Hey, Bron­cos Coun­try. Justin Sim­mons pos­es a tough ques­tion we need to discuss:

Do you love Sim­mons when he’s mak­ing a tack­le, but hate it when a foot­ball play­er opens his mouth on mat­ters close to his heart?

“Isn’t that part of the prob­lem in Amer­i­ca: That peo­ple view us as just enter­tain­ment to them?” Sim­mons said Fri­day, when I asked his reac­tion to fans irri­tat­ed that a 26-year-old safe­ty dares to speak out against racial injustice.

Dur­ing a lousy year, drenched in the anx­i­ety and rage fos­tered by the coro­n­avirus and social dis­cord, maybe it should be no sur­prise the cozy, old rela­tion­ship between fans and their ath­let­ic heroes has been test­ed to the break­ing point.

“My skin col­or should not deter­mine whether I live or die,” Nuggets guard Jamal Mur­ray said Sat­ur­day. In that sin­gle sen­tence, Mur­ray stat­ed why play­ers from MLS to the WNBA and every­where in between refused to take the field dur­ing the past week.

The hard-line stance that inter­rupt­ed bas­ket­ball, hock­ey and base­ball games also offend­ed fans that believe game time is their time, and maybe the one best time to tune out all the stress 2020 has heaped on us.

Bron­cos Coun­try is full of pas­sion­ate fans like Thomas Koller, who ardent­ly fol­lows all things Col­orado sports, whether it’s a spat between Rock­ies third base­man Nolan Are­na­do and Jeff Bridich or how CSU con­duct­ed its search for a new foot­ball coach. Koller is nev­er hes­i­tant to let me know his thoughts, fir­ing off emails so fre­quent­ly he makes me feel like a 21st cen­tu­ry pen pal.

“Are you going to put up with these major-leagues hold­ing fans hostage when­ev­er they feel like it?” Koller asked me last week.

“Protest­ing they call it. More like delib­er­ate mis­be­hav­ior to plumb the depths of law and soci­ety. Don’t even men­tion the NBA. Com­mis­sion­er Adam Sil­ver is pow­er­less. I say don’t pay ’em, offer their jobs to the will­ing and act before these sports are for­got­ten by the pub­lic. What I real­ly want to say is: (Bleep) ’em all.”

Now that COVID-19 has tak­en spec­ta­tors out of ball­parks and are­nas, will many care if they nev­er go back? NBA tele­vi­sion rat­ings that were in decline before a pan­dem­ic halt­ed the sea­son in March have slid more than 20 per­cent dur­ing this sum­mer restart, to the point where the league’s con­cern was unmis­tak­able dur­ing my recent vis­it to the bub­ble in Florida.

I admire the push for racial equal­i­ty from local pro ath­letes from as var­ied back­grounds as Avs cen­ter Nazem Kadri, a Mus­lim of Lebanese descent, and Rock­ies short­stop Trevor Sto­ry, a white kid who grew up the son of a fire­fight­er in the heart of Texas.

But I do think it’s fair to won­der: Is this ten­sion between fans that just want to sports and ath­letes who feel com­pelled to be com­mu­ni­ty activists a momen­tary blip in America’s love affair with sports? Or is this the fray­ing of a rela­tion­ship that could end in irrec­on­cil­able differences?

Sim­mons has felt the ten­sion. He told the sto­ry of feel­ing the ire of a loy­al fan who turned sour when Sim­mons used his Bron­cos fame as a plat­form to speak on social issues.

“When I was wear­ing the jer­sey and I vis­it­ed this fan’s dad in the hos­pi­tal, I was a great guy. But as soon as I start­ed speak­ing out on some things that per­tained to my life, I’m worth­less and I need to shut up and play the game,” Sim­mons said.

“Nah, you don’t get both sides. You don’t get one side with­out the oth­er. When we’re out­side play­ing (foot­ball), you’re look­ing at a guy who has fam­i­ly, has kids and has val­ues, has all these things that are going on in his life. For some­one to sit on their couch or wher­ev­er they are and belit­tle ath­letes, there’s a root prob­lem there with peo­ple idol­iz­ing celebri­ties and then also think­ing they don’t have a voice.”

Here’s the grow­ing dis­con­nect, as best I under­stand it: There are fans who firm­ly believe a polit­i­cal foot­ball should nev­er be allowed on any play­ing field, whether it takes the form of kneel­ing dur­ing the nation­al anthem or paint­ing “Black Lives Mat­ter” on the bas­ket­ball court. There are play­ers who feel dis­re­spect­ed when told their ath­let­ic prowess is admired but their brain­pow­er is dismissed.

“Regard­less of what the pub­lic thinks, we have a lot of smart guys in our league. Around the world, when you’re talk­ing about ath­letes, we can make a dif­fer­ence,” Sim­mons said. “I’m hop­ing a lot of guys don’t pay any atten­tion to what fans say because, per­son­al­ly, I could not care less what they have to say about myself, as long as they keep my fam­i­ly out of it. You can say all you want about me. I know my worth. I know my val­ue in Christ. It’s ridicu­lous that peo­ple think that way.”

Well, nobody asked me, but: The worst dis­ease of 2020 is whatever’s killing our empathy.

Have sports, like Amer­i­ca, become a place where if you’re not 100% in agree­ment with me, I must con­demn you as being 100% against me?

The lis­ten­ing that fos­ters under­stand­ing can’t begin until the scream­ing stops.