ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- You can watch a bad game so many times that you become numb to the result. Or you can do what Terrance Knighton did with the tape of the Super Bowl XLVIII loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
"Yeah, I watched it a lot. I watched it enough to hate them," said Knighton. He immediately made it clear that he was not misspeaking, adding, "You can keep that, you can write that down, do whatever you want.
"I'm looking forward to playing them again. The good thing is, we'll see them in the regular season and the preseason, and like I said, we just want to get that bad taste out of our mouths."
That doesn't mean the Broncos can get revenge for Feb. 2 in Week 3. Many pundits will surely speak of that, but the notion of exacting vengeance for a Super Bowl defeat in a September contest that is one of 16 is foolish. Knighton knows this.
"Playing them in Week 3 won't get (the taste) out of our mouth," Knighton said. "It'll be winning the Super Bowl. We want to hoist that trophy."
Knighton's enmity toward the Seahawks is not just because of the result, but the talking during and after the game.
"Both. You see those guys in the offseason, you don't really hate them," he said. "But just on the football field, you want to beat them.
"You hear things like, 'We were scared,' and things like that. As an athlete and a professional, and me being one of the guys on defense that is the face of the defense, that's something you don't want to hear, and I take it personal."
However, this doesn't not keep him up at night.
"I try to not make it more than what it is. I've developed enough bad blood not to stress myself out and look forward to playing them so bad," he said. "So, right now I'm just focusing on what I have to do to get better and getting ready to play whoever we have to play.
"But it's definitely in the back of our minds. Everybody might not say it, but I'll say it. It's definitely in the backs of people's minds."
And if it's the motivational fuel that helps power the Broncos back to a Super Bowl -- and to what they hope will be the ultimate redemption -- what's wrong with that?
