Mark Kiszla: Ugly little W in London is ‘massive’ gift to Broncomaniacs living across the pond

LONDON — From where coach Sean Payton stood Sunday on the sideline of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Denver’s 13-11 victory against the NFL’s worst team was nothing to write home about.

“You’re disappointed you’re in a dogfight,” Payton said. “But you’re in it. So you’ve got to figure it out.”

Good football teams find a way to win on bad days.

And this ugly win was a thing of transcendent beauty to a feisty Scotsman named Gordon McWhinnie.

“The Broncos playing a game in London,” McWhinnie wanted me to know,  “is like Christmas morning to me.”

More than 4,500 miles and an ocean away from Colorado, the Broncos were welcomed like kings to the hallowed soccer grounds of an English soccer club. 

A crowd of 61,155 blanketed the stadium in Broncos orange. And you can bet none of the spectators was more thrilled than McWhinnie to see Denver receiver Marvin Mims Jr. make the offensive play of the game.

“I’ve loved the Broncos since I was a boy, when my great auntie went to Colorado and started sending back souvenirs,” said McWhinnie, a 32-year-old man who fondly remembers the legend of John Elway among the first stories his father told him.

Stephen Reenie and Gordon McWhinnie, right, traveled from Scotland to meet receiver Marvin Mims on Friday and watch Denver beat the New York Jets 13-11 Sunday in London. (Mark Kiszla/The Denver Gazette)

We have proof that Broncos Country now extends halfway around the globe to Loch Lomond, whose tranquil waters McWhinnie left behind, taking both high and low roads to London, as a devoted pilgrim wearing orange and blue.

I bumped into McWhinnie on Friday afternoon in the streets of Soho, just around the corner from where Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards went to court to answer drug possession charges more than 50 years ago.

A little less than 48 hours before kickoff, McWhinnie was standing on Carnaby Street, wearing a Broncos cap emblazoned with a Union Jack. He anxiously held a miniature football, while waiting outside an NFL memorabilia shop 50 yards down the street from Shakespeare’s Head Pub (established 1735).

Great Scot! This man is a true orange-and-blue Broncomaniac.

“I’m not necessarily considered a rebel in Scotland for being a Broncos fan,” insisted McWhinnie. He suggested that a wee-bit eccentric might be a more appropriate way to describe him.

While neighbors back in Scotland dream of visiting the sunny Mediterranean island of Ibiza on holiday, McWhinnie’s idea of the perfect vacation is to stand in line to nab an autograph from Mims on a tiny plastic football.

Obsessed with the NFL? Absolutely. And proud of it.

“We are sick people,” said Stephen Reenie, who made the trip down from Scotland alongside McWhinnie.

The two Scotsmen traveled to see the Broncos play so sloppy and ineffective offensive football that Denver probably couldn’t have beaten any of 30 other NFL teams back on American soil.

But quarterback Bo Nix and mates got extremely lucky in London by drawing the hapless, hopeless Jets.

If U.S. football was more like European soccer, the Jets would be sent down to a level of competition more suited to their 0-6 talent level, relegated next season to play a schedule against the likes of Vanderbilt, or perhaps Cherry Creek High School.

For the Broncos to put away these pitiful Jets, however, it took every one of the nine sacks of quarterback Justin Fields recorded by the Denver defense.

They got after Fields like werewolves of London. The final and most important takedown was when outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper drove Fields into the turf with a 12-yard sack on fourth down, with the Jets on the edge of field-goal range in the tense, final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter.

“He’s one of those guys who doesn’t get enough credit because we have another great pass-rusher on the other side in Nik Bonitto,” said Denver receiver Courtland Sutton, glad to see “Coop” steal a little thunder from the team’s new Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

The Broncos generated almost nothing offensively after a touchdown in the first quarter. After a holding penalty by guard Quinn Meinerz in the end zone handed the Jets the lead, Denver trailed 11-10  and was in desperate need of a spark.

It was Mims who lit the fuse. On a third-and-long snap, he burst wide open from the backfield to the flat and picked up 26 yards on a catch and dash into Jets territory. Without that play, there’s no telling if Denver would’ve gotten into position for Wil Lutz’s game-winning field goal from 27 yards with a little more than 5 minutes remaining in the final period.

How big was Mims to this victory?

Well, as McWhinnie likes to say: “Massive.”

After losing six games determined by one score a year ago, the Broncos  happily tossed this ugly little “W” in their luggage and flew back to Colorado with a 4-2 record.

And that autograph McWhinnie scored this weekend from Mims?

The tiny souvenir is on its way back to the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, to be massively cherished by a Broncomaniac for the rest of his life.