Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) Western Division in the National Football League (NFL). more...

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The Broncos began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League and joined the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger.

The Broncos were a small-market team that met with little success in their early years, but have since become one of the elite franchises of the league after having advanced to the Super Bowl six times. In their first four Super Bowl appearances, they suffered successively lopsided defeats, achieving near-legendary status before winning back-to-back Super Bowl championships in 1997 and 1998 under quarterback John Elway, running back Terrell Davis and coach Mike Shanahan.

Franchise history

1960-2004

Broncos won the first-ever American Football League game over the Boston Patriots, 13-10, on September 9, 1960. They were the first AFL team ever to defeat an NFL team, on August 5, 1967 when they beat the Detroit Lions 13-7 in a preseason game. Denver has reached the Super Bowl six times, winning it in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. It is odd to remember a time, then, when Denver was the lowliest of teams, managing its first winning season in 1973 after thirteen years of futility. As such, they were the only original AFL team never to have played in the title game during the upstart league's 10-year history. Denver, in fact, came close to losing its franchise in 1965, but a local ownership group took control that year and began to build the team.

Rookie coach Red Miller, along with the Orange Crush Defense (a nickname originating in the early '70's) and aging quarterback Craig Morton, promptly took Denver to its first playoff appearance–and, ultimately first Super Bowl – in 1977, where they were defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 27-10.

Quarterback John Elway arrived in 1983. Originally drafted by the Baltimore Colts as the first pick of the draft, Elway proclaimed that he would shun football in favor of baseball (he was drafted by the New York Yankees to play center field) unless he was traded to a selected list of other teams, which included Denver. Prior to Elway, Denver had over 24 different starting quarterbacks in its 23 seasons to that point. Elway would remain the quarterback through five Super Bowls, three under head coach Dan Reeves and two under Mike Shanahan, and would end his career as the MVP of Super Bowl XXXIII, his last NFL game. The Broncos would lose Super Bowl XXI to the New York Giants 39-20, Super Bowl XXII to the Washington Redskins 42-10 and Super Bowl XXIV to the San Francisco 49ers 55-10, the most lopsided Super Bowl in history.

Read more at Wikipedia.org