Days of Our Lives, Falcon Crest, All My Children, General Hospital and the Denver Broncos – what do all of these have in common? They’re some of America’s favorite soap operas; highlighted by over-the-top story-lines, twists, turns and intense drama – and that’s the way it’s been for as long as anybody can remember.

This is life in Broncos Country.

Back to back championships. Elway retires. Plummer gets benched. Cutler goes in. Playoffs missed. Darrent Williams killed. Shanahan fired. Josh McDaniels? Cutler traded to Chicago. Orton? Six and 0! Playoffs missed again. Elway hired. The Tebow season. Wild Card win! Tebow cut. Here comes Peyton. Ravens game. Forty-three to EIGHT!? Colts loss. Fox, Gase and Del Rio gone. KUBES!! WADE!! Time to Brock. Peyton benched. HGH Scandal! Peyton is back ….

…Round and round it goes. Where it stops nobody knows.

Hollywood could not have written this script. For the better part of two decades your Denver Broncos have been the most entertaining team in all of professional sports, providing the local and national media with fodder like no other and treating fans to the wildest and most thrilling roller coaster imaginable.

Now that thrill ride is rocketing toward another hairpin turn and everybody had better hang on tight.

Just when it seemed like the issue was settled once and for all Denver finds itself thrust into one of the most epic and strangely timed quarterback controversies ever. It began the moment Peyton Manning strapped on his too-small helmet and trotted back onto the field in the third quarter against San Diego on Sunday with Denver’s playoff future on the line.

Would the Broncos come back to win and earn the top seed in the AFC (after every possible thing broke their way during the morning games)? Would they earn a week off and homefield advantage throughout the post-season or would they lose and wind up the fifth seed with no week off and a game to play in seven days? Could the great Peyton Manning wrangle his team back after eight weeks off and lead them to a badly needed win?

Well, of course he could because these are the Broncos and they’re just not content not to be fascinating.

Could there be a more intriguing story? Somebody must already be working on the screen play. Who will play Manning? Costner?

After throwing four interceptions in a single game the first ballot Hall of Famer lost his starting job to an understudy who happened to join the team via the draft in the exact same year that he did and who sat patiently on the bench waiting for his opportunity. The understudy seized the reins and kept the Broncos on track, notching wins against the fearsome Patriots and Bengals only to be supplanted once more by number 18 at the most shocking possible moment.

Mile High erupted when Peyton entered Sunday’s game and now Broncos Country is alive with chatter. The local sports talk radio shows are giddy and the Broncos are once again the darlings of the national media. ESPN  must be considering opening a field office in LODO just to keep tabs on the non-stop lunacy.

Move over, Luke and Laura. The Denver Broncos are where the excitement is. Fans, get your popcorn ready because the 2015 playoffs promise to be fascinating.

Controversy? Maybe. But everybody knows that Peyton makes for the better story. For him to ride in on his white horse now with a chance to heroically lead the Broncos back to the Super Bowl after all that he has been through this season would be positively mind-boggling in most cities but here in Denver it would be par for the course – just another episode in sports’ greatest soap opera.