http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_8170626
PHOENIX — Roll over, Vince Lombardi. And could those grumpy old men from the 1972 Dolphins quit their incessant yapping about perfection? The Broncos of John Elway want to muscle their way on the short list of the greatest teams in pro football history.
"Our last Super Bowl team would be very comparable to a lot of the great teams, at least the top 10 teams in the history of the NFL, even though we're not getting that credit," Elway said.
The Broncos of 1997-98 are one of seven franchises to have won back-to-back championships during the Super Bowl era.
At 47, Elway is old enough to own an artificial knee and a sense of history. So I asked him:
How come a Denver team that won 33 games over the course of two seasons is never mentioned in the same reverent breath as the one-hit wonder, Super Bowl shuffling Chicago Bears of 1985 or the Steel Curtain Steelers when the NFL's most dominant teams are saluted?
"We're from Denver," Elway replied. "C'mon, you know that."
Nearly 100 million television viewers will remember Super Bowl XLII for one giant upset, a coronation of the Manning boys as America's first family of football and the lasting legacy of a sore loser that Bill Belichick established when he ran from the scene of New England's defeat with the scoreboard clock frozen in its final second.
But at an over-the-top pigskin carnival where the line between sports and celebrity has been blurred beyond all recognition and entrance to the annual late-night soiree hosted by Hugh Hefner and the Playboy bunnies has become a tougher ticket than a seat on the 50-yard line, maybe the real party-crashers were the Broncos of the 1990s.
The old warriors not only got significant face time on the Super Bowl scene, it seems Denver is finally earning major football respect.
Offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman broke through as the franchise's long-overdue second member in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tight end Shannon Sharpe was one of the beautiful people mingling at a party whose guest list included Ludacris and Tom Arnold (go figure). Running back Terrell Davis carried a heavy load as a host on the NFL Network.
In the days before 18-0 New England took a hard fall against the New York Giants, the Broncos from the 1990s were puzzled by all the hoopla prematurely proclaiming the Patriots as the greatest team to ever walk on a field.
Because when asked how his Broncos would have fared against the Pats of Tom Brady, Sharpe nearly jumped out of his skin, declaring: "I like the matchup! I like that matchup! A lot!"
If history has any sense of justice, some day the NFL will look back at the 1997-98 Broncos and recognize they could intimidate with offense the same way those 1985 Bears scared foes with defense.
"Back when I was sitting in the Broncos' locker room, I looked at John Elway and knew that, no question, he was a Hall of Fame quarterback. I looked at Gary Zimmerman and knew he was already an all-decade player of the 1980s with a good chance to be an all-decade player in the '90s," Sharpe said.
"I looked at Terrell Davis, and here's a running back who came in and produced 1,100 . . . 1,500 . . . 1,700 . . . 2,000 yards season after season. He was the league MVP, the Super Bowl MVP. For a four-year period, there was no question he was the best player in the game."
There are card-carrying Broncomaniacs who now complain too many Denver fans are hopelessly lost in nostalgia.
But if folks in Colorado cannot acknowledge the once-in- a-lifetime nature of the achievements by Elway and company, then what hope is there of NFL historians ever recognizing the Broncos as legends worthy of comparison to Joe Montana's 49ers or Lombardi's Packers?
"We won back-to-back championships in a span of three seasons, and the year we didn't win it, we went 13-3 before losing in the playoffs to Jacksonville. I don't know why our Broncos teams don't get more credit as one of the great NFL teams," Sharpe said. "Maybe we're not sexy like the Cowboys, maybe we're not sexy like the Steelers, or maybe we're not as sexy as the Patriots.
"But I know this. I played for the Broncos for 12 years, and for that three-year period in the 1990s, we're as good as any team in the National Football League's history."
PHOENIX — Roll over, Vince Lombardi. And could those grumpy old men from the 1972 Dolphins quit their incessant yapping about perfection? The Broncos of John Elway want to muscle their way on the short list of the greatest teams in pro football history.
"Our last Super Bowl team would be very comparable to a lot of the great teams, at least the top 10 teams in the history of the NFL, even though we're not getting that credit," Elway said.
The Broncos of 1997-98 are one of seven franchises to have won back-to-back championships during the Super Bowl era.
At 47, Elway is old enough to own an artificial knee and a sense of history. So I asked him:
How come a Denver team that won 33 games over the course of two seasons is never mentioned in the same reverent breath as the one-hit wonder, Super Bowl shuffling Chicago Bears of 1985 or the Steel Curtain Steelers when the NFL's most dominant teams are saluted?
"We're from Denver," Elway replied. "C'mon, you know that."
Nearly 100 million television viewers will remember Super Bowl XLII for one giant upset, a coronation of the Manning boys as America's first family of football and the lasting legacy of a sore loser that Bill Belichick established when he ran from the scene of New England's defeat with the scoreboard clock frozen in its final second.
But at an over-the-top pigskin carnival where the line between sports and celebrity has been blurred beyond all recognition and entrance to the annual late-night soiree hosted by Hugh Hefner and the Playboy bunnies has become a tougher ticket than a seat on the 50-yard line, maybe the real party-crashers were the Broncos of the 1990s.
The old warriors not only got significant face time on the Super Bowl scene, it seems Denver is finally earning major football respect.
Offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman broke through as the franchise's long-overdue second member in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tight end Shannon Sharpe was one of the beautiful people mingling at a party whose guest list included Ludacris and Tom Arnold (go figure). Running back Terrell Davis carried a heavy load as a host on the NFL Network.
In the days before 18-0 New England took a hard fall against the New York Giants, the Broncos from the 1990s were puzzled by all the hoopla prematurely proclaiming the Patriots as the greatest team to ever walk on a field.
Because when asked how his Broncos would have fared against the Pats of Tom Brady, Sharpe nearly jumped out of his skin, declaring: "I like the matchup! I like that matchup! A lot!"
If history has any sense of justice, some day the NFL will look back at the 1997-98 Broncos and recognize they could intimidate with offense the same way those 1985 Bears scared foes with defense.
"Back when I was sitting in the Broncos' locker room, I looked at John Elway and knew that, no question, he was a Hall of Fame quarterback. I looked at Gary Zimmerman and knew he was already an all-decade player of the 1980s with a good chance to be an all-decade player in the '90s," Sharpe said.
"I looked at Terrell Davis, and here's a running back who came in and produced 1,100 . . . 1,500 . . . 1,700 . . . 2,000 yards season after season. He was the league MVP, the Super Bowl MVP. For a four-year period, there was no question he was the best player in the game."
There are card-carrying Broncomaniacs who now complain too many Denver fans are hopelessly lost in nostalgia.
But if folks in Colorado cannot acknowledge the once-in- a-lifetime nature of the achievements by Elway and company, then what hope is there of NFL historians ever recognizing the Broncos as legends worthy of comparison to Joe Montana's 49ers or Lombardi's Packers?
"We won back-to-back championships in a span of three seasons, and the year we didn't win it, we went 13-3 before losing in the playoffs to Jacksonville. I don't know why our Broncos teams don't get more credit as one of the great NFL teams," Sharpe said. "Maybe we're not sexy like the Cowboys, maybe we're not sexy like the Steelers, or maybe we're not as sexy as the Patriots.
"But I know this. I played for the Broncos for 12 years, and for that three-year period in the 1990s, we're as good as any team in the National Football League's history."
