Apparently Peyton Manning’s old spot in the team meeting room has become Denver Broncos holy ground. During a press conference at Denver’s offseason workouts on Monday, corner Aqib Talib expressed the team’s reluctance to encroach on the space.
Aqib Talib said he thought Peyton Manning's old seat was left empty at first team meeting. "No one was bold enough" to sit in it.
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) April 18, 2016
Sports are full of superstitions and curses. Teams and fans often reach for some external force to explain their good or bad fortune. After John Elway retired as a quarterback there was something called The Curse of Elway’s Succesors. It was a superstition that after Elway’s rarefied career no one could possibly live up to it, effectively cursing future Denver quarterbacks. Obviously, that curse was broken when Manning led the team to victory in Super Bowl 50.
It seems that many athletes get superstitious, and the Denver Broncos are no exception. Emmanuel Sanders admitted that part of his pre-game ritual consisted of playing football video games and pitting his digital team against the digital version of the team he would be playing in real life.
Some have even argued that the Broncos only wore their white jerseys in Super Bowl 50 because they wore white the last time Denver won the Super Bowl.
Hopefully no Curse of Manning’s Successors materializes and the Broncos fill Manning’s locker in good time.
