Saturday night, on the eve of the AFC Championship game, 11th-year veteran DeMarcus Ware gathered his teammates to deliver an important message.

“We have a motto on this team that iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another man,” Ware told media following the Broncos 20-18 win, clinching their spot in the Super Bowl. “I just told the guys that everybody bought into that mentality. You know, when [Ryan] Clady got hurt, Ty [Sambrailo] came in, when Ty got hurt, Ryan Harris went in and when Peyton [Manning] got hurt, Brock [Osweiler] went in, when I got hurt, Shaq [Barrett]  went in. That was the grit of the whole season.,”

“We nailed it down,” he added. “We beat down that metal and the only way you’re going to make metal harder is if you beat it down, and we beat it into this thing.”

Ware’s next move was extremely powerful.

“I opened up and pulled out the first Super Bowl trophy that the Broncos won and I set it on the table,” he explained. “I just got really quiet and I saw in all the guys eyes how they felt, what they felt because I felt the same way. From that point, I just knew how important it was to those guys. I closed it off and I said, ‘The Patriots are coming into our house trying to take what we built.'”

Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another man and the sterling silver of the Lombardi Trophy sharpened the Denver Broncos.

“It was a big emotional night and the guys carried it over to the game,” Ware concluded.

The seasoned veteran and his teammates now set sail for Super Bowl 50 with a chance to bring back a trophy of their own.