Crush, Crushed, Baby
By Dan Portman, The Denver Post
Being a new sports writer in a city that’s crazy for sports is always a daunting challenge. Your first article is exactly the same as making a first impression. You have one shot, one opportunity to make a good one. Do you capture it? Or do you just let it slip? I came to Denver at just about the right time. The Avalanche and the Nuggets are currently involved in seasons where they’re on the border of making the playoffs. The Rockies are a little bit away from spring training. And the Yeti’s 2-12 season is slowly seeping out of fans’ memories.
I figured I’d be a made man for my first article. All I needed to do was get my hands on a nice ‘Why we’re going to make the playoffs’ piece to get fans on my side. When I walked in my editor’s office to get my first assignment, I wasn’t quite prepared for what my earballs heard.
“Find Carlito Crush and interview him on his awful first season, and comment on his bust potential.”
That’s thing about football. Even when it shouldn’t be front and center, it still is. I just said “okay.”, and went off to call the Yeti PR manager. What was I going to do, say no? I hit our Yeti contact and they gave me Crush’s phone number. We spoke, and he was open to the interview. He told me to just come over to his place and we could do it. Easy peasy.
Or so I thought.
I went to Crush’s home the next day. Except he wasn’t there. The house looked a bit closed up, and I thought perhaps I got my dates wrong. I called Crush again, but his phone was off. Undeterred, I decided to come back the next day. And the next. And finally a fourth day, same result. I don’t think he was around at all. It was so weird, I was starting to get worried. As I was getting ready to leave the house, Crush’s neighbor came over. “I see you keep coming here. Carlito isn’t home. He’s in the Dominican.”
Oh.
Carrie was an older woman who lived by herself. She took a minute to talk about how it was to have Crush as a neighbor. “Oh, he’s great. Every time he’s home he cuts my lawn or helps me bring in the groceries. I live by myself so it’s awesome to have a helping hand close by. He’s so nice. Much better than that Noble guy who used to live here. With Logan, every time you saw him it was like he was a different person. Carlito is just a delight.”
A few days later, my phone rang from an overseas number. It was Carlito. He explained that when he said I needed to meet him at “home”, he meant the Dominican Republic. He lost his phone on a deep sea fishing expedition off the coast and he finally got a new one shipped to him. He invited me to meet him there, and I mean, how could I not?
As I got off the plane, Carlito was there to pick me up. He took me to his home, which come to find out was his parents’ home. He introduced me to his parents, and they’re just the nicest people one could ever meet. Carlito told me that he’s just going to have me spend time with him because he has a routine and he needs to stick with it. With that, we went to the gym.
Carlito was in the squat rack, just lifting weights that my skinny reporter legs would never experience. I had to get started on this interview though, so I just came out and asked him “Are you a bust?”. I had hoped he’d realized it wasn’t that serious of a question. He smiled.
“It’s hard to qualify myself as a bust after one season. But man, it was a rough one for me. I trained hard. I practiced even harder. But I didn’t get more than 31 yards in any game. I didn’t score a touchdown. I came into Colorado expecting to set the league on fire. That might be cocky, but it’s honestly all I’ve ever done. I did it in high school. I did it in college at Ohio State. I did it in Portland. I was the number one overall pick. I was supposed to set this league ON FIRE. Instead, I was humbled. So often I’d just have the ball knocked out of my hands, or the pass would be just off. Something always went wrong for the most part. It was almost impossible how bad my luck was at times. I know, I came out and promised the fans of the Yeti that I’d be winning them games ASAP. Instead, I was just another guy out there. It looks even worse when we drafted Andre Bly, Jr. at pick 2 and he became this amazing defensive player right away. That guy is so good. So it makes my shortcomings look even worse.”
How frustrating was this season for you? How did you handle it?
“Poorly. Besides my failings as a player, I had a goal of 4 wins for the team. The constant losses and poor personal play had me in a bad way. I was becoming a bit of a jerk in the locker room. I started having outbursts and being just a negative jerk. It led to me and Pierno having a screaming match with each other.”
What was that about?
“Honestly, I became pretty vocal about how we were this team that ran the ball too much. Like, I get that we have Boss Tweed, and Pierno is a scrambling QB, but he really needed to throw the ball a bit more too, in my opinion. Too often I was open and he’d miss it and just take off running. I felt like I couldn’t help the team if I didn’t have the opportunities. It was about Week 6 when I had like 2 catches for 6 yards as we lost to the Hawks 34-3. I was a complete jerk and he stepped up and put me in my place. He was right, I wasn’t some superstar in the NSFL yet. I didn’t earn anything to act like I deserved the ball more. That was the first time I realized how bad I was becoming mentally. I was becoming a distraction and not a leader like I wanted to be.”
So what did you change?
“Just my mindset. I had to keep telling myself that before I was even drafted, the GMs here in Colorado told me that we’d be looking at 2 wins this season. That was the goal. I was the one that turned into 4 wins in my head. I truly felt we were that good. Honestly, if we got a couple of breaks, we had really good shot at being 6-8. But back to the question, when I got frustrated, I would just remind myself that it’s going to get better. This was the bottom floor, and it was a marathon not a sprint. This is the “bottom” we’d be starting from before we win the Ultimus soon.”
Why do you think you could have been 6-8? That’s a pretty bold statement from a 2-12 team.
“2-12 bothers me. We’re much better than that. I’ve been watching tapes of games, lets get out of here and I’ll show you what I’m talking about.”
With that, Crush finished his workout and after a nice lunch that his mother cooked us, we went into a film room. Crush was adamant that they were closer to his goal of 4 wins than people realized. He popped in some tapes and showed me.
“Check this out. This was Week 2 against Orange County. We lost this game 20-17, when the spread was something like 11 and a half points. Our defense played amazing against the Otters. We had the ball in the 4th quarter, and we just got the ball back on an interception. We got the ball on the 38 yard line and had 1st and 10. But then it fell apart. Swing pass to Boss, dropped. 2nd and 10, I got the ball knocked out of my hands. Then Pierno over throws Wheaties who was wide open. 4th and 10. 55 yards is a long field goal, so the coaches decided to go for it. You’d think we’d have to throw here. Nope, they run the ball. On 4th and 10. Boss gains 1 yard, we turn the ball over on downs. We beat ourselves here. The next week we played San Jose. We lost 21-14. In a hard fought game, they scored to take the lead with about 4 minutes to go. We just went into two minute drill mode and we were driving down the field. We took our timeouts. We had to get out of bounds to stop the clock and we just didn’t do that. We got tackled inbounds, and time ran out when we got to the 24 yard line of San Jose. Poor time management screwed that up. Oh, here’s another one. In Week 8, we lost to Arizona 28-21. We gave up another touchdown with about 4 minutes left. We ran the same scheme that brought us success against San Jose. We got down to the red zone against the Outlaws. We had the momentum. And then Pierno throws a pick on the 15 yard line and that ended the game. That was a heart breaker. The Outlaws player made a hell of a play on the pick, but even still. Just another close one. Two weeks later, San Jose again. We’re down 24-20. We’re driving once again. We have the momentum. All of a sudden a tipped ball gets picked off with two minutes to go at the 24 yard line of the Cats. Another game we should’ve had. The losses piled up, and so did the frustration. We were SO CLOSE to breaking out.”
Don’t you think it was better to lose those games and get the better draft pick?
“Yes and no. Honestly, the team needed a few more wins because that way we’d look like an up and coming team to free agents. We can accelerate our game plan with a key free agent signing or two. Of course, getting the second overall pick helped us commit highway robbery on San Jose when we traded it. Our draft honestly couldn’t have gone better. We deserve an A+ draft grade here. I couldn’t be happier with how it worked out.”
What do you mean? Talk about the draft and the rookies.
“Let’s just get the trade out of the way: We’re currently being investigated by police on potential rape charges. We dropped from pick 2 all the way to pick 3 and stole a first round pick from San Jose for next season in the process. And on top of it? We got the guy we were going to take all along. Dwayne Aaron is going to be a star in this league. He was our target all along. So we got our guy and a first rounder next year? Thank you! But yeah, so, it wasn’t any surprise when we took Aaron. We need star power at wide receiver, and he’s it. He’s going to slot in and be a stud for us right away. He dominated the DSFL, and he’s going to do it in the big leagues too. At pick 9, we brought the Ruckus. While we have All-World Cornerback DBJ, we can still use help in the secondary. Bobby can come in and bring some fire back there for us. Micycle McCormick can kick field goals from the moon, so he’s going to really help us out there. Storm Woods might have slipped a bit in his training, and I truly believe we got a steal here with him. He’s going to help us replace Boggs, who retired. He’s incredibly important to the success of the franchise short and long term. But as good of a steal Woods was, Grey Slax was even better. Slax was on track to be the top receiver in the draft, a surefire first rounder. You can’t deny his talent. However, the potential stardom got to his head. All of a sudden, training took a backseat and his foray into the nightlife of loose women and cocaine is well documented. He was off of most people’s draft boards and his career was really in doubt. Just before the draft he went through rehab, and recommitted himself to his craft. While there’s still some questions to be had, my conversations with him have me thinking he’s on his way to proving the doubters wrong. There’s a very real chance that the Colorado Yeti just drafted their version of Phelps and Westfield.”
You know that’s a bold statement.
“And I’m A-OK with making it. Like I said, our draft grade should be an A+. In a few seasons, people are going to look back at the S6 Draft as the time the Yeti set the wheels in motion to start taking over the NSFL. It’s that serious. And now? We have two S7 first rounders to add even more talent next season too. The next step is signing a key free agent or two. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, Colorado is becoming a destination. We’re on the up and up, and we’re going to start competing sooner than later. I know people have questions about our Quarterback, and I’ll be the first person to say that I wasn’t a believer either. But being inside that locker room with him now, I’ll also be the first person to say that there’s nobody out there working harder to improve than Nick Pierno. He’s become a hell of a leader in the locker room, and he wants to win more than anyone in there. He’s been training harder, and getting better. This season he’s really going to open some eyes. Just you wait.”
Where else do you think the Yeti need to improve?
“Tight end, for one. I can’t really offer an opinion on other positions until I get myself under control and become dominant at my job. I really needed to come back home, here to the DR, to get my mind right. I was a mess, like I said. But even just a few days back on the island has me thinking clearly. I’m excited again. I want the season to start right now. I can’t wait to get back to Colorado for training camp. But honestly, I think we’re close. We could use another stud linebacker to pair with Ishigawa and Saint to really shore up our second line of defense. I think we could definitely use another defensive lineman to really help wreak some havoc. And honestly, having one more cornerback wouldn’t hurt. That will most likely be our focus in the next draft though, unless we sign a free agent that’s hanging out or make a trade for someone. This offseason has already been huge for us. We’re going to be meeting up and practicing together on our own. I think the rookies are coming. We’re going to be prepared.”
Anything else?
“I can’t possibly think of more to say. I’m just really excited about the Yeti in S6 and beyond, and our fans should be too. I let them down in my first season, and it’s not going to happen again.”
It was with that that I ended my interview with Carlito. I know that my editor had heard the whispers that he was disruptive in the locker room and was causing a rift with the team. But, after spending a few days with Crush and his family, it was clear to see that he was more focused than I’ve ever seen a player be. He’s not a bust, and I don’t think he’ll ever be considered one. He loves the Yeti, and he genuinely seems to want to be a part of the slow build to the eventual Ultimus championship with Colorado. He didn’t have the best year for a rookie, but last season feels more like it was an anomaly than what will become the norm. Look for not only Crush to rebound from last season, but for the entire Yeti team to get better.
It’s funny, with all of the other good stories going on in Denver sports right now, the last thing I wanted to do was write another piece about the bad football team. But it turns out that this story might have been the best one we have going for us all along. (2814)
By Dan Portman, The Denver Post
Being a new sports writer in a city that’s crazy for sports is always a daunting challenge. Your first article is exactly the same as making a first impression. You have one shot, one opportunity to make a good one. Do you capture it? Or do you just let it slip? I came to Denver at just about the right time. The Avalanche and the Nuggets are currently involved in seasons where they’re on the border of making the playoffs. The Rockies are a little bit away from spring training. And the Yeti’s 2-12 season is slowly seeping out of fans’ memories.
I figured I’d be a made man for my first article. All I needed to do was get my hands on a nice ‘Why we’re going to make the playoffs’ piece to get fans on my side. When I walked in my editor’s office to get my first assignment, I wasn’t quite prepared for what my earballs heard.
“Find Carlito Crush and interview him on his awful first season, and comment on his bust potential.”
That’s thing about football. Even when it shouldn’t be front and center, it still is. I just said “okay.”, and went off to call the Yeti PR manager. What was I going to do, say no? I hit our Yeti contact and they gave me Crush’s phone number. We spoke, and he was open to the interview. He told me to just come over to his place and we could do it. Easy peasy.
Or so I thought.
I went to Crush’s home the next day. Except he wasn’t there. The house looked a bit closed up, and I thought perhaps I got my dates wrong. I called Crush again, but his phone was off. Undeterred, I decided to come back the next day. And the next. And finally a fourth day, same result. I don’t think he was around at all. It was so weird, I was starting to get worried. As I was getting ready to leave the house, Crush’s neighbor came over. “I see you keep coming here. Carlito isn’t home. He’s in the Dominican.”
Oh.
Carrie was an older woman who lived by herself. She took a minute to talk about how it was to have Crush as a neighbor. “Oh, he’s great. Every time he’s home he cuts my lawn or helps me bring in the groceries. I live by myself so it’s awesome to have a helping hand close by. He’s so nice. Much better than that Noble guy who used to live here. With Logan, every time you saw him it was like he was a different person. Carlito is just a delight.”
A few days later, my phone rang from an overseas number. It was Carlito. He explained that when he said I needed to meet him at “home”, he meant the Dominican Republic. He lost his phone on a deep sea fishing expedition off the coast and he finally got a new one shipped to him. He invited me to meet him there, and I mean, how could I not?
As I got off the plane, Carlito was there to pick me up. He took me to his home, which come to find out was his parents’ home. He introduced me to his parents, and they’re just the nicest people one could ever meet. Carlito told me that he’s just going to have me spend time with him because he has a routine and he needs to stick with it. With that, we went to the gym.
Carlito was in the squat rack, just lifting weights that my skinny reporter legs would never experience. I had to get started on this interview though, so I just came out and asked him “Are you a bust?”. I had hoped he’d realized it wasn’t that serious of a question. He smiled.
“It’s hard to qualify myself as a bust after one season. But man, it was a rough one for me. I trained hard. I practiced even harder. But I didn’t get more than 31 yards in any game. I didn’t score a touchdown. I came into Colorado expecting to set the league on fire. That might be cocky, but it’s honestly all I’ve ever done. I did it in high school. I did it in college at Ohio State. I did it in Portland. I was the number one overall pick. I was supposed to set this league ON FIRE. Instead, I was humbled. So often I’d just have the ball knocked out of my hands, or the pass would be just off. Something always went wrong for the most part. It was almost impossible how bad my luck was at times. I know, I came out and promised the fans of the Yeti that I’d be winning them games ASAP. Instead, I was just another guy out there. It looks even worse when we drafted Andre Bly, Jr. at pick 2 and he became this amazing defensive player right away. That guy is so good. So it makes my shortcomings look even worse.”
How frustrating was this season for you? How did you handle it?
“Poorly. Besides my failings as a player, I had a goal of 4 wins for the team. The constant losses and poor personal play had me in a bad way. I was becoming a bit of a jerk in the locker room. I started having outbursts and being just a negative jerk. It led to me and Pierno having a screaming match with each other.”
What was that about?
“Honestly, I became pretty vocal about how we were this team that ran the ball too much. Like, I get that we have Boss Tweed, and Pierno is a scrambling QB, but he really needed to throw the ball a bit more too, in my opinion. Too often I was open and he’d miss it and just take off running. I felt like I couldn’t help the team if I didn’t have the opportunities. It was about Week 6 when I had like 2 catches for 6 yards as we lost to the Hawks 34-3. I was a complete jerk and he stepped up and put me in my place. He was right, I wasn’t some superstar in the NSFL yet. I didn’t earn anything to act like I deserved the ball more. That was the first time I realized how bad I was becoming mentally. I was becoming a distraction and not a leader like I wanted to be.”
So what did you change?
“Just my mindset. I had to keep telling myself that before I was even drafted, the GMs here in Colorado told me that we’d be looking at 2 wins this season. That was the goal. I was the one that turned into 4 wins in my head. I truly felt we were that good. Honestly, if we got a couple of breaks, we had really good shot at being 6-8. But back to the question, when I got frustrated, I would just remind myself that it’s going to get better. This was the bottom floor, and it was a marathon not a sprint. This is the “bottom” we’d be starting from before we win the Ultimus soon.”
Why do you think you could have been 6-8? That’s a pretty bold statement from a 2-12 team.
“2-12 bothers me. We’re much better than that. I’ve been watching tapes of games, lets get out of here and I’ll show you what I’m talking about.”
With that, Crush finished his workout and after a nice lunch that his mother cooked us, we went into a film room. Crush was adamant that they were closer to his goal of 4 wins than people realized. He popped in some tapes and showed me.
“Check this out. This was Week 2 against Orange County. We lost this game 20-17, when the spread was something like 11 and a half points. Our defense played amazing against the Otters. We had the ball in the 4th quarter, and we just got the ball back on an interception. We got the ball on the 38 yard line and had 1st and 10. But then it fell apart. Swing pass to Boss, dropped. 2nd and 10, I got the ball knocked out of my hands. Then Pierno over throws Wheaties who was wide open. 4th and 10. 55 yards is a long field goal, so the coaches decided to go for it. You’d think we’d have to throw here. Nope, they run the ball. On 4th and 10. Boss gains 1 yard, we turn the ball over on downs. We beat ourselves here. The next week we played San Jose. We lost 21-14. In a hard fought game, they scored to take the lead with about 4 minutes to go. We just went into two minute drill mode and we were driving down the field. We took our timeouts. We had to get out of bounds to stop the clock and we just didn’t do that. We got tackled inbounds, and time ran out when we got to the 24 yard line of San Jose. Poor time management screwed that up. Oh, here’s another one. In Week 8, we lost to Arizona 28-21. We gave up another touchdown with about 4 minutes left. We ran the same scheme that brought us success against San Jose. We got down to the red zone against the Outlaws. We had the momentum. And then Pierno throws a pick on the 15 yard line and that ended the game. That was a heart breaker. The Outlaws player made a hell of a play on the pick, but even still. Just another close one. Two weeks later, San Jose again. We’re down 24-20. We’re driving once again. We have the momentum. All of a sudden a tipped ball gets picked off with two minutes to go at the 24 yard line of the Cats. Another game we should’ve had. The losses piled up, and so did the frustration. We were SO CLOSE to breaking out.”
Don’t you think it was better to lose those games and get the better draft pick?
“Yes and no. Honestly, the team needed a few more wins because that way we’d look like an up and coming team to free agents. We can accelerate our game plan with a key free agent signing or two. Of course, getting the second overall pick helped us commit highway robbery on San Jose when we traded it. Our draft honestly couldn’t have gone better. We deserve an A+ draft grade here. I couldn’t be happier with how it worked out.”
What do you mean? Talk about the draft and the rookies.
“Let’s just get the trade out of the way: We’re currently being investigated by police on potential rape charges. We dropped from pick 2 all the way to pick 3 and stole a first round pick from San Jose for next season in the process. And on top of it? We got the guy we were going to take all along. Dwayne Aaron is going to be a star in this league. He was our target all along. So we got our guy and a first rounder next year? Thank you! But yeah, so, it wasn’t any surprise when we took Aaron. We need star power at wide receiver, and he’s it. He’s going to slot in and be a stud for us right away. He dominated the DSFL, and he’s going to do it in the big leagues too. At pick 9, we brought the Ruckus. While we have All-World Cornerback DBJ, we can still use help in the secondary. Bobby can come in and bring some fire back there for us. Micycle McCormick can kick field goals from the moon, so he’s going to really help us out there. Storm Woods might have slipped a bit in his training, and I truly believe we got a steal here with him. He’s going to help us replace Boggs, who retired. He’s incredibly important to the success of the franchise short and long term. But as good of a steal Woods was, Grey Slax was even better. Slax was on track to be the top receiver in the draft, a surefire first rounder. You can’t deny his talent. However, the potential stardom got to his head. All of a sudden, training took a backseat and his foray into the nightlife of loose women and cocaine is well documented. He was off of most people’s draft boards and his career was really in doubt. Just before the draft he went through rehab, and recommitted himself to his craft. While there’s still some questions to be had, my conversations with him have me thinking he’s on his way to proving the doubters wrong. There’s a very real chance that the Colorado Yeti just drafted their version of Phelps and Westfield.”
You know that’s a bold statement.
“And I’m A-OK with making it. Like I said, our draft grade should be an A+. In a few seasons, people are going to look back at the S6 Draft as the time the Yeti set the wheels in motion to start taking over the NSFL. It’s that serious. And now? We have two S7 first rounders to add even more talent next season too. The next step is signing a key free agent or two. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, Colorado is becoming a destination. We’re on the up and up, and we’re going to start competing sooner than later. I know people have questions about our Quarterback, and I’ll be the first person to say that I wasn’t a believer either. But being inside that locker room with him now, I’ll also be the first person to say that there’s nobody out there working harder to improve than Nick Pierno. He’s become a hell of a leader in the locker room, and he wants to win more than anyone in there. He’s been training harder, and getting better. This season he’s really going to open some eyes. Just you wait.”
Where else do you think the Yeti need to improve?
“Tight end, for one. I can’t really offer an opinion on other positions until I get myself under control and become dominant at my job. I really needed to come back home, here to the DR, to get my mind right. I was a mess, like I said. But even just a few days back on the island has me thinking clearly. I’m excited again. I want the season to start right now. I can’t wait to get back to Colorado for training camp. But honestly, I think we’re close. We could use another stud linebacker to pair with Ishigawa and Saint to really shore up our second line of defense. I think we could definitely use another defensive lineman to really help wreak some havoc. And honestly, having one more cornerback wouldn’t hurt. That will most likely be our focus in the next draft though, unless we sign a free agent that’s hanging out or make a trade for someone. This offseason has already been huge for us. We’re going to be meeting up and practicing together on our own. I think the rookies are coming. We’re going to be prepared.”
Anything else?
“I can’t possibly think of more to say. I’m just really excited about the Yeti in S6 and beyond, and our fans should be too. I let them down in my first season, and it’s not going to happen again.”
It was with that that I ended my interview with Carlito. I know that my editor had heard the whispers that he was disruptive in the locker room and was causing a rift with the team. But, after spending a few days with Crush and his family, it was clear to see that he was more focused than I’ve ever seen a player be. He’s not a bust, and I don’t think he’ll ever be considered one. He loves the Yeti, and he genuinely seems to want to be a part of the slow build to the eventual Ultimus championship with Colorado. He didn’t have the best year for a rookie, but last season feels more like it was an anomaly than what will become the norm. Look for not only Crush to rebound from last season, but for the entire Yeti team to get better.
It’s funny, with all of the other good stories going on in Denver sports right now, the last thing I wanted to do was write another piece about the bad football team. But it turns out that this story might have been the best one we have going for us all along. (2814)