The Denver Broncos family keeps coming home.
All throughout training camp this year – which set a record in attendance by fans – and really, since John Elway took the reigns of the Broncos in 2011, alumni have returned to the Mile High City.
Last Wednesday, there were 50-plus former players at the UCHealth Training Center. Today, there were a few less, but the ones who came to training camp were iconic figures within the organization.
Two of them were Dan Reeves and Shannon Sharpe. Reeves is the former Broncos head coach, who led the team to three Super Bowl appearaces during the 1980s. Over his tenure, from 1981-1992, Reeves coached his team to five AFC West titles and his record was 110-73-1, a .601 winning percentage. After a short, four-year run with the New York Giants, he finished his coaching career with the Atlanta Falcons. The highlight of those seven years was the Super Bowl XXXIII appearance against none other than John Elway and the Denver Broncos. Reeves again lost, and the Broncos won this time, the second of back-to-back Vince Lombardi Trophies.
Here’s another connection you may not know: Reeves is the father in law of current Broncos special teams coach Joe DeCamillis. Reeves is also the only coach in the team’s Ring of Fame.
Shannon Sharpe blocked for backs and caught passes from Elway during the entire decade of the 90s, including those two Super Bowl victories. While he took a few years to catch on, Sharpe helped push the evolution of the tight end position into a pass-catching threat. Starting in 1993 and going through 1998, Sharpe recorded at least 750 receiving yards per season, including three times over 1,000. Also, three times during that span he recorded either nine (once) or 10 (twice) touchdowns in a year.
Sharpe was a physically gifted freak of nature; he wasn’t the fastest man, but his size and strength made him an able blocker while Gary Kubiak‘s offense had him running against the grain on a play-action and wide open for scores. One of his most important receptions as a Denver player came in the 1997 AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the game on the line and three minutes in regulation remaining, the Broncos clung to a 24-21 lead. The orange and blue faced a third and six and on the frigid Pittsburgh day, Elway found none other than Sharpe for 18 yards and the clutch first down. He was named to the 1990s All-Decade team and when he retired in 2003, he was the career leader for receptions (815), yards (10,060) and touchdowns (62) by a tight end.
After practice, Sharpe gave a motivational speech to the team:
Broncos Ring of Fame and @ProFootballHOF TE @ShannonSharpe delivers inspirational message to team post practice. pic.twitter.com/O7dptK7Svo
— Patrick Smyth (@psmyth12) August 18, 2015
And then the mouth of the south created a promotional video for fans during games:
Hall of Fame tight end @ShannonSharpe recording a scoreboard message for Broncos fans. pic.twitter.com/382IWWdHVb — Erich Schubert (@schube13) August 18, 2015
Sharpe went onto enjoy a career talking the NFL on CBS and was inducted in the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2011, the latest Bronco in the Hall.
