I’ll never forget that day in March 2012.
I was travelling in Arizona with my son’s youth baseball team. It was morning at the hotel and as we were preparing for the day’s tournament games, we had the TV on ESPN with the sound muted.
It was hardly a shocker to glance up and see a Peyton Manning graphic on the screen – the former all-world Colts quarterback was all over the news that late winter/early spring, competing for air time with March Madness as he searched for a new NFL home following four neck surgeries and his release from the Colts.
But this Manning graphic was significantly different as it shifted in back of a SportsCenter anchor talking excitedly. It now had a familiar logo – a Broncos logo – accompanying it.
The TV volume quickly was turned up as a new era in the Mile High City’s sports legacy was being ushered in.
A few days later, general manager John Elway said, that despite the lingering health concerns and since forgotten-about gamble the Broncos were taking at the time, he was confident the then soon-to-be-36-year-old Manning “had a lot of great football left in him.”
Elway never has been more right. Peyton Manning didn’t just choose the Broncos; he made the Broncos the Broncos again.
Gone were the mediocre seasons, the hopes of simply making the playoffs and the doubt that the Broncos would ever be in the serious running for another Lombardi Trophy for a good, long while.
In were the wins – a whopping 55 of them over the next four seasons – a string of consecutive AFC West titles that now stands at five and two Super Bowl berths, the last one producing the franchise’s third Lombardi.
Along the way, there was only the greatest offensive team season in NFL history, an NFL MVP award — a record fifth for Manning — and four memorable milestone passes that set the league’s single-season and all-time marks for touchdown passes and passing yardage. By the sheer numbers, there also were 1,639 completions, 19,062 passing yards and 151 TD throws.
But Manning’s Orange & Blue impact went far beyond the mere records and stats.
How much more confidence and anticipation did Broncos Country wake up with every Sunday, knowing that it once again had one of the best quarterbacks of all-time guiding their team?
How many of the big-name, on-the-fence free agents would wind up signing with Denver simply because No. 18 would be sporting the same colors come game day?
How many teammates put forth that extra effort this past Super season to help ensure their likely-retiring and obviously-declining teammate would have the chance to fittingly bow out as a champion?
And as for that estimated $77 million that Manning was paid for his four seasons in the Mile High City?
I’d call it one hell of a bargain for the Broncos and an even sweeter deal for Broncos Country.
Canton awaits in five years, and the Broncos’ Ring of Fame and the re-retirement of the Orange & Blue’s No. 18 jersey should only be a matter of mere months away.
But for a good long while, fall Sundays around here just aren’t going to be the same.
What an honor, privilege and treasure these last 48 months have been.
