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Handful of teams inside the National Football League have benefited from the 1970 merger between the old American Football League (AFL) and also the well-established and successful National Football League (NFL) as much as the Denver Broncos. Not only have they maintained virtually sell-out attendance at every house game since the merger, but they have also managed to parley their membership from the larger League into world championship status. For anyone familiar with the franchise’s miserable background within the now-defunct AFL, the team’s rise to prominence is something spectacular indeed.

The team’s origins

The Denver Broncos have been the subject of jokes and scorn virtually from the moment the franchise was awarded to Bob Howsam back in 1959. Howsam operated the group on something akin to a shoestring budget, and was unable and unwilling to make any serious investment in the team’s infrastructure. As a result, they had been outfitted in uniforms that had previously been worn in prior Arizona Copper Bowls – uniforms that were so gaudy that they would have made Cindy Lauper’s attire within the 1980s look stylish in comparison. Thankfully, the group was at least provided the opportunity to burn their striped socks a few years later in what turned out to become a quite cathartic expertise for all involved!

Early background

The team’s performance during those early many years was as laughable as their uniforms. Though they did manage in 1967to score the AFL’s primary win over any NFL opponent, that victory turned out to become one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal existence. Things had been so bad above the quite first team’s time within the AFL that by the time the merger took place Denver had succeeded in compiling the worst team record from the record on the American Football League: 39 wins, 97 losses, and 4 ties. The most that could be said for the franchise was that their threatened move to Atlanta in 1965 resulted within the team’s fans purchasing almost the entire allotment of season tickets for each and every year thereafter – in an attempt to demonstrate enough support to keep the team from the city.

A change in fortunes

Three years after the 1970 merger, the Broncos finally managed to complete a winning season – the initial from the team’s record. Over the course from the next two decades, the group would only encounter 3 total losing seasons, would win their division seven times, and win the AFC on four separate occasions. At the end in the 1997 season, the Broncos achieved what would have been all but unthinkable a mere 3 decades prior to as the now-retired and legendary quarterback John Elway led them to their initial Super Bowl victory.  What’s a lot more, they proved in the really next season that they have been not merely a fluke, as they joined an exclusive six-team club of teams that have won Super Bowls in consecutive years. One point is for certain; when fans now think of the Denver Broncos, laughter and derision is the last issue that comes to mind.

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