Luck and timing and Osweiler
Brock Osweiler knows he’s fortunate, and most of us believe that luck is the byproduct of hard work.
The former Flathead High School quarterback and basketball star is spending his post-NFL days in Phoenix with his wife and two kids, and it seems like even if there wasn’t a pandemic to deal with he wouldn’t travel often.
“I’ve been saying this since this whole deal started – I feel so fortunate to be down here,” he said last week. “This is a pretty tough place to beat. They’ve kept the golf courses open. Most people have pools in their back yard – kind of a standard thing in Phoenix – and I have a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old. It’s been a lot of great family time.”
Osweiler spoke with the Daily Inter Lake about the weight room he refurbished at Flathead High – a generous and timely donation, since the plates were old enough to have Scott Murray’s sweat on them.
Toward the end of our talk I had to bring up the Sports Illustrated profile that came out this past winter, which pointed out rightly that a lot of less-successful quarterbacks had NFL jobs while Osweiler, who last played in 2018, didn’t.
What struck me was the down note the article hit with the Denver Broncos’ last regular-season game in 2015-16, against San Diego. In that game Osweiler presided over an offense that moved the ball well but turned it over five times.
I was at that game. My wife and I drove many hours and stayed in Denver several days, and we were selfishly excited when Osweiler was replaced in the third quarter by Peyton Manning because, well, Peyton Manning.
I had forgotten a few things about that 27-20 Denver win, including an 80-yard TD pass by Philip Rivers that put the Chargers up 20-17, and Ronnie Hillman’s 23-yard, game-winning touchdown run.
What I did remember was Osweiler’s hot start, including a 72-yard touchdown pass to DeMaryius Thomas on the first drive. On Denver’s next drive he appeared to have a 51-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders, before Sanders coughed the ball up at the Chargers’ 5-yard line. Then the wheels kept coming off.
Momentum is a slippery thing in football – Manning led the Broncos from behind twice in that game – but I often wonder if Sanders had scored how different things might have been that day and after.
“That’s life – that’s athletics,” said Osweiler, who backed up Manning through Denver’s Super Bowl run. “In athletics, anyone who’s had any success – they’re lying to you if they said the timing didn’t match us with the luck. Sometimes the timing and luck match up and other times they don’t.”
Years before I had the pleasure of speaking with Clint Hurdle, who lately has been the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager but in the 1990s was Colorado’s hitting coach. When the Rockies caravanned up to Billings it was me, the Royals fan, who asked to cover it.
In 1978 Hurdle had made the cover of SI during spring training under the headline: “This year’s Phenom.” In Billings Hurdle talked about how shocking it was to see that cover while he was buying morning coffee on the way to the Royals’ spring training complex.
I noted the purported SI cover jinx at this point and Hurdle – who did not have a phenomenal career – batted it away: “I played 10 years in the Major Leagues,” he said. “Not many people get to do that.”
Osweiler played seven years in the NFL. If he has taken his last snap, he’s set for life thanks to the contract he signed with Houston. He has a Super Bowl ring. He has a big house and year-round golf, though he adds of Phoenix: “We don’t have winter, but that summer takes a toll on you.”
He is somewhat philosophical and mostly thankful.
“There are plenty of times in my career where luck and timing matched up when it could have easily gone the other way,” he said. “There’s times when it didn’t match up. That was one of those times.”
Reporter Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-546-1122 or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.