vacation for me and my family; we\u2019ve had this in the works since my son was born last fall, because we\u2019re traveling home to see family and celebrate his first birthday.<\/p>\n

I know it can be frustrating to not see certain games in the paper, but the rest of the staff is going to do its best to cover for me while I\u2019m gone. Jerry Raehal, John Stroud, Kyle Mills, and Mike Vidakovich will be providing as much coverage as they can outside of their daily responsibilities, while Chelsea Self will be shooting photos for as many games as she can get to.<\/p>\n

The whole point of this is to ask for patience. It\u2019s early in the season, and I\u2019m really only going to be out about a week from work. Hopefully this is all understanding and there won\u2019t be any hiccups while I\u2019m away.<\/p>\n

GIVE LUCK A BREAK<\/p>\n

Former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck broke the Internet Saturday night, announcing his surprising retirement from the NFL at just 29 years old.<\/p>\n

Luck said he was mentally and physically worn down from an endless cycle of rehabbing multiple injuries over the last four years. With him saying that, and the timing of the retirement, tons of fans, media personalities, and the average Joe are crushing the Stanford graduate, saying he is mentally weak and didn\u2019t love the game enough.<\/p>\n

What a crock.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for me to question a pro athlete\u2019s level of desire, considering what they had to go through physically and mentally to reach the highest level in that sport. It\u2019s also not the \u201cmillennial way\u201d as Fox Sports analyst Doug Gottlieb referred to Saturday night after news dropped that Luck was walking away. Yes, rehabbing and going through the mental grind to get back onto the field is some of the hardest things pro athletes will do. Luck didn\u2019t take the easy way out; he opted for smart. That\u2019s something Gottlieb doesn\u2019t know anything about, considering he was broke in college and decided to steal his roommates credit card while at Notre Dame and charge a number of purchases to it. Classy guy.<\/p>\n

I wish Luck the best and hope he can get healthy and live the life that he wants.<\/p>\n

LET LLOYD KICK IT<\/p>\n

U.S. Women\u2019s National Team member Carli Lloyd is making headlines this week after kicking a 55-yard field goal at Eagles camp. Lloyd said she\u2019d love to kick in the NFL, yet there are those in the sports media world that think its a silly notion that a woman can kick in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Not only have we seen women kick in football in the past, Becca Longo recently signed with Adams State as a kicker and has a real shot at kicking in the NFL down the road. Lloyd, 36, could absolutely hold down a kicking job in the NFL. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s the most physical position in the game. If she just focused on kicking field goals and not worrying about tackling returners on kickoffs, she could be really successful at it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s foolish to say in absolute certainty that she couldn\u2019t kick in the NFL. I\u2019m all for giving her a shot. It\u2019s not as if every kicker in the NFL is amazing.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t matter if the kicker is white, black, orange, yellow, male, female, or an alien: if they can put the ball through the uprights consistently and score one or three points for my team, I\u2019m all in.<\/p>\n

WHERE DO THE ROCKIES GO FROM HERE?<\/p>\n

Currently, the Rockies are 59-74, have the third-worst record in the National League, and can\u2019t seem to find any semblance of consistency on the mound. So, where do they go from here?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the million-dollar question, since the Rockies have spent so much money in the last two offseasons and appear to be hamstrung financially for the next few seasons.<\/p>\n

Hard decisions and major backlash could \u2013 and probably should \u2013 be on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Nolan Arenado is safe from any sort of trade, but it sounds like Charlie Blackmon isn\u2019t since the Rockies need to sign Trevor Story to an extension. It\u2019s great that Colorado put such an emphasis on offense, signing Arenado and Blackmon to extensions, and Ian Desmond and Daniel Murphy to big free agency deals, but the pitching has been an abject disaster, thanks to steps back from Kyle Freeland in the rotation, and Wade Davis and Bryan Shaw in the bullpen. This was supposed to be such a promising year for the Rockies, but it\u2019s been one major problem after the next. Maybe it\u2019s time for drastic changes.<\/p>\n

BRONCOS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE THINK<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all in on Vic Fangio as the Broncos\u2019 coach, and if you aren\u2019t at this point, you should be.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m not a fan of Joe Flacco at all at this point in his career, I think he\u2019s a great fit for what the Broncos want to do, which is run the ball, take care of the football, take the occasional deep shot down the field, and play smash-mouth, violent defense. As currently constructed, it looks like it\u2019s going to be a fun year in Broncos Country.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Chiefs are the class of the division, but lets not forget how well the Broncos played them last year. With an upgrade at quarterback and within the coaching staff, don\u2019t be surprised if the Broncos give the Chiefs a run for their money for the division crown.<\/p>\n

With Luck retiring, the Ravens being a relative unknown in the first full year of Lamar Jackson under center, the Chargers missing Melvin Gordon and Derwin James for extended periods, at least a Wild Card spot appears wide open for Denver.<\/p>\n

Josh Carney is the sports editor of the Post Independent. For information regarding prep sports, or to ask Josh general sports questions, please email him at jcarney@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday marks the official start of high school football season, and I couldn\u2019t be more excited. When football starts back up, especially at the high school level, it gets the competitive juices flowing once again, even if I\u2019m nearly 10 years removed from playing high school football. Rifle hosts Grand Valley Friday, and Olathe travels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 17:03:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}