It takes a village to raise a Lombardi Trophy.
So often in sports, the fans, the media, even some organizations demand instant gratification. You sign this guy, add this piece, do this that or the other and you’re expected to win now. For an organization like the Denver Broncos Football Club, “win now” means “win championships now,” none of this make the playoffs, make the Super Bowl, yadda yadda, that won’t do at all. But Rome was not built in a day, winning a championship in the national football league is not like growing a chia pet. The Lombardi trophy that will sit in the showcase at the Broncos facility for the rest of time is the culmination of many moves, a load of hard work and the precise orchestration of a championship pedigree.
Let’s rewind to the signing of Peyton Manning in 2012. Of course, the addition made them an instant contender but contender doesn’t cut it around here. Denver still had a team that was very young, many of their stars like Von Miller and Demaryius Thomas were inexperienced, their Week 1 two-deep at free safety was Rahim Moore and Jim Leonhard. Rahim Moore and Jim Leonhard. The team still went 12-4, they were the number one seed in the playoffs and they lost in the divisional round because they were far from a championship pedigree. The first punch to the chin.
2013, add in guys like Wes Welker, Louis Vasquez, Terrance Knighton, Dominique Rogers-Cromartie. With a year of gelling under their belts with Peyton Manning, the Broncos produce one of the greatest offenses of all time. Marching through the regular season and most of the postseason all the way to the Super Bowl. But the injuries piled up at the wrong time and the formula still wasn’t quite right. 43-8. The jaw squaring up, scars mounting.
Come on in DeMarcus Ware, Emmanuel Sanders, Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward, now you’re talking, right? Not quite. The mix in the locker room was as good as they’d had but something was still off. Their 12-4 record was an odd 12-4, with the team never quite feeling like they were going to challenge for a championship. They didn’t. Word has it that head coach John Fox was already looking for his next job before the Broncos put out an ugly performance in the divisional round, losing 24-13 to the Colts at home. This brought about the realization that championship pedigree could not be created with Fox at the helm, the final blow for him, just another jab for the team.
It was time to kick and scream. The personnel was no longer the problem, it was the addition of a leader (or leaders) that Denver needed. Enter Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips, Rick Dennison, Joe DeCamillis and their entire staff — featuring guys like Bill Kollar and Fred “Pug” Pagac. With the right men in their corner, the transition from the china-chinned ponies to the bronze bearded Broncos was complete, thanks to the man who brought this city it’s only two Super Bowls previously, Old No. 7.
“When [John Elway] called me back last February or whenever it was, everything he told me about his football team and what he thought we had to do the following year has held true,” Gary Kubiak said Monday, Lombardi Trophy by his side. “He has a great feel for what is going on and what he wants to get done. I am very proud of him.”
Elway’s had built a roster as strong as iron but he needed an iron staff to sharpen it.
From opening day on Sept, 17. it started to become clear that Elway had found his sword-smith, this team was sharp at the points when it mattered most, making the biggest plays at the biggest moments, a group of bare-knuckled brawlers ready for any style of fight.
As the season went on they were forged by the heat of battle, tested in the toughest conditions and more often than not they came out on top. They won ugly, they won pretty (once), they won as underdogs, they won as favorites, they won with Manning, they won with Osweiler, they won with DeMarcus Ware, they won with Shaq Barrett. It didn’t matter what conditions they were put in because the puzzle had finally been completed, Elway had taken a bunch of pieces and fit them all together to make one.
In his first year as the head coach, Gary Kubiak was expected to win now but, unlike so many others, he was the final piece not the first piece, all he had to do was put his men in a position to succeed. He helped bring DeMarcus Ware’s leadership to the forefront, he made the gutsy call to bring Manning back on the field, helping the team to embrace the “last rodeo” spirit, he made the right moves in the simple situations like bringing the entire team to the Super Bowl for the whole stay, not just the 53 and most importantly he was the final piece to an organization that was on the same page from the very top to the bottom. Kubiak didn’t need to bring in a whole bunch of guys to fit his system, just a few like Darian Stewart and Owen Daniels who he knew fit the pedigree.
In the end, though, it all came down to one game. That’s what’s so fascinating about the NFL, the judgment of every single move John Elway has made since the signing of Peyton Manning came down to Super Bowl 50. Win and the whole thing deemed a success, lose and the whole thing deemed a failure. Every move, ever signing every tinkering all came down to 60 minutes between the lines.
In those 60 minutes, you saw the culmination of a championship pedigree all come together. The ready-for-anything Broncos tapped gloves with a near mirror image of the team they once were, staring into their eyes with the knowledge that they weren’t going to like being punched in the mouth. When they knocked them down they kept pounding, they were raised for this one fight and they came through — kicking, screaming and swinging the Panthers into a ten count, their hands raised as the champions of the world.
It takes a village to raise a Super Bowl champion, it took John Elway five years to get the right people in his village, the perfect mix. Today, that blue-collar village of ironsmiths, backyards brawlers, bull riders and Budweiser drinkers brings joy to an entire country, Broncos country.
