Denver Broncos

Based in the heart of Denver, the Broncos are a long-standing team within the National Football League. The Broncos play in the AFC West with rivals Kansas City Chiefs, along with the Los Angeles Chargers and also the Las Vegas Raiders. The team’s headquarters is a little down the road in Dove Valley, Colorado.

The Broncos have been around since 1960, but like many of the other teams in the league, moved to the National Football League for the 1970 season. The Broncos had a good run in the AFL but never were able to take down a title. Denver has enjoyed three Super Bowl titles, all within a span of 18 seasons from the late 1990s to 2015. Let’s take a closer look at the Denver Broncos.

Known as one of the most beautiful stadiums in all of the National Football League – Empower Field is located at an elevation of 5,280 feet, or 1 mile. Many that come to Denver and play discuss feeling the elevation as the game goes along. The stadium has been nicknamed “Mile High” for that reason.

The Broncos played in an old Mile High Stadium before opening their beautiful facility in 2001. Even before Mile High and Empower Field, the Broncos started at Hilltop Stadium back in 1960. The venue was home to the Denver Outlaws and also Colorado Rapids. Many concerts and even Presidential speeches have gone on at this facility. When the facility opened in 2001, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Museum was also put inside the stadium.

In 2002 a fire broke out in the stadium, and several sections of the third and fourth sections were destroyed.

Like many teams in the National Football League, when the franchise started, the team ownership conducted a “fan contest” to name the team. The Mustangs and the Outlaws were popular with the Denver-based football team. The winner, though, was the Broncos, due in large part to Bob Howsam, who owned the Denver Bears, a minor league baseball team, who thought it sounded tough, like the players on the team.

One of the records that the Denver Broncos do not love, but shows off their ability to win consistently, is they share the record for most Super Bowl losses with the New England Patriots. The Broncos currently have five Super Bowl losses.

Heading into the 2023 season, the Denver Broncos have a total of 500 franchise wins. The Broncos also have won 23 games in the postseason.

John Elway certainly has his share of records, as he finished his career with over 51,000 passing yards and 30 touchdowns. Terrell Davis and Rod Smith are on the list for records as well, as running back and wide receiver.

When the Broncos were sold in June of 2022, they went for $4.65B, which was a record for the league. This came after the team was bought in 1984 for $70M.

The Denver Broncos have three Super Bowl titles in their franchise history. The Broncos won Super Bowl XXXII, XXXIII, and Super Bowl 50. Let’s take a look at the three titles in Denver Broncos’ history.

On January 25th, 1998, the Denver Broncos won their first Super Bowl title in team history. In front of nearly 69,000 fans in San Diego,. The Broncos scored 31 points and took down Mike Holmgren’s Green Bay Packers. The win was the first for head coach Mike Shanahan. The MVP for this game was running back Terrell Davis, who scored the game-winning touchdown with under 2:00 to go. Davis finished with 157 rushing yards and caught two passes as well, finishing with three touchdowns.

In Super Bowl XXXIII, the following year in Miami, Florida, once again, the Denver Broncos scored 30+ points. This time, the Broncos finished with 34 points and beat the Falcons by 15 points. 74,803 fans saw the Broncos cover the spread and win back-to-back titles. This time, John Elway came away with Super Bowl MVP. The award for Elway made him the oldest player to be named Super Bowl MVP at 38 years old. In 2017, Tom Brady was 39 when he broke that record.

The most recent Super Bowl title for the Denver Broncos came in Super Bowl 50. It was another impressive offensive game for the Broncos, scoring in each of the four quarters. The defense may have been the biggest key in this game, as the Broncos held Carolina to just 10 points in the game.

This game is most famous for the safety that the Broncos picked up on the Panthers in the early going. Von Miller was named the MVP, as he was the leader of a team that picked up 7 sacks and forced four turnovers in the game. This was also the final game for quarterback Peyton Manning, as he announced his retirement in March.

The historical list of quarterbacks for the Denver Broncos starts with John Elway. Literally a face of the franchise, the signal caller played from 1983-1998. Elway finished with 231 games started and won 148 of them. Elway, in his postseason career, went 14-7. After Elway, a list of quarterbacks named Gus Frerotte, Jake Plummer, and Tim Tebow combined to go 2-5 in the postseason.

Peyton Manning is the second name on the list of elite Denver quarterbacks. Manning played from 2012-2015 with the Broncos and started 57 games and won 45 of them. That’s a 79% win percentage for the Hall of Fame signal caller. Manning finished with 140 touchdowns throw, which is 160 less than Elway.

Brian Griese is fifth on the list of starts as quarterback of the Broncos. Griese did not have as much success as the other two but still finished with 27 wins in 51 starts. Craig Morton and Jake Plummer are the two other names listed in the top five of starts under center for the franchise. Greiese finished with 71 touchdowns and 53 interceptions, while Plummer had 71 touchdowns and 47 interceptions, while Morton tossed 74 touchdowns and 65 interceptions.

Other quarterbacks for the Broncos include Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton, and Frank Tripucka.

The Denver Broncos have 7 players and an owner/CEO that are considered Broncos in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There are 8 other guys that spent some time with the Broncos that are also in the Hall of Fame.

The first Broncos player inducted into the Hall of Fame was Willie Brown, the cornerback that was inducted in 1984. 10 years later, Tony Dorsett got into the Hall of Fame. Both of those two had short stints with the Broncos. Jerry Rice, Brian Dawkins, Ty Law, John Lynch, Peyton Manning, and DeMarcus Ware are the other guys that are in the Hall of Fame and not fully considered Broncos.

The guys that spent their careers with the Broncos – the list starts at quarterback John Elway. Elway spent 1983-1998 with the Broncos and was inducted into the Hall of Fame back in 2004. The next two were Gary Zimmerman in 2008 and Floyd Littel in 2010.

Shannon Sharpe. Terrell Davis, Champ Bailey, and Steve Atwater are the other four players that got inducted. Sharpe got in, in 2011, Davis went in 2017, and Bailey in 2019.

Pat Bowlen, the owner/CEO of the franchise from 1984-2019, got inducted in 2019 as the only nonplayer for the organization in the Hall of Fame.

The Denver Broncos are known for their very distinguishing colors. The Broncos sport white, Navy, and orange. The Broncos have two mascots – Thunder II, who is a live horse, and Miles, who is in costume during the games. Fans at the Denver Broncos games have a nickname that many of the rest of the league use. That nickname is Crush.

A fact that is unknown by many throughout football- Gene Mingo was the first professional African American football. The placekicker played with the Broncos from 1960 to 1964.

The Broncos hold the record for the most lopsided Super Bowl ever. The Broncos scored just 10 points and lost by 45 points in 1990.

During Super Bowl XLVIII – Demaryius Thomas tied a Super Bowl record with 13 receptions.