Monday 30 January 2017 12:47, UK
Denver Broncos are everything that football fans live and breathe for in Colorado.
They got off to a shaky start in the 1960s before the AFL-NFL merger and brought little joy to the area, but the turn of the decade ushered in something new.
The 1973 campaign was a turning point for the Broncos - they registered the first-ever winning season and have only had seven losing seasons since. Head coach, Mike Shanahan, earned himself a special place in every heart in Denver when he led the Broncos to their first championship victory in 1997, putting an end to a 0-4 record in the big game for the typically defensive unit.
He made it 2-4 the following year to make the Broncos one of only seven teams to have won the Super Bowl twice in a row. Shanahan stayed on for another 10 seasons after his success, but could only muster an appearance in the AFC Conference Championship game at best in 2005.
Six years later, the Broncos became resurgent under former Carolina Panthers coach, John Fox, and veteran quarterback, Peyton Manning, and won the AFC West an impressive five times in a row from 2011, which was the year before Manning joined.
Gary Kubiak, a former quarterback for the Broncos, had taken charge by the 2015 season and immediately managed what Fox could not and turned it into a championship-winning campaign.
Super Bowl 50 versus the Panthers clinched the Broncos' first championship title for nearly 20 years and their eighth big-game appearance in franchise history.
It was a sensational display that was spearheaded by Super Bowl MVP and linebacker, Von Miller, and applauded as one of the great defensive showings in recent memory.
With Kubiak now retired and quarterback, Trevor Siemian, taking the reins with a 2016 season worthy of a Pro Bowl invite, the Broncos are looking to build from the ground up to bring a fourth Super Bowl title to the ardent streets of Denver.
