"This One's For John" - words spoken 12 years ago today. via Denver Post

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We've all heard the saying - Nothing beats the first time.  For the Denver Broncos, people remember the 1977 Orange Crush team, as much for the suffocating defense as it was for the team's first AFC Championship and Super Bowl Appearance.  The Broncos lost that game, to the Dallas Cowboys, but for many the feeling was one of being happy to be there, happy to have gone for the ride.

John Elway arrived in 1983, and three more Super Bowl appearances soon followed.  All ended in losses, and none as special as that first trip.

The Broncos and their fans needed another first time - they needed to win the Super Bowl.  That finally happened on January 25, 1998 - 12 years ago today - when the Broncos beat Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers 31-24.  It was the first World Championship for the Broncos, the first time we heard the immortal words, "This One's For John".

The play of the game, and in many ways the play that epitomizes the greatness of Elway, is the 'Helicoptor Play'.  The dive by Elway for a first down.

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Welcome back to a long overdue Broncos History post. Over the past year or so I have been running a Forgotten Broncos series of posts and lately I've been using it to profile Ring of Fame players. I've decided to stop doing that, at least for players in the Ring of Fame. Instead, I've changed my titling to reflect the proper respect for a player already honored in the hallowed Ring of Fame.

I will still run the Forgotten Broncos posts occasionally, but they will actually be "forgotten" players. For now, however, I am focused on completing my Ring of Fame project, which I hope to unveil sometime next offseason. The final product will be a fitting tribute to the greatest athletes ever to don an Orange & Blue (or mustard yellow & brown...) uniform.

I have made my way up to the Class of 1988 and today I will be profiling Craig Morton, who was quarterback for the Denver Broncos from 1977-1982.  He also led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance and helped solidify the Broncos' place among the NFL's elite organizations.

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The 2009 NFL season marks the 50th anniversary of the Denver Broncos. To commemorate the past while embracing the future, the franchise has allowed its community of fans, an integral part of Broncos Country during the first 50 seasons, the chance to vote for their 50th Anniversary Denver Broncos Team.

From June 6 - Sept. 4, fans had the chance to make their voices heard by casting their votes online at www.DenverBroncos.com. The results are in, and here are the choices:

First-team Offense

QB John Elway

RB Terrell Davis

RB Floyd Little

WR Ed McCaffrey

WR Rod Smith

TE Shannon Sharpe

OT Matt Lepsis

OT Gary Zimmerman

G Keith Bishop

G Mark Schlereth

C Tom Nalen

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Now I know when I do these posts that many of these guys are not truly forgotten, but there is a method to my madness.  I am obsessed with the Ring of Fame right now and my goal is to profile every single Ring of Fame member; culminating with a page dedicated to the entire Ring of Fame.  This project is well into its second year and my hope is to have it completed by next reloading season.

So for now, you will have to endure another biography of a less than forgotten Bronco great.  Haven Moses. 

When Lionel Taylor left the team in the late 60's, there appeared to be a void at a position that could only be filled when Floyd Little rolled out into the flat to catch the ball and make great plays for an otherwise horrible offensive team.  Drafted in he first round by the Buffalo Bills in 1968, Moses would end up in Denver midway through the 1972 season and play there until his retirement in 1981.

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There is much angst in Broncoland about the apparent snubbing of Bronco greats in the Hall of Fame. There are charges of East Coast Bias or conspiracy against the Denver Broncos in general. There is even tremendous infighting amongst ourselves on which Broncos deserve this honor and which just weren't good enough.

The problem is, we are so starved for Hall of Fame recognition that we are willing to sell our own great players short by including very good players in the same breath. The Hall of Fame should be reserved for the truly All-Time greats alone, and for this reason I agree with those who say the Hall of Fame is called the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Very Good. As fans we must ensure that we uphold the tenets of the sport above all else, even our own homerish bias towards Bronco players.

That said, we must also not sell ourselves short in any way. I have seen many fans be too stingy in their reservation for which Bronco greats are Hall of Fame worthy. There must be a balance. I offer my own system for categorizing Bronco greats in lieu of my own bias opinions. My system integrates an honest unbiased look at each players contribution to the game which include stats, championships, impact on the team and sport, and quality of character. Those who actually have the votes do not necessarily look at these things, but I feel these attributes display the kind of qualities and characteristics necessary for any player to be considered an all-time great.

For the all-time Bronco greats, I have broken these players into three tiers. The first tier I simply call, Insults. The reason for that is that their not being in the Hall of Fame is a direct slap in the face of all Bronco fans and the entire sport in general.

The second tier I call, Deserving. Meaning their total embodiment of work more than warrants a vote into the Hall of Fame. By them not being in does not necessarily mean it is insulting, but there should be no reason for them not getting into the Hall in the future.  These players, if not voted in, would eventually make it into the "Insults" tier.

The third tier is the Good but not Great. This appears to be insulting, but what I really mean by it is that these players were very good. Though I do not believe they were quite good enough to be considered an all-time great. So when fans put their names up for Hall of Fame snubs, what those fans are really doing is selling the guys in the first two tiers short and thereby hurting the chances they have at receiving the necessary votes to be inducted. 

I will now put our Bronco greats into each tier and explain why I think they belong where I put them.

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Or, Golf and the Gridiron

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In the game of professional football, being a quarterback, running back or a wide receiver is very much akin to baseball: You try to accumulate stats.  You could say that a 5-yard run is like a single. Pulling in a pass for a 1st down is kind of like a double. A 35-yard play is a triple for all involved and if it breaks an invisible plane, it's a home run. Increasing your stats is a positive. The quarterback even accumulates the ultimate stat - wins and losses. No other player has this ability and in many ways it emphasizes the way that we have chosen to portray and perceive this position.

If you're an offensive lineman, much like those who play golf, your purpose is to have the score of your statistics be as low as possible. No penalties. No sacks. No mistakes. The trained lineman, perhaps especially the left tackle, is one who excels by being invisible. Also much like a golfer, the game for a lineman is greatly about your hands and your feet.

The game of golf idolizes the grip. The position of the hands, the movement of the arms, the shift of the weight as one follows the course of the ‘play' - this case, of course, it is the shot, the swing - will inevitably precede the way one will play the game and whether or not one will win. One swing follows the next, leading the golfer across the landscape of the course with precision.

The positioning of the hands is equally central to the left tackle. The violent punch and the tight grip are the basic tools for controlling the power of the defensive lineman, the blitzing linebacker. The ability to maintain one's center in terms of the weight is essential. The feet also move, sifting the weight smoothing but constantly  Only, for the tackle the feet must move swiftly yet in constant but very small steps.

In both sports, there is an art to movement, an almost mystical collaboration of all the parts of the body, forging them into a singularity of power. One needs to be able to move with the grace of a ballerina and yet hit with the force of a martial artist. But the left tackle needs long arms, wide hips, height, weight and a powerful upper body to fight with, a powerful lower body with which to anchor. Golfers come in all shapes and sizes.

The left tackle at the hightest level chooses to see the onrushing power of the defender as a gift. He turns it aside, letting it flow past the course of the play, or he reaches out and pulls it to himself, always keeping the gift of it's energy for himself. He knows how to lock himself into it this time, thrust it away, breaking the rush on one play on the next. His feet never stop moving until the key moment is past, the ball released or the ball carrier away.

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Back on the Ring of Fame trail again this week as we take a look at the sole player honored in the Class of 1987.  While I don't think this former Bronco is quite Hall of Fame-worthy, he still makes my All-Time Broncos team as a Safety - just edging out Dennis Smith.

Billy Thompson was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 1969 draft.  He would play his entire thirteen-year career in Denver and become an instrumental part of the long, arduous journey the franchise made from laughingstock to championship stock.

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Yet another Ring of Fame class has been completed. The Class of 1986 was an important one as we honored three men who each played a significant role in shaping the identities of their respective teams. They may not have been the best Broncos ever to don a uniform or even close to being Hall of Fame-worthy, but those things don't matter when it comes to the impact on Broncos history each had.

The first two years since Pat Bowlen instituted the Ring of Fame, the Broncos inducted four of the greatest Broncos Legends of our early history, as well as an owner who stepped in to keep the Broncos in Denver back in the 1960's. 1986 became the Class that would honor the less-heralded Broncos whose impact may have been greater on the team's success during their times than the legends who were honored before them.

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