Super Bowl 50 Champions: Denver Broncos - DVD / Blu-Ray No Bull Review

I know other fans I've talked to think the big brassy background music and constant slow-motion camera shots fall get a little over the top, but I love it. As a fan of the game I love the big moments slowed down and magnified in a way that lets me grasp the full power and impact of a big play. I love seeing the weeks unfold and the ups and downs the team goes though. If you like the drama and the storytelling of the NFL, you will enjoy this package a great deal.

Feature

Let's start off by saying what this is and what this is not. It is a storytelling feature that covers what happened for the Denver Broncos in the 2015 season starting with the signing of Manning and what he meant to the franchise and ending in the ultimate achievement for any NFL team: a Super Bowl championship.

This film is not an analytical breakdown at any level of what the Xs and Os of the team were. If you are looking for any kind of breakdown of offense, defense, or special teams, the most you will get from this is some basic stats along the way. I have always thought the NFL misses the boat with this, but if you can enjoy the ride for what it is, there is lot of value to be had.

Season Review

The serious storytelling of season starts with Kubiak joining Denver and a lot about what that meant. There's some very insightful snippets of him coaching in training camp that will help you to understand why he as a coach is a boon to this franchise and help you to understand his coaching style better.

Once the season starts, the film gets into a week by week review of each game showing the biggest highlight plays (mostly) and talking about the challenges, boons, and meaning of each game. Along the way you can get insights on why Ware is so valuable as a leader to this team by hearing what he tells his teammates on the sidelines. You also get to see a little of Von Miller motivating his brothers in the same way. CHJ's sideline talk right before a big play against the raiders was pretty darn prophetic and shows how great of a study he is at the game.

I really enjoyed that they made sure to touch on and show the big kicks that Brandon McManus made through the season. Seeing a week-to-week recap like this makes me appreciate his kicking much more as a fan of the game.

Also, a glimmer of leadership from Brock showed up in the Cincinnati game that NFL Films caught. It was refreshing to see from the young gentleman.

Playoffs

As this portion of the show starts, the directors for the film did a great job showing the passion on the field from all the players for Denver, Pittsburgh, and New England. You can see it on their faces so plainly how bad these players wanted to win. The emotions are palpable to watch and as a Bronco fan who absolutely revels in Denver Bronco playoff football, I was getting jacked up watching our team ball out in slow-mo as they scratched, kicked, and clawed for each win.

As a bonus, those of you who read my game reviews may recall me throwing a complete fit about Gronkowski's TD not having a flag for OPI. Watch this film. You will see from two angles in slow motion how Gronk completely shoved CHJ out of the way on the play and that TD never should have happened.

Super Bowl

There's so many great quotes from the video they got leading up to and during the game that mean so much to me as a fan of the Broncos. Suffice it to say the film does a great job of showing just how BAD this team wanted to win and how correctly they had their heads screwed on going into the game.

Petyon Manning, "...Remember three things: Breathe, have fun, and compete your asses off!"  I repeat it here for you, but watching the film and hearing the intensity he puts into this gives me chills. It's just perfect advice: stay frosty, enjoy this, and work hard.

Malik Jackson did a great job summing up Super Bowl 50: "No Fly Zone. No Run Zone. Nothin'!" The film really captures the fantastic play on the field by our team. It also highlights that the offense wasn't completely inept and made enough plays to be difference-makers.

Extras Highlights

No Fly Zone

One of the bonus features has a great interview with the Bronco "No Fly Zone": Chris Harris, Jr., Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward, and Darrian Stewart. There's great insight here on where the name came from, what this unit brings to the field, and the differences in character between these great players.

Players on Manning

If you are looking for some more nostalgia about what Peyton Manning means to the players, there's plenty here to enjoy. He meant a lot to football, to us fans, and to the players he took the field with. It really showed in the interviews.

Elway and Kubiak (Blu-Ray only)

For those fans who didn't get the pleasure of knowing John Elway and Gary Kubiak when they first joined the Broncos, this interview was a special treat. There's an inside story that is hilarious that shows the bond between Kubiak, Elway, and Shannahan dating back to when Dan Reeves was our coach. There's insight to their relationship that shows how special their bond is and what good hands the team is in today.

NFL Year in Sound (Blu-Ray only, 4 parts)

This feature is just flat out a good time. It is sound bites from the whole league. There's great music all throughout and I found myself laughing quite a bit at the big personalities of the NFL.

Summary

This film is a great time. I really enjoyed watching it with my family to relive the season (warning for parents of little ones: curse words are there, f-bombs are cut out, and subtitles have "..." in place of them). I can see myself popping this in when future seasons get bumpy as a reminder of what our team achieved, what it took to get there, and how my team were world champions in 2015.

Now for my favorite part: we have a handful of free copies to send to lucky Broncos fans. All you have to do is comment below, telling us why you deserve a copy (yeah lurkers...now you have a reason to say something!). Multiple comments do NOT grant multiple entries. We'll randomly select the winners this weekend. Winners must reside in the continental US and are subject to our MHR's contest guidelines.