Mike Klis - The 50 Greatest Players in Denver Broncos History

Mike Klis is a longtime Colorado sports reporter who covered the Broncos from 2005 to 2015 as the teams beat writer for the Denver Post, and is now the Broncos Insider for 9News KUSA-TV in Denver. This is Kliss seventh book. He has won awards, including the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) first place, breaking news category, for his work on the Elvis Dumervil Fax Fiasco that is featured in this book.

Thank you to former Broncos PR maven Jim Saccomano, Denver-area and University of Colorado multisport star Dave Logan, who is also the teams longtime radio announcer, and lifelong fan Richard Hesse, who sent me multiple drafts of his top-50 list. These are the three people I most sought counsel from while organizing this project of The 50 Greatest Players in Denver Broncos History. They made recommendations, all of which I considered, although they will notice I failed to execute a few.

To Steve Carter, Tim Dietz, Christy Moreno, and Brian Olson, my bosses at KUSA-TV Channel 9 (Denver), for allowing me to take on this project.

To Broncos assistant PR guy Erich Schubert, for his remarkable work in posting on the teams website every official game book of every preseason, regular-season, and postseason game the Broncos ever played. This is a researchers dream. To Schubert and Broncos PR boss Patrick Smyth, for helping to arrange interviews with several of the top 50 players.

To my wife, Becky, and my kids, for insisting they did not need me around, thus allowing me to work on this project guilt-free.

To my mom, for giving me a week in semi-seclusion at her Oswego, Illinois, home, where I was able to generate momentum to finish this project.

To executive editor Rick Rinehart, for his patience with the author who missed his first deadline by a lot, and second deadline by a little. And to editors Meredith Dias and Evan Helmlinger, copyeditor Melissa Hayes, layout artist Joanna Beyer, proofreader Susan Barnett, and all the people whom Ive never met but did a great deal of the work in putting this book together. To Eric Lars Bakke for digging up the photos in this book.

To Bronco Billy Thompson, No. 17 among the greatest players in this book. As head of Broncos alumni, Thompson had access to more phone numbers of the former greats than any other.

To Nickie Gonsoulin and Randy Tripucka, wives of two of the original Broncos stars.

A special mention to Craig Morton, Haven Moses, Riley Odoms, Rick Upchurch, Otis Armstrong, Louis Wright, Tom Jackson, Randy Gradishar, Steve Foley, Barney Chavous, Rubin Carter, the spirits of Lyle Alzado and Paul Smith, and Bronco Billy. Thats 14 players from the magical Orange Crush season of 77 who made the top 50. And had it been a top-55 book, Bob Swenson, Jim Turner, and Paul Howard would have made it 17 from that pioneering team.

I didnt realize until Id researched the full span of the Broncos years and interviewed the subjects just how special that 77 team was to the franchise. History is there so yesterday is not forgotten, and the Broncos remarkable 45-year run of playoff contention started with the Crush era, folks.

And finally, my appreciation to the top 50 players for their cooperation and participation in this project. Whatever enjoyment Broncos Country and football fans everywhere may get from this book is because of them, the players.

Quarterback, 198398

We all have one moment that sticks in our minds more than the others whenever we think back to John Elway playing quarterback.

The Drive was his leap from enormous potential to legitimate championship quarterback. The Helicopter epitomized his hypercompetitiveness.

The Drive put me on the map, Elway said. That was my coming-out party. That legitimized me in big games. The Helicopter kind of helped win the championship, because of the mentality and the energy it created.

TV flashbacks also often show his Kirk Gibsonlike fist pump and dance step following his fourth-quarter, 3-yard touchdown run that iced Super Bowl XXXIII, which turned out to be his career walk-off.

I was 95 percent there, Elway said, referring to the likelihood he would retire after winning his second Super Bowl in as many years. If I hadnt got banged up that yearI tore that hamstring and I fell on the ball and hurt my ribs. Missed four games. I might have come back if I hadnt had those deals. But I was getting to the point where after you had won two, three would be great, but youve answered the questions you needed to answer.

I have covered Elway since he became the Denver Broncos general manager in 2011. I was an impartial observer in front of the TV, and an occasional reporter on game days, during his playing career. I have two strong memories of Elway the quarterback.

The first was his monstrous spike in the end zone, followed by two raised fists in a championship-boxer pose, after he scored on a 4-yard touch-down run during his Monday Night Football classic showdown with Joe Montana. This memory is indelible because I was standing a few feet away behind that same end zone at Mile High Stadium. I was covering the October 1994 game for the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. My assignment was to come up with a sidebar story on the visiting Kansas City Chiefs.

Elways touchdown gave the Broncos a 2824 lead with 1:29 remaining in the back-and-forth game. Montana then completed, with remarkable ease and precision, seven of eight passes to lead a 75-yard drive against Wade Phillipss soft cover 2 defense, a systematic march that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Willie Davis in the right corner of the end zone, with eight seconds remaining. Chiefs win.

The Broncos werent very good that yearthey fell to 1-5 after this lossbut they were keeping score in this game, and therefore Elway badly wanted to win.

Thats one. The play I most remember about Elway, though, was during a regular-season game. I dont remember which game or even exactly what season, although Im certain it was in the late 1980s. I just remember the action of the play as I watched from the Mile High press box. It was a play where Elway started to scramble right to escape what appeared to be a certain sack; then, as the pressure gathered to his right-side rollout, he pivoted in reverse and started scrambling left.

He made one more pass-rusher miss as he got outside the left hash, then stopped and turned his body back so he could see downfield.

Wide open about 25 yards down the right side of the field was Broncos receiver Vance Johnson. Only Elway was way over there on the left side, behind the line of scrimmage. No problem. Elway planted on that strong, muscular trunk of his and rifledI mean, threw a high-velocity laserto Johnson, who caught it for a big gain.

To me, the scramble left and fastball thrown clear across to the far-right quadrant of the field was Elways skill set personified.

John comes in to throw in this rookie minicamp, said Broncos line-backer Tom Jackson, who was nearing the end of his playing career in 1983. And a bunch of us [veterans] go to watch. And John Elway starts throwing the ball. And we watched him throw for about ten minutes. Ask Billy what I said to him. Hopefully hell remember.

T.J. turns to me and says, Were going to be going to some Super Bowls, said Broncos safety Billy Thompson, who had been retired as a player by then but was still around.

I was smart enough to understand what I was looking at, Jackson said.

The Broncos went to five Super Bowls with Elway as their quarterback, a record at the time, although since broken by New Englands Tom Brady. But while Brady went to seven Super Bowls, winning five, with one coach, Bill Belichick, Elway went to three Big Games with the conservative-minded, if offensive-sophisticated Dan Reeves, and two more with the offensive Mastermind, Mike Shanahan.