Sunday, October 6, was a blast from the past in a couple of important ways at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium. First, and most important for the Broncos faithful, Denver beat the mean right out of arch-rivals the Las Vegas Raiders for the first time in five very long years. Sure, it was a relatively even match-up, even if the Raiders were favored to take the game (a lazy prognostication, perhaps, but understandable based on Denver’s eight-game losing streak). Both teams went into the game 2-2; the Broncos coming out on top was a refreshing return to positive results, if not fully to form.
But the other remarkable return — okay, aside from Surtain’s 100-yard pick six, which turned around a game that was already looking a little like it could be Denver’s ninth loss to the Raiders — was pure visual: the classic Broncos uniforms.
No, not the original uniforms, that yellow-and-brown combo that inspired nothing but rightful derision. Instead, these were a throwback to the Orange Crush days, with the snorting horse centered in the helmet’s capital-D and the orange jerseys with the white pants and the orange and blue pinstripe. Everyone loved them. The crowd couldn’t stop talking about the unifofrms, and neither could the game-callers on Fox. They were clean and crisp against the green turf; they were, in a word, inspirational.
Part of that came from the heyday to which the uniforms could be traced: 1977 was a watershed for the Denver Broncos, the year they went 12-2 and made it to the Super Bowl. That didn’t turn out the way the Mile High crowd wanted, but the season overall was one for the books. Whenever a Defense earns its own name? You know it’s something special.
And something special was exactly what fans got again on Sunday. Who knows how much the divisional win against the Raiders was propelled by the throwback threads?
In the week leading up to the game, it was clear that the old uniforms had fans even on the new Broncos squad. Game VIP Pat Surtain III said he was bummed that the team was only wearing the old togs twice this season. “They’re tight,” he said. “I wish we could wear it more.”
Wide receiver Devaughn Vele and tight end Adam Trautman concurred, and Courtland Sutton declared his love for the old uniforms both before the game and after. After beating the Raiders, he walked off the field saying, “Big Broncos win, you feel me? Big win in the threads,” and then panned the camera down to the pinstripes on his legs. “Check me out, in the threads!”
Even Coach Sean Payton said that he loves the old uniforms. “It’s what I grew up watching,” he told reporters last week.
And that’s why these uniforms shouldn’t be just part-time. Nothing against the new outfits, but the Broncos are in a strong rebuilding season, and fans deserve all the pride the team can offer them. Wins are good; wins looking good on the field? Even better.
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“Nostalgia is sometimes a good thing,” says local superfan Dan March, who says that going back to the old uniforms would be a great idea as a gesture of respect — a Mile High salute, you might say — to all the long-time fans who were watching in 1977 and are still watching today. “I’d love to see them go back to those old uniforms. Or even a version of them.”
Maybe there’s something to that. Maybe there’s something to the idea that a simple helmet design — one that Sutton rightly called “good eye candy” in an interview last week — or some pinstripes running down a leg might inspire something positive for a team that’s been searching for a new way to win since the Peyton Manning era. It’s more than nostalgia — it’s a recapturing of an energy that’s been dormant in the Broncos for too long. And unlike drafting an established player to lead the team (nothing against Manning, but Denver does have to share his legacy with Indianapolis), this is all home-grown.
Like John Elway. And hopefully, like Bo Nix.
It’s more than just a throwback, more than just a don’t-fix-it-if-it-ain’t-broke thing, more than a way to honor some former Broncos being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and our own Ring of Fame. It’s a sign of continuity from one era to another, a commitment to winning…and doing it with some panache. Football is already a game with some superstition to it, both on the part of the players and the fans. Doing something for the sake of sheer luck? All part of the game.
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It’s time to bring back the 1977 uniforms. It’s time to coronate a new Orange Crush. It’s time for the Broncos to look like the Broncos of old, new again.
