The 10 biggest “What If’s” in Colorado sports history

You just can’t help it as a sports fan. It’s not enough for us to watch the games, follow the trades, free-agent signings, or get overly invested in the future of teenagers on draft night. We don’t just live to tell the tales of what happened. No, spinning the yarn of what could have been goes hand in hand with the lived experiences of every sports fan.

Sure, this team lost that one game, but what if they hadn’t? Can you imagine if my team hadn’t gotten such lousy lottery luck that one year? What would my world look like if that one key player hadn’t gotten injured? Everything would be different!

And that’s the ambitious project we here at DNVR decided to embark upon for this year’s Rank Week. We’ve done the best athletes and most memorable games, but those are easy enough. We saw those happen. What about the alternate universes that we all think about but didn’t get to live in?

Colorado sports fans, we give you the top “What If?” moments in Colorado sports history.

(This list will be updated throughout the week with “What If’s” #1 and #2 released Friday.)

10. What if John Elway doesn’t retire following Super Bowl XXXIII

There have been some valiant attempts at the vaunted “three-peat” in NFL history, but no team has ever won three consecutive Super Bowls. Back when John Elway was quarterbacking Denver Broncos and was joined in the backfield by Terrell Davis, they won Super Bowls 32 and 33. There was a genuine belief that Mike Shanahan could coach the Hall of Fame 1-2 punch to a third Super Bowl.

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While there was a lot of talk leading up to Super Bowl 33 between the Broncos and Atlanta Falcons that it would be Elway’s final game, Elway himself wasn’t quite sure. When he eventually won Super Bowl MVP after going 18-for-29 and throwing for 336 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown to Rod Smith, the conversation was about what special run it was for Elway and the Broncos. The hard-luck loser early in his career was going out on top after winning consecutive championships.

What if he didn’t? The Broncos still had Davis, who had won the regular season MVP after eclipsing the rarified air of the 2,000-yard club, and was one of the game’s premier backs. Shanahan’s brilliance on the headset was just beginning and Elway was the guy to bring it all together. Without Elway, the Broncos went with second-year pro Brian Griese behind center and it was his ill-advised throw that resulted in the devastating knee injury that derailed Davis’s career.

If Elway stays, does Davis ever get hurt? Does he continue to dominate with Elway only having to serve as a high-level counterpart and not the main player? Certainly, the Broncos would have done better than the 6-10 record they managed but it isn’t hard to envision Elway and a healthy Davis bringing that team to the mountaintop for a third time, cementing itself as the truest dynasty in league history.

9. What if Matt Holliday is called out in Game 163 in 2007

Back in a time when replay review was still a foreign concept, destined for a distant future of pitch clocks and pitch comms, the play at the plate with Matt Holliday was decided solely by the naked eye of home plate umpire Tim McClelland. It remains one of the bigger in-game controversies in baseball, and for good reason.

The Rockies aren’t a franchise known for deep-rooted history. As a franchise celebrating its 30th birthday in 2025, you could make the argument that by 2007, the organization had yet to find its defining moment. The team made the playoffs back in 1995, but that celebration was short-lived after getting bounced in the divisional round by the Braves.

The Rockies wouldn’t grace the playoffs again until that day in 2007 when Matt Holliday did (or did not) touch home. But I’m not here to debate whether or not Holliday was safe or out. I’m here to talk about the impact that single play made on the franchise we see today.

READ: What if Matt Holliday was called out at home?

8. What if Jamal Murray didn’t tear his ACL?

At the 2021 NBA trade deadline, the Nuggets landed THE perfect fit at power forward next to Nikola Jokic: Aaron Gordon. Denver won 7-straight games after acquiring Gordon from Orlando and looked like true championship contenders for the first time in the Jokic era.

But on April 12, 2022 in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Warriors, Jamal Murray drove down the lane, planted on his left leg, and then crumbled to the floor. It was a torn ACL. Murray didn’t just miss the upcoming playoffs where the Nuggets still beat the Trail Blazers in Round 1 before getting swept by the Suns in Round 2. He also missed the postseason the following year.

It was two unexpected gap years right in the middle of Nikola Jokic’s prime. Jokic won his first two MVP’s in 2021 and 2022 — the two playoffs that Murray missed due to the ACL. The Nuggets roster in both those season would have been championship quality with Murray, but without him, the Nuggets were just another playoff team.

If Murray had stayed healthy, it’s not hard to envision the Nuggets winning two championships in this current era. Maybe even three.

7. What if Rahim Moore doesn’t Rahim Moore?

On third down, Flacco dropped back again. Robert Ayers spun through the middle of the line, forcing Flacco to step up. Flacco used his momentum to heave a deep ball up the right sideline.

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The receiver was covered. Moore, was playing deep and had an angle to knock the pass away.

But he didn’t.

Instead, Moore took too steep of a route as he tried to undercut the throw. He jumped but the ball flew over his head. Jacoby Jones caught it and ran the final 20 yards into the end zone. The game was tied. An hour later, Justin Tucker would make the walk-off, game-winning field goal to send the Ravens to the AFC Championship Game.

And the Broncos would head back to their locker room for the final time that season.

“I’m taking the blame for it. Hey, I lost the game for us. It is what it is,” Moore told the Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla. “I misjudged it, man.”

What if Moore hadn’t misjudged the pass?