Denver Broncos

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 9th of September 1960, the Denver Broncos won the first game in the history of the American Football League, beating the Boston Patriots 13-10. The Broncos are a professional football team based in Denver, with headquarters in Englewood, Colorado. They play in the NFL's AFC West division. They began as a charter member of the AFL and joined the NFL when the leagues merged in 1970.

  That opening win did not set the tone. For years the team was barely competitive, first in the AFL and then in its early seasons as part of the NFL. Yet this same franchise would go on to collect eight AFC Championships and three Super Bowl titles.

  How does a struggling team in a start-up league become one of the most successful in the NFL? Who turned it around, and what happened when the winning stopped? And what do the fans, the stadium and even the uniforms have to do with the story?

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• 2. Underdog Years

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  Bob Howsam owned a minor league baseball team when he was awarded an American Football League charter franchise on the 14th of August 1959. The Broncos he founded were not successful. Howsam did not keep the team for long, and Gerald Phipps bought it from him in May 1961. In ten AFL seasons Denver won more than five games only once, finishing 7-7 in 1962. They were the only original AFL team never to play in the league's title game. They were also the only one that never had a winning season as an AFL member.

  Still, one afternoon gave the franchise something to brag about. On the 5th of August 1967, Denver beat the NFL's Detroit Lions 13-7 in a preseason game. No AFL team had ever beaten an NFL team before.

  In 1965 the franchise came close to disappearing from Denver. A local ownership group took control and rebuilt the team. Then, in 1967, running back Floyd Little signed on. Fans called him Franchise. The source credits his signing, along with his Pro Bowl efforts on and off the field, with helping keep the team in town.

  John Ralston, a former Stanford University coach, was hired in 1972. In 1973 Denver had its first winning season, a 7-5-2 record, and UPI named Ralston its AFC Coach of the Year. He had three winning seasons in five years, but none reached the playoffs. Even a 9-5 finish in 1976 fell short. After that season, several prominent players publicly voiced their discontent, and Ralston soon resigned.

  Red Miller, a longtime assistant coach, took over for 1977. He had aging quarterback Craig Morton and a defense nicknamed the Orange Crush. The nickname was born that year and borrowed the name of a popular orange-flavored soft drink. Denver went 12-2, a record-setting mark at the time, and reached its first playoffs. It then advanced to Super Bowl XII, where the Dallas Cowboys, Morton's former team, won 27-10. A quarterback who would eventually change everything was still six years away.

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• 3. Elway and the Losses

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  The Baltimore Colts made John Elway the first pick of the draft, and he answered by threatening to give up football. The New York Yankees had also drafted him, as a center fielder, and he was a pitching prospect too. Elway, who had played college football at Stanford, said he would choose baseball unless he was traded to one of a short list of teams. The Broncos were on that list. He arrived in 1983 through a trade. In the 23 seasons before him, Denver had used more than 24 different starting quarterbacks.

  Dan Reeves had joined the team in 1981 as vice president and head coach. At 37, he was the youngest head coach in the NFL. Ownership changed that same year, when Gerald Phipps sold the team to Canadian financier Edgar Kaiser Jr., grandson of shipbuilding industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1984 another Canadian, Pat Bowlen, bought the club. Bowlen placed the team in a family trust sometime before 2004. He stayed in day-to-day control until Alzheimer's disease forced him to hand the team to Joe Ellis in 2014.

  In twelve years together, Reeves and Elway produced six postseason appearances and five AFC West titles. They won three AFC championships and reached three Super Bowls. All three ended badly. The New York Giants won Super Bowl XXI 39-20. The Washington Redskins took Super Bowl XXII 42-10. The San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XXIV 55-10, still the most lopsided scoring differential in Super Bowl history.

  The partnership soured at the end. After the 1991 season, Reeves ousted Elway's favorite offensive coordinator, Mike Shanahan, and took over the play-calling himself. He also drafted UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddox instead of a wide receiver to help Elway. Reeves was fired after the 1992 season. His protege and friend Wade Phillips, the defensive coordinator, replaced him. Phillips was fired after a mediocre 1994 season in which management felt he had lost control of the team. The coordinator Reeves had pushed out would be back by 1995.

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• 4. Two Titles and a Penalty

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  Mike Shanahan returned in 1995 as head coach, having served under Reeves as offensive coordinator. The team went 8-8 that year, and Shanahan drafted rookie running back Terrell Davis. In 1996 Denver was the AFC's top seed at 13-3. The fifth-seeded Jacksonville Jaguars upset them 30-27 in the divisional round.

  Super Bowl XXXII brought the first title. The Broncos beat the defending champion Green Bay Packers 31-24. Elway completed only 13 of 22 passes, threw one interception and no touchdown passes, though he did run for a score. Davis rushed for 157 yards and a Super Bowl-record three touchdowns, earning the game's Most Valuable Player Award. He did it while fighting a severe migraine that blurred his vision.

  The next season Denver repeated, beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in Super Bowl XXXIII. The Falcons were led by Reeves, Elway's longtime head coach. This time Elway was the MVP. He completed 18 of 29 passes for 336 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown to wide receiver Rod Smith, and threw one interception.

  Elway then retired, and Brian Griese started at quarterback for the next four seasons. A season-ending injury to Davis helped drag Denver to 6-10 in 1999. The team earned a Wild Card spot in 2000 but lost to the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens. Former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer replaced Griese in 2003 and led two straight 10-6 seasons. Both ended with Wild Card trips to Indianapolis, and both were blowouts. The Colts won each by more than 20 points, and Denver allowed a combined 90.

  A league investigation found that Denver had circumvented the salary cap in both title seasons and in 1996. The team had deferred additional money to Elway and Davis outside the cap. It had also deliberately avoided waiving certain players before a particular date. Denver claimed the moves gave no competitive advantage. The NFL issued no formal statement. Across two separate punishments, though, it stripped the team of its third-round picks in the 2002 and 2005 drafts and fined it nearly $2 million combined.

  Plummer led Denver to 13-3 in 2005, the first AFC West title since 1998. In 2006 the defense allowed only one touchdown through the first five games, an NFL record that still stands. Joe Theismann, calling a Monday Night Football game against the Ravens, nicknamed the unit Bad Blue. The season then unraveled. Plummer was inconsistent and threw more interceptions than touchdown passes. He was replaced by rookie Jay Cutler, who went 2-3 as a starter. Denver finished 9-7 and lost a tiebreaker to the Kansas City Chiefs for the last playoff spot. The 7-9 finish in 2007 was the first losing season since 1999. An 8-8 mark in 2008, capped by a 52-21 loss at San Diego, left Denver out of the playoffs a third straight year. Shanahan, the longest-tenured and most successful head coach in franchise history, was fired after 14 seasons. His replacement came from the staff of the rival Patriots.

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• 5. Tebow, Manning and Fifty

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  Josh McDaniels was hired as head coach on the 11th of January 2009. Three months later, Denver sent Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears in a trade that brought back quarterback Kyle Orton. Under McDaniels and Orton the Broncos raced to a surprising 6-0 start. Then they lost eight of their next ten and finished 8-8 for a second straight year. In 2010 they set a franchise record for losses in a season, going 4-12. McDaniels was fired before the season ended, after the poor record and the fallout from a highly publicized videotaping scandal. Running backs coach Eric Studesville took over as interim coach. He started rookie first-round pick Tim Tebow at quarterback for the final three games.

  After that season, Joe Ellis was promoted from chief operating officer to team president. John Elway returned to the organization as executive vice president of football operations. They hired John Fox, the Carolina Panthers' head coach from 2002 to 2010, as the team's 14th head coach. Denver started 1-4 in 2011, and Tebow replaced Orton. The Broncos finished 8-8, won the AFC West and made the playoffs for the first time since 2005.

  In March 2012, Denver agreed to a five-year, $96 million contract with longtime Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. He had just missed an entire season after multiple neck surgeries. Denver traded Tebow to the New York Jets. The Broncos went 13-3 and took the AFC's top seed in 2012, but the Baltimore Ravens beat them in the divisional round. In 2013 they went 13-3 again, broke all offensive records, and watched Manning shatter many quarterback records. They won the AFC but lost Super Bowl XLVIII to the Seattle Seahawks, 43-8. It was their first Super Bowl berth since the back-to-back titles.

  The 2014 team went 12-4 and earned the No. 2 seed. The Indianapolis Colts beat them in the divisional round, the third time in four seasons Denver lost at that stage. Manning had played the final month with strained quadriceps. On the 12th of January 2015, one day after that loss, Fox and the team mutually agreed to part ways. He left with a .719 winning percentage, the highest in franchise history. A week later Denver hired Gary Kubiak. Kubiak had been Elway's backup from 1983 to 1991 and the Broncos' offensive coordinator from 1995 to 2005.

  Kubiak hired Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator, and the defense jumped from middle of the road to No. 1 in the league. By 2015 it was being ranked with the 1985 Bears, the 2000 Ravens and the 2002 Buccaneers as one of the greatest of all time. Denver finished 12-4 and took the top seed, even though Manning had his worst statistical season since his rookie year. A foot injury sidelined him, and backup Brock Osweiler started the last six regular-season games. Manning led the team through the playoffs. Denver beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50, and linebacker Von Miller was named MVP.

  Manning retired on the 7th of March 2016, after 18 NFL seasons, at a press conference at the team's Dove Valley headquarters. Osweiler left for the Houston Texans on a four-year contract. Denver acquired Mark Sanchez from the Philadelphia Eagles and drafted Paxton Lynch. They competed with second-year quarterback Trevor Siemian. Sanchez was released before the season, and Siemian was named the starter. The Broncos went 9-7 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010. On the 2nd of January 2017, Kubiak announced his retirement, citing his health. Denver would have a new coach by the 11th of January.

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• 6. Rivalries

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  In the AFL years from 1960 to 1969, the Broncos went a combined 10-49-1 against the Chiefs, Raiders and Chargers. All four teams were charter members of the AFL and shared its Western Division, the forerunner of today's AFC West. They have played each other twice a year for over 60 years.

  The Chiefs rivalry peaked in the years when Elway was Denver's starting quarterback, from 1983 to 1998. Denver beat Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium in the 1997 divisional playoffs, on the way to its first Super Bowl win. The Chiefs lead the series 73-57. The Raiders have historically been the most heated opponent. The feud took its present form when Denver beat the defending champion Raiders in the 1977 AFC Championship. It intensified after Shanahan was hired in 1995. He later coached the Raiders and was fired four games into his season there. The Raiders lead 73-56-2, and the teams are 1-1 in the playoffs.

  Against the Chargers, Denver holds a 73-57-1 series lead and is 1-0 in the playoffs. In one Monday Night Football game at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, Manning led Denver from a 24-0 halftime deficit to a 35-24 win. It was one of the largest comebacks in the show's history. The teams first met in the playoffs on the 12th of January 2014 in Denver, and the Broncos won 24-17.

  Three conference rivals complete the picture. The Cleveland Browns met Denver in AFC championship games in 1986-1987 and 1989. In 1986, Elway led The Drive, a late march that tied the game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Denver then won 23-20 in overtime. A year later in Denver, the Broncos led 21-3 before Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar threw four touchdown passes to tie it at 31-31. Elway threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Winder for a 38-31 lead. Cleveland drove to the 8-yard line with 1:12 left. Then safety Jeremiah Castille stripped running back Earnest Byner at the 2-yard line, a play Browns fans call The Fumble. Denver recovered, gave up an intentional safety, and won 38-33. The 1989 game was an easy 37-21 Denver win. The Broncos lead the all-time series 26-7.

  The New England Patriots have been opponents since the AFL years. Their first playoff meeting, on the 4th of January 1987, was Elway's first career playoff win. The second, on the 14th of January 2006, was Denver's first playoff win since Elway retired. The Broncos won 27-13 and denied New England a third straight title. Champ Bailey intercepted a pass and returned it 100 yards, until Benjamin Watson made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 1-yard line. In 2009, with McDaniels coaching against his old team, Orton threw a game-tying touchdown pass to Brandon Marshall. Matt Prater then kicked a 41-yard overtime field goal. In the 2011 playoffs New England crushed Tebow and the Broncos 45-10. With Manning in Denver, the rivalry became a duel with Tom Brady. Brady won nine of their twelve regular-season meetings, but Manning won three of five in the playoffs. Denver won 26-16 in the 2013 AFC Championship and 20-18 in the 2015 AFC Championship. The Broncos lead the series 31-25.

  With the Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver has met eight times in the postseason, tied for the second-most frequent playoff pairing in NFL history. The Broncos hold a 5-3 playoff edge. They won the 1997 AFC Championship 24-21 at Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers answered in the 2005 AFC Championship, winning 34-17 in Denver, and went on to win Super Bowl XL. In the 2011 Wild Card game, dubbed The 3:16 game, Tebow threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime. It gave Denver a 29-23 win and set an NFL record for the longest play from scrimmage in overtime. The Broncos won again in the 2015 divisional round, 23-16, and lead the series 20-14-1.

  The Seattle Seahawks were Denver's AFC West rivals from 1977 to 2001, before the NFL's realignment sent them to the NFC West. In those 25 years Denver went 32-18 against them, though it lost a 1983 playoff game in Seattle. Since 2002 the Broncos have won three of five interconference meetings. They lead the all-time series 35-23.

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• 7. Orange, Navy and the Mile High Crowd

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  In 1977, a fan named Tim McKernan made a $10 bet with his brother Scott that wearing a barrel would get him on television. He won. The barrel, painted to look like an Orange Crush soda can, became his signature costume. Known as Barrel Man, he turned into one of the Broncos' most recognized fans and a popular mascot. McKernan died on the 5th of December 2009.

  The team has also turned up in television. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone grew up in Colorado as devout Broncos fans, and the show often mentions the team. In a 1996 Simpsons episode, "You Only Move Twice," villain Hank Scorpio gives Homer the Broncos as a thank-you gift. Homer complains that he wanted the Cowboys, since the new arrivals are playing sloppy football on his lawn. In a 1979 Mork and Mindy episode, "Hold That Mork," Robin Williams's alien became the first male cheerleader in Broncos history. As a member of the Pony Express, he trotted onto the field at Mile High Stadium during a real game against the Patriots on the 11th of November 1979.

  The team's look has changed dramatically. The original uniforms, with mustard yellow and white jerseys, brown helmets, brown pants and vertically striped socks, were said to draw as much attention as the play. Later the Broncos adopted a bucking horse logo and switched to orange, royal blue and white. The Orange Crush design then put the horse coming out of a "D" and turned the helmets royal blue.

  On the 4th of February 1997, Denver unveiled a radical redesign. Navy blue replaced royal blue, and the logo became the profile of a horse's head, inspired by the live mascot Thunder. The team president and Nike's art director, the creators, described it as "a powerful horse with a fiery eye and mane." Navy jerseys replaced the orange ones that had been the main home color since 1962. Press and fans vilified the look until Denver won its first Super Bowl in it that same season. Most players wanted the new navy pants, but Elway vetoed them, which delayed their arrival.

  A uniform mix-up in 2003 led to a fine of $25,000. The visiting Broncos had shown up in white at San Diego when the Chargers planned to wear white. When the teams met again in Denver, the Chargers chose navy in advance, forcing Denver to wear white at home for the first time in years. Fans pushed for a different change in 2012. Pressure from fans brought orange back as the primary home jersey, and navy became the alternate. As the designated home team in Super Bowl 50, Denver chose white, because it was 0-4 in the Super Bowl in its standard orange jerseys.

  The Mile High Collection, unveiled on the 22nd of April 2024, was the first uniform change since 1997. The block numbers and letters were inspired by the signage in Colorado's national parks, and the striping nods to the Rocky Mountains. Triangle clusters on the helmets represent Denver's elevation. A throwback 1977 Orange Crush uniform, with the royal blue "D-horse" helmet, was unveiled with it.

  That elevation is no mere decoration. The stadium displays references to its location, 5280 feet above sea level, including a prominent mural just outside the visiting team's locker room. Altitude conditioning is thought to help the home team. Mile High Stadium was also one of the NFL's loudest, with steel flooring rather than concrete. From 1974 to 2006 the Broncos had the best home record in pro football, 191-65-1 across 32 years. They have sold out every home game since the AFL-NFL merger, apart from two strike replacement games, both of which had sold out before the strike. At home, the crowd boos the announced number of no-shows. Fans chant "IN-COM-PLETE!" after every incomplete pass by the visitors. In more than half a century, the Broncos have never been shut out at home, a streak of over 400 games.

  The naming of the building has been its own saga. Denver played at Mile High Stadium through the 2000 season, then moved into Invesco Field at Mile High, built next to the since-demolished original. Sportswriter Woody Paige and many fans refused to use the new name. The Denver Post refused too, as official policy, until it dropped the practice in 2004. Sports Authority took the naming rights in 2011, but its bankruptcy in the summer of 2016 forced a rename to Broncos Stadium at Mile High. In September 2019 the team agreed to call it Empower Field at Mile High. In late 2012, Denver announced $30 million in upgrades, including a south end zone video board three times larger than the old one. The work finished before the 2013 season. The team trains at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Dove Valley, formerly the Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre, on 13.5 acres with three full-size fields.

  The lease at Empower Field expires in 2031. In September 2025, the Broncos named Burnham Yard, a 58-acre, state-owned former railyard in downtown Denver, as the preferred site for a new stadium. The plan calls for a privately financed, retractable-roof building inside a mixed-use development, to be finished in time for the 2031 season.

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• 8. Rebuilding Around a Quarterback

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  Vance Joseph's first season, 2017, ended 5-11 behind a quarterback committee of Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler and Paxton Lynch. In March 2018, Denver signed quarterback Case Keenum and traded Siemian to the Minnesota Vikings. On the 1st of May 2018, the team signed local undrafted free agent running back Phillip Lindsay. He became a fan favorite for his underdog mentality, his explosive style and his Colorado roots. Lindsay was the first undrafted player in NFL history with 100-plus scrimmage yards in each of his first two games. In December he became the first undrafted offensive rookie voted to a Pro Bowl. Denver still finished 6-10, and Joseph was fired with an 11-21 record. Two straight losing seasons were the first since 1971-72.

  Vic Fangio, the Bears' defensive coordinator, became the 17th head coach on the 10th of January 2019, chosen over offensive line coach Mike Munchak. On the 6th of October 2019, Denver beat the Los Angeles Chargers for its 500th win, making its record 500-432. Drew Lock took over as a rookie quarterback and went 4-1 to close out 2019. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which removed the 2020 preseason and full training camps. Injuries piled up. Linebacker Von Miller was lost for the season with an ankle tendon injury, and wide receiver Courtland Sutton tore an ACL in week two.

  The low point came on the 29th of November 2020, when all three Denver quarterbacks were placed in COVID-19 protocol. Undrafted wide receiver Kendall Hinton, a former college quarterback, started. He completed one pass in nine attempts for 13 yards, the fewest completions in a game in franchise history, and was intercepted twice. A 58-yard field goal by Brandon McManus was the only score in a 31-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced in July 2021 that Hinton's quarterback wristband would join a display.

  In 2021, the Broncos traded for Teddy Bridgewater, who won the starting job over Lock. They drafted cornerback Patrick Surtain II ninth overall, and chose running back Javonte Williams in the second round. Manning entered the Ring of Fame on the 31st of October 2021. The next day Denver traded Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams for a second-round and a third-round pick. Miller was the longest-tenured Bronco and the last non-special-teams player left from the Super Bowl 50 roster. At 7-10, the team saw Fangio dismissed on the 8th of January 2022.

  On the 1st of February 2022, Denver announced it was for sale and parting ways with the Bowlen family. On the 7th of June, a consortium led by former Walmart chairman Rob Walton agreed to buy the team for $4.65 billion. The NFL approved the bid on the 10th of August. The group included Walton, his daughter Carrie Walton Penner, son-in-law Greg Penner, Starbucks chairwoman Mellody Hobson, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton. Walton delegated most of his authority to Penner, who became CEO and the public face of the group.

  On the 16th of March 2022, Denver had already traded Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris and a haul of draft picks to Seattle for quarterback Russell Wilson. Nathaniel Hackett, hired as head coach on the 27th of January 2022, was fired on the 26th of December with Denver at 4-11 after a 51-14 Christmas Day loss to the Rams. He was the fifth head coach not to finish his first season, after Lou Holtz, Pete McCulley, Bobby Petrino and Urban Meyer. Sean Payton accepted the job on the 31st of January 2023.

  The 2023 season began 1-5, including a 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins. Wilson was benched for the last two games after reports of a contract dispute over an injury clause. Denver finished 8-9, its best record since 2016, but missed the playoffs for an eighth straight year. The team released Wilson, absorbing $85 million in dead-cap money, the largest in NFL history. On the 22nd of April 2024, the team rolled out its new uniforms, and it drafted Bo Nix in the first round. Nix became the first Broncos quarterback since Elway in 1983 to start week 1 as a rookie. Denver went 10-7, its first winning season since 2016, and reached the playoffs for the first time since Super Bowl 50. The Buffalo Bills won the Wild Card game 31-7.

  In 2025 the Broncos started 1-2, then won 13 of their final 14 regular-season games, including an 11-game streak that tied the longest in franchise history. They finished 14-3, matching their best win total, and earned the AFC's top seed. In the divisional round they beat the Bills 33-30, their first playoff win since Super Bowl 50. Two plays before the end, Nix fractured a bone in his ankle, ending his season. The AFC Championship went to the Patriots, 10-7. In September 2025, Forbes valued the team at $6.8 billion, the thirteenth most valuable in the NFL.

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