Transcript

Bourbon, Broncos & No B.S. Broncos Then vs. Now — Franchise History, Barrel Man & the Off-Season Countdown Episode Transcript Kevin: Hit the button. Hit the button. Hello, Broncos Country, and welcome to another edition of Bourbon, Broncos & No B.S. It's an off-season, and off-season mistakes happen — such as forgetting to reset the intro video. I'm glad that I recognized it, however, Mr. Adam, because otherwise there probably would've been, I don't know, five, ten seconds of just empty blank space. But yeah, no intro video tonight, apparently. We'll give that back to you next week. Adam: We're gonna do it live. Kevin: We'll do it live. Adam: We're doing it live. Kevin: Adam, my man, you're with me here once again. It's gonna be great, as always. And tonight, sir, we are gonna be talking about Broncos history — doing a little bit of Broncos then versus Broncos now. Because next week, when we do Broncos now on Tuesday night, it will be the eve of training camp starting for the Broncos. So how you doing, and what you thinking? Adam: I'm doing good, man. Just kinda counting down the days until we have some relevant football going on daily. Can you think about it, really? It's, like, the first part of July, but you're gonna have training camp start here in ten days. That's crazy. And then we can talk about position battles and who's coming back, who's really put their name in the hat to be on this team, and maybe who's taking a giant step back. Either way, it's football conversation. We can stop speculating and guessing about the million and one things that are out there, and we can actually start talking some hard, concrete Bronco football, which is always a good time. So I'm happy. I'm excited. Kevin: Dude, there's gonna be a lot of good things coming out, and hopefully a lot more of, "Hey, this guy is stepping up, and that guy is stepping up." But there's probably gonna be one or two, at least, of somebody taking some sort of step backwards, like you were saying, that we're gonna have to cover. It's gonna be interesting, guys, and there's gonna be a lot of information coming out daily, so you're gonna wanna make sure you tune in here Tuesday night, every single week, at 7:00 PM Mountain Time, as we break down all the new information and get you all the correct information — so you don't have to worry about that clickbait crap. But with that being said, a little preview for next week, guys: you're gonna wanna make sure to be there for us to really start ramping up into training camp. Tonight, as I said, we are gonna be focusing on Broncos history — looking back at the Broncos then, everything from their very humble beginnings. I've tried to pull together about 20 facts or so of different things that you may not know about your favorite team. This is a good time to get in on it, before it's time to start focusing on this year's team and see what kind of history this year's team is gonna make. So Adam, are you ready for the first one, buddy? Adam: I am. I'm Mr. Useless Factoid, so I'm actually really excited with some of these questions to see if I can get some of these myself. So yes, I'm excited to go. Kevin: I like it. Well, for everyone else out there, post your comments, post your questions as we go through these. If you have some interesting Broncos history facts, post them there as well. We'd love to hear them, because I only grabbed a few, but there are a lot. I got a whole book here of a hundred things Broncos fans should know. They didn't come from that book, but they're in there somewhere, I'm sure. But let's go all the way back to the very, very beginning — before the beginning, Adam. Adam: Before the beginning. Kevin: A lot of people know about the Broncos' initial uniforms and the initial stadium — we'll get into that in a second. But who bought the Broncos? Any idea? Adam: So I know the origins of the team — actually, this was, like, a precursor, because Denver itself wanted a Major League Baseball team, and so this was the baby step before they got the baseball team, funny enough. I could tell you the coach. I can't tell you who the first owners were. I cannot tell you that. Kevin: Yep. So you actually covered a good deal of things in that already. The franchise was founded on August 14th, 1959, when minor league baseball owner Bob Howsam was awarded an AFL charter franchise. Now, this was different than any other AFL owner at the time, in that Howsam was not wealthy. So this was bought on the cheap. But just like you said, this was something to start getting interest in sports in general in Denver, and eventually lead to that baseball team being a pro baseball team in Denver — which is why the Broncos played at a baseball stadium to begin with. And do you remember what that stadium was called? Adam: The original name of the stadium was Bears Stadium. Kevin: Yes, it was — Bears Stadium. All the way back, the original Broncos stadium before Mile High. So, interesting thing, though — I think we all know the name "Denver Broncos" came from a naming contest. And I kinda wanna ask you, Adam: if you were back then in 1959 and you got to submit a name for a new football team, is there any idea off the top of your head of something that would be a little cool? Something fun. Adam: Man. What would be a cool name? They also had a naming contest for the Avalanche, and some of the names for the Avalanche were kinda cool. They always tried to make it synonymous with the state, so I'm gonna say Rockies were gonna be in there at some point. Maybe like a western theme, so like a Bandits or something like that. Kevin: There you go. I wouldn't be surprised — and I'm kinda interested; I never really found anything on other name entries. I'm sure it's out there, and if I searched harder I could probably find it. But I wouldn't be surprised if things like Bigfoot, or something regarding the miners, or mountain men — just something personifying a tough team, right? 'Cause that's what football is. I think Rockies and things of that nature obviously would fit in there, but I've always just been curious what I would've suggested for the team name before they were the Broncos. Ooh, here's one — maybe another common one, but we'll see. The Broncos won or lost their very first game — and who did they play? Adam: That was a win. And I believe they beat the Boston Patriots at the time. Kevin: The Boston Patriots. It was the AFL's inaugural regular-season contest, on September 9th, 1960. So look — as Gary says, the Broncos might have been bought on the cheap, but definitely not Adam's razor, 'cause dude, you are cutting it up tonight with some of these. You're on a roll. I'm asking you questions and you're like, "Boom, I know this." Adam: But like I said, man, I love useless factoids. Could you ask me anything about algebra? Could you ask me to find y? No. Why do you even need to find y? Kevin: That's the question. Dude, why? Why do you want to know? Adam: Why do I wanna solve for y? Have no idea. But who was the first opponent for the Denver Broncos? Oh, well, that was this, and da, da, da. That's how my brain works. It's a scary place to look into. I'm sorry. Kevin: For sure, man. No, I get it. I'm right there with you. You and I are not too different, that's for sure. Let's see — the Broncos, after beginning in 1960, struggled for a while. Any idea how many seasons it took for the Broncos to have a winning record? Adam: Dude, that one's gonna be tricky. I know they were not very good at first. I wanna say the first season was, like, 4-9, or 4-9-1 or something like that. So I'm gonna say — and this is gonna be just a guess — I'm gonna say '75 is their first winning season. Kevin: So it took 13 years. You were close. Adam: Oh, wow. Kevin: Yeah. You guessed 15, so it took 13 seasons for the Broncos to finally have a winning record. Fantastic guess. Looking back here through the season log, that was back in 1973 — 7-5-2 was the record for the Broncos to get their first winning season. And the head coach at the time in 1973 — any idea who that was? Adam: Would that be Red Miller at that point? Kevin: No, you're real close — it was the guy before Red Miller. Adam: Was it the guy that — Kevin: A gentleman named John Ralston. Adam: John Ral— Kevin: You may have never heard this guy's name before, but head coach John Ralston was the head coach for the Broncos when they got their very first winning season. And guys, I just wanna show you some of the information that I'm pulling up now. I have some of these facts researched from before, but as I'm talking to you, looking for where some of this information is — you just gotta go to our website, guys. Head on over to BroncosAndBourbon.com and sign up for $1, one time. Head on over to the Huddle section. You got a whole franchise history section here — a list of head coaches, timeline, all-time records, Super Bowl information, the story of the franchise we put together. Guys, if you wanna know more about your team, head on over here. But yeah — who would've known this guy, John Ralston, was the first winning Broncos head coach? Adam: I know the name John Ralston. I just didn't think about it quick enough to realize he'd be the coach before Red Miller — Red Miller, obviously, of the '77 Broncos, which kinda jumpstarts everything from there. If the Broncos were, like, a History Channel show, the first 15 seasons there's a lot of filler in there. There's a lot of "Oh, they had a couple guys that were okay," but for the most part they were pretty bad. But John Ralston was kind of the coach that had some of these first guys on the team that segued into that '77 season. Kevin: I love it, man. It's just the things you don't know, right? It doesn't sound like 1960 was that long ago, but when you start looking through the history, you're like, "This was a totally different world in so many ways." So we talked about how long it took them to get to a winning season. How about how many years it took them to get to their first playoff game? Adam: I'll go with the '77 team and have that be the first playoff team, where they beat Pittsburgh in their first playoff game. Kevin: Boom. Dude, look at you go. I love it. Beating the Steelers 34 to 21 on Christmas Eve for the franchise's first playoff win. Talk about merry freaking Christmas. Not only was it a fan base that had been waiting 18 years to see their team play in the playoffs, but they won on Christmas Eve. I don't need anything else from Santa at that point, dude. Adam: I know, right? I think Mike had something in the comment section about another obscure factoid that most people should know: Al Bundy, Polk High legend, once scored four touchdowns in a game. I remember that. I do remember that. Kevin: That is fascinating. That is absolutely fascinating. You just don't hear about those kind of things nowadays, you know? Adam: Nobody talks about Al Bundy anymore. Al Bundy could tote the rock, man. Kevin: Oh, exactly. Adam: Come on. Put some respect on Al Bundy's name. Kevin: Absolutely love it. Hey, everybody who's joined us so far tonight — Mike, Jose, James, Anthony — guys, you are fantastic. Everybody else in here that I haven't named off yet: we are just doing some Broncos fun history factoids tonight to wrap up the end of the postseason. Next Tuesday night, guys, at 7:00 PM Mountain Time, we'll be live — because that's what you do at 7:00 PM Mountain Time on a Tuesday night. You join us, we go live, I hit the button, and the magic happens. But we will be doing a full preview, basically starting to get down to the nuts and bolts of training camp, with the rookies reporting on Wednesday the 22nd. So a week from tomorrow, guys, we are gonna be talking about the future of the team. We figured it'd be good to sit back and have one more relaxing show, just looking back at everything the Broncos have done. Just like Michael did — if you have any interesting or fun factoids about the Broncos at all, put them in the comments. Let's share them. Even if it's just fun memories, things that may not be important to the rest of Broncos Country, but you're like, "This was something that hooked me as a fan," or "Something I just absolutely love about this team that nobody else cares about, but I love it" — I wanna hear about it. So put it in the comments, guys, and we'll see what you've got. Let's move on to the next one. I think we all know this man. We might have seen images of him around from time to time. Kevin: He went by the name of Barrel Man — the first Broncos super fan, and somebody I look up to. I never knew him; I wish I had. Sounds like he was a great guy. I wish I was a super fan the way he was, because that man was amazing in doing what he did. But I don't know if many of us know what started it. Did he just show up one day and decide, "I'm gonna wear a barrel to every single game"? Or, Adam, do you know the story of what began the Barrel thing? Adam: I am actually not super familiar. This will be an educational thing for me, because I am not up to speed on the origins of Barrel Man. Kevin: Well, don't worry, I got you covered. Adam: All right, spill the deets. Kevin: Ten dollars. Adam: Ooh. Kevin: Ten dollars, man. A ten-dollar bet that super fan Tim McKernan would go to the game in 1977. This was a bet from his brother, who said, "You wouldn't have the guts." I absolutely love that dude. If that barrel goes missing one day and I suddenly go, "Oh, look what I found online" — I bought it. I didn't steal it. But this was a bet from his brother to say, "I don't think you have the guts to wear this on TV." He painted it orange to look like an Orange Crush can, and really from there, it was a one-time bet. He didn't have to do it again, and yet he decided it doesn't matter if it's 100 degrees out there or if it's zero degrees, sleeting and snowing and windy and whatever — he was gonna be out there in just his barrel. And this guy was also — I'll just say it's not even a question. I think everybody knows this, and if you don't, it's pretty obvious by this point of my description of him. He was the very first Broncos fan inducted into the Hall of Fans at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Do you know what year that happened, Adam? Adam: I guess not fairly recently, but I will say 2002. Kevin: Close. 1999. Adam: Ah, see, I knew it was around there somewhere. I think I even saw Barrel Man out and about one time. Kevin: What? Adam: Not like — I mean, I saw him at a game, not like he was doing his grocery shopping. But I saw Barrel Man, and at that point I think he was just making special appearances. Probably one of the coolest, nicest guys ever — very accommodating with his time, just shaking people's hands. This is before cell phones, so it's not like anybody could just take a video of it. Again, yes, I am dating myself a little bit. But I distinctly remember seeing Barrel Man. It might have been because the Broncos used to have an event where you could bring your kiddos and take pictures with certain Broncos players. I have a picture taken as a little tyke with Gary Kubiak, when Kubiak was the backup quarterback. I have a picture with Rich Karlis — the guy who kicked the field goals with the bare foot. And apparently this was something they had for years. I don't know if I saw him there or wherever the case may be. But maybe we'll put that on the website, and I'll put some embarrassing pictures of me as baby Adam with some notable Broncos players of yesterday. Kevin: You know, I might join you in that. If you go ahead and do that, you won't be alone. I'll pull up some of mine and help you out. I'd love it. Adam: Yeah, there we go. Kevin: Dude, great stories — and some of the comments here. First off, Clayton: "Always glad to see you here," he says, as he always does. Smash that like button and share, guys. We appreciate all of your support. And Clayton, always good to see you here in the chat, man. Let's see — "Great day to top off a hot day at work." Dude, anything we can do to help your day be a little bit better, that's what we're here for. Mike says, "A little-known fact: first time I ever got drunk was at the Broncos-Giants Super Bowl." And I would imagine that every Broncos fan was at least wanting to drink by the end of that. Adam: I don't blame you. Yeah, I don't blame you for that one. Let's see — I was, uh, this would've been '86, '87, so I was a wee tyke at that point. There'd be CPS involved if I was given alcohol at that age by any responsible adult. Yeah, I don't remember that one. Kevin: Super Bowl XXI. Broncos lost 39 to 20. Denver led at the half, 10 to 9, before the Giants exploded in the second half. Phil Simms was nearly perfect. I believe there was something with him going into that game — like, not just the normal storyline. Anyway, I could be wrong, but he was nearly perfect: completed 22 of 25 passes. Adam: I think he only had one incomplete — I think he went, like, 21 of 22, only had one incompletion for the day. Kevin: Yep. So again, looking at the website, guys — BroncosAndBourbon.com for that information. Let's see — Clayton says, "This year will be 30 years as a Broncos fan." Congratulations, man, on turning the big 3-0, because who cares about your birthday? It only matters whether you've been a Broncos fan. Adam: That's all we care about. That's really all we care about. Kevin: That's all we care about. Clayton, giveaways to spice things up — wasn't planning one tonight, but if not tonight, then maybe we'll do one next week as a kickoff-to-training-camp kind of celebration for successfully making it through the off-season. I think I said pre-season earlier, but whatever it is, we're gonna celebrate the end of it and get ready for training camp. So tune in next week — might have a prize from the shop on our page to give away to one of you guys. James, with one of his favorite memories of the Broncos: when Shannon Sharpe ran over to that red phone and called up the National Guard. "We're killing it. We need the National Guard, Mr. President. We're killing them out there." Playing the Patriots, man — talk about classic Shannon Sharpe. Adam: Shannon being the talker that he was — I loved when you'd see those Super Bowl specials where they talked about the '97 and '98 teams, and how everybody talked about Shannon Sharpe just being a complete motormouth, and how people would tell him, "Shannon, shut up. Shannon, shut up." You go through the line — John Elway's like, "Yeah, we told Shannon to shut up all the time." And then TD's like, "Yeah, you had to tell him to shut up," 'cause he just would talk all the time. And then Schlereth comes on and he's like, "Shannon, shut up. Just shut up, man." Kevin: Sounds like Schlereth, yeah. Adam: So yeah — obviously he's parlayed that into a second career as a personality now. But it's hard to believe he started off as a Denver Broncos tight end and was mimicking calling the National Guard because of how bad they were beating the Patriots — basically just to troll the Foxboro faithful that were there. That was awesome. Kevin: Well, and as you think about it, it was in a day where the idea of getting something on for a clip didn't exist, right? You had maybe some highlights during that time, but they were more of the game. You don't really see anything of players doing things on the sidelines — at least not in a common way back then. So just to capture that moment of him being himself and being goofy, and getting that line that is now a clip Broncos Country knows — if you know about the Broncos, you've seen that clip at least once somewhere. And dude, yeah, that guy. Absolutely love it. Last little thing here, man, before we do some closing thoughts. There are some ashes spread in the middle of the field at, at least, the current Mile High Stadium. Any idea whose they are? Adam: Oh, man. I am legitimately stumped. I don't know what that could be. Kevin: You're gonna feel real silly when I say the answer. Adam: Is it Mr. Bowlen? Is it Mr. Bowlen? Kevin: No. Adam: No, it's not Mr. Bowlen. Kevin: You would think — that actually would make a lot of sense. But no, that did not occur. It is, in fact, Tim McKernan, the Barrel Man. Adam: Oh. That would make sense. Kevin: His ashes were spread at midfield there, at Invesco Field, and the Broncos won big the very next day. So, Barrel Man. And to think about it — we honor guys like Demaryius Thomas, and the Broncos come back in major, historic fashion to win a game. Just saying, I think the Broncos might be getting some help from time to time from some of their big names. Adam: Hey — you know what, man? It's only crazy if it doesn't work. Okay? And I will say this: I've been to other stadiums, and I can tell you there's something about Mile High. There's just something about it. I don't know what it is. There's something about this franchise — I can't explain it — but sometimes I think other things come into play whenever Denver is playing on Sunday. So I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Kevin: No, it's not just you, man. I think they call it Mile High Magic for a reason. Okay — a couple of these comments here. First off, Bronco Boy. Dude, I don't think I've seen you in the comments before. Thank you for tuning in. Appreciate you sharing your memory here: "C.J. Anderson game-winning touchdown in 2015 versus the Pats in overtime." Adam, dude, I was — you wanna call it — deployed to Japan at that time. It was more like a work-and-vacation. It was nice. Based off the time difference, we were working during that game. They had to stop the briefing that was going on next door, because I was uncontrollable. I could not be contained. I was too loud watching that game. They had to put everything on pause for a little bit to find out who sounds like they're dying in the next room. Adam: Who's going into cardiac arrest in the next room? Kevin: 'Twas me. 'Twas Kevdan. Adam: Yeah, C.J. Anderson basically calling game. I got to actually be at that game. Kevin: No you didn't. Shut up. Adam: Yes, I did. Got to see it live. New England was undefeated coming into that game. I think Denver had only lost twice. But this was Sunday Night Football — it had a big-fight feeling. And Denver had to rally twice to win that game behind the Wizard of Oz, the Brockness Monster: Brock Osweiler. That's a name to bring back. Ozzie was the quarterback, C.J. Anderson had the game-winning touchdown. That 2015 season — that was the time and the moment where I really felt like, "Okay, this is gonna be a special year. I don't know where we're gonna end up. I don't know if that means a championship or a deep playoff run or whatever." But I was right, because that ended up being a very special season that ended with the Super Bowl win. I think that was honestly kind of the jumping-off point. Kevin: Well, at that point we had done everything. We had beaten the undefeated Raiders. We were doing well in the conference. We won without Peyton Manning against the Patriots, right? We had checked all of the boxes. So it only made sense for people at that point to be like, "One way or another, this is a season we're gonna look back on fondly." Adam: Absolutely. Kevin: And it just ended in the best way possible. Let's see — a couple comments going back. Guys, get these in. Jose says, "John Elway, the best Broncos quarterback — 1997, 1998, 1999. He was the best Broncos quarterback of his generation." I don't think — I mean, it's hard to argue with that, dude. You look at what he did, especially being a back-to-back Super Bowl champion. How many quarterbacks in NFL history can say they've won back-to-back championships? It's literally — is it three? Two? Adam: Off the top of my head, you'd have to put Aikman in there. Maybe Bradshaw, Brady. It's not a big list. Kevin: Okay — Aikman, Brady, Bradshaw. I'm gonna say it's, like, ten or less, easily. But you're talking about the NFL being around for so long, dude — yeah, it is something special. So Jose, I'm right there with you, man. Let's see — Michael says, "I think Barrel Man should get an honorable mention at the Ring of Honor." Well, he already has his own mascot that shows up at every game. And if you guys didn't know, during the second quarter of every home game, during one of the intermissions, they have a whole Barrel Man Challenge with three contestants — fans from the stands. Three contestants have to rush down, throw on boots, then go throw on the barrel, and then run down and throw on the hat, and cross the finish line. For people who may be selected for this, I've seen enough of them to know the strategy. I've seen the strategy that wins every time, and I'm gonna tell you, just so you have the one up. You throw the boots on, realize you're gonna have to waddle — 'cause they're gonna wanna fall off, they're really big, so you're gonna have to manage that. But the key here is putting the barrel on over your head as you continue to move forward. 98% of the time, the people that lose stand in place while they try to put that weird barrel on. So anyway, I'm just throwing it out there. If you ever get selected, just remember Kevdan said, "Keep moving when I put the barrel on, and I have to give him half of the prize money." Adam: What Kev is really saying is that he is lobbying hard to be part of the Barrel Man Challenge at some point in his lifetime. Kevin: Right. I think I just killed any chance I had, though. Because if the Broncos saw this, they'd be like, "We're not selecting him." Adam: Especially if they think you're gaming the system a little bit. Maybe there's rules — Kevin: I'm not gaming the system. I've just seen the winning strategy, and that's how you gotta do it. Adam: Maybe there's very strict protocols on movement as you're putting it on. I don't know. Kevin: It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Adam: Fair. That's fair. Kevin: Anyway, Adam, sir — let's do some closing thoughts, buddy. We had lots of good facts tonight, just really good history. Guys, go check out the history page on the website, BroncosAndBourbon.com. Again, it's $1 to sign up now — a one-time, lifetime purchase for $1 to get you free access to everything on the website forever. This is the time to do it. Now it's only a dollar; don't miss out before it jumps up to $5 at the very start of the season. But with that being said, Adam, fun stuff tonight, man. What are your thoughts or your takeaways as we head into this last week without any Broncos football going on at all? Adam: So I get to go to a couple games a year, so I've seen a fair amount of Broncos football — and it's not to brag. One of my favorite games I've ever gone to was the Demaryius Thomas game. That's all you need to say, because that's all anybody knows it by. But it's also important to set up that day, because the week before, Denver had actually lost to Kansas City, and it was the Raiders who were in first place, and we needed the Raiders to lose in order to back our way into the playoffs. So we were actually just one loss away from not even being in that moment. And the vibe leaving the stadium after that Kansas City loss versus the vibe going into the stadium for that playoff game — it was like, "That's what I'm talking about." There was just this weird energy, and we're walking to the stadium, and even though common sense would tell you we're gonna get shellacked by Pittsburgh, there was just something in the air that was like, "No, today's gonna be a good day. Today's gonna be a good day." And just the back-and-forth of it the entire time. And I'll never forget, when we went into overtime, they had to explain the new overtime rules — it's not sudden death anymore, each team gets a possession. So the guy behind us is like, "What are you talking about? It's not sudden death anymore?" I'm like, "I don't know, man. They changed it." He is furious. He's like, "I hate this. This is stupid. We're gonna lose this game." And of course, first play of overtime, DT takes it back. So me and my brother look back at him and go, "What do you think?" And he's just gasping. Random strangers are hugging each other. One of the coolest moments, in my personal experience going to Bronco games. Just an all-around great day. So that is my final thought — one of the coolest moments I've had as a Bronco fan. Kevin: I love it. There's so many good stories, and it's so cool that you got to go to some of those, man. I'm jealous. I know I am. Let's see — Bronco Boy, that's a good question. I'm gonna say come back to the show next week, because we will be talking about Waddle, and about what we're expecting to see from him in training camp — what we need to see to feel like he's good and ready to go for the season. There's been talk that this is a complicated system, a complicated playbook, and we need him to be productive on game one. So there's definitely gonna be a lot of that. Come back next week and we'll have plenty of time to break that down. I do wanna get to the comment here from Ace Boogie — which, first off, your name, Ace Boogie, is phenomenal. I love that. It makes me wanna dance just sitting here. "John Elway carried the Broncos to three Super Bowl appearances in his first eight seasons, the so-called best quarterback in the NFL. Currently, Josh Allen hasn't been to one Super Bowl in his first eight seasons." And let's add on to that — that the supposed number-one quarterback in the NFL lost in the playoffs to the supposedly 18th-ranked quarterback in Bo Nix. Dude, yeah — he's spitting facts, and I just added another one onto the end of it for an extra punch. Adam: And you're right — the feud between Bills Mafia and Kevdan has another chapter written in it. So, Boogie — I'm gonna call you Boogie. Kevin: I like it. Adam: Thank you for lobbing that softball to Kevdan so he could just knock it out of the park. Kevin: Loved it. Loved it. Adam: Boom. Kevin: Fist bump to you too, buddy. Okay, guys — as we close up the show here, I'll give you my favorite Broncos memory real quick. I wanted to see Peyton Manning the year of Super Bowl 50, 'cause we all knew that was his final ride, right? Everyone knew, even though we were hoping that wasn't the case. Coming back from that quote-unquote "deployment" in Japan, I had tickets earlier in the year. We were gonna go see the Broncos play Cincinnati. Well, Peyton Manning goes down, and we're like, "Oh, we hope he comes back in time for the game," and he was supposed to. Everything all week long was that he looks ready to go, he's practicing again, and we're expecting to see Peyton Manning play in this game — and he doesn't. But it was made up to us by seeing the Broncos win, led by Brock Osweiler, and we were in the end zone where they got the overtime kick to win the game. That was, like, the second-to-last game of the season, 'cause the next week we played the Chargers, and that's where Peyton Manning came back out at halftime with everybody shouting, "The Sheriff." And I sat there like, "Why couldn't I be at that game?" But I wasn't. Anyway, dude — it's fun. We all have our own favorite memories, our own favorite history facts. It's great stuff. But I do wanna end with this, guys. First off, to everybody in the comments — the people who have been here a hundred times before, to the people here for the first time tonight — appreciate all of your support. I wanna remind you: we are live every single Tuesday night at 7:00 PM Mountain Time, all year long. As we get closer to the start of preseason, we'll start letting you know about our full season lineup, which includes a post-game podcast, a Tuesday night show, pre-game podcast, pre-game live show, and halftime show. We've got articles on the website. There's a game-day chat on the website. There's the podcast, so you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all these different things for you. It's gonna be ramping up here really soon as we get close to the start of preseason. So if you're just joining us now for the first time, this is the time to get in on it and get excited as we head into our 11th season of covering the Denver Broncos. Adam, this is your number three? Adam: This is three. Kevin: Three. Yeah. Adam: I'm starting to get some years under my belt. I like it. Kevin: You're getting some cred. Things starting to accumulate, man. Adam: Yeah. Kevin: I love it. Okay — while, yes, I might be old enough to remember the old leather helmets they used to wear back in the good old days of football — Adam: When men were men. Kevin: — where men were men, yes. But because that was so long ago, it is almost my bedtime, so we're gonna have to go here, unfortunately. No, but seriously, guys — next Tuesday night we're back for actual talk of what's going on with the Broncos today, heading into training camp, where the rubber hits the road, pedal to the metal, whatever phrase you wanna use — things get real. So Adam, dude, you've been great as always, man. Definitely appreciate it. And congrats — your Broncos history knowledge, phenomenal. Good stuff tonight, dude. Adam: Well, I am a history nerd, and I am also a Broncos nerd. So I'm glad tonight's show really lined up with my interests. Kevin: Sure did, man. Okay, guys — with that being said, thank you again for tuning in. Make sure you hit like, share, subscribe. Hit that share button for us. Go over to the website, sign up for $1, one time. That's it. You don't wanna wait until it becomes a subscription thing. Get over there now and access all the fun stuff we have at BroncosAndBourbon.com. Okay — that being said, Adam, I got nothing left to say other than to close, as we always do, with a very strong: go Broncos. Adam: Let's go Broncos. Kevin: Awesome. Take care, everyone. We'll see you later. Outro Song: Do what I like. Yeah, I do what I like. Yeah, I do what I like. Sipping Goose if it's right. Let's go. And I go with the flow. Yeah, I go with the flow. Yeah, I go with the flow. 'Cause I know I'm the show. Let's fight. In the zone, here I go. In the zone, here I go. In the zone, here I go. Yeah, they know I'm a pro. Pro, pro, pro. Let's go, let's go.