The longest running team sports programming in American sport and/or television history is Monday Night Football.
The Broncos once earlier played the late game on MNF to open the season, a game at Oakland in 2008.
But for Broncos fans this will be the first time Denver ever has opened the season with the “late” Monday night game at home, kickoff slated for approximately 8:20 p.m. Mountain Time. That means East Coast football fans will be watching the great Broncos-Raiders rivalry starting at 10:20.
Mile High City fans now recognize Monday Night Football as a commonplace occurrence on the Broncos’ annual schedule—this is Denver’s 20th straight year on MNF, and that is the longest current streak in the National Football League.
The Raiders hold the all-time longest streak of consecutive years on Monday night, from 1970-’97, while Denver’s active streak began in 1992 and continues through this season.
The next three franchises with the longest MNF streaks are Dallas, Green Bay and Miami, each of which at one time had runs of 19 consecutive years playing in the prime game on Monday night.
There is some irony in the fact that the Broncos have the second longest streak ever, and the longest active streak at this time, in that once upon a time local fans wondered if Denver would EVER make a Monday night appearance.
In fact, the weekly halftime highlights package on the Monday night telecast regularly excluded the Broncos in the pre-1973 period, with the excuse being that Denver was so far away that the film could not get back to New York in time.
Of course, that excuse was ridiculous, with the greater likelihood—since admitted to by some of the original game producers—being good old East Coast bias, benefitting teams that play in the Eastern Time Zone and punishing the one team in the Rocky Mountain Time Zone.
But 1973 was a breakthrough year for the Broncos, not only with a 23-23 tie against Oakland on Monday Night Football, but the 1973 campaign generated the first winning season ever in Broncos’ history. Up until that point of time, the Monday Night Football game with the Raiders was witnessed by the largest television audience ever to have seen a live TV sports event from Denver, so that game was historic not only for the Broncos but for the Mile High City.
Since then, of course, NFL history has been written over and over, and the Denver Broncos have authored many of the chapters.
Looking at the big picture, from the 1970 NFL/AFL merger until the present, the Broncos rank third in Super Bowl berths with six, sixth in number of winning seasons with 24, fifth in overall wins with 376 as well as fifth in regular season wins with 359, and Denver has played in eight conference championship games, tied with Minnesota for sixth most in the NFL.
At home, only Pittsburgh (227) has more wins from 1970-2011 than Denver’s 218, and the Broncos are the only non-expansion team in history to have sold out every home game it has ever played as members of the National Football League (the expansion Houston Texans have sold out all their games thus far, but are still in their first decade of play).
Adding the team’s success to majestic sunsets and mountain vistas have made Denver a prime television attraction in the NFL—along with the occasional snowfall to add drama and color, of course.
Denver has an overall MNF record of 27-34-1 and a home mark of 20-10-1, so the Broncos’ home victory percentage on Monday Night Football is an exemplary .667.
The Broncos have come a long way from being the team in the Rockies that never had a winning record and was “too far” from New York to get game highlights shown on the weekly Monday telecast.
Now, the Monday night schedule would not be the same without the Broncos on it at some point, as attested to by this Monday’s game marking two full decades of consecutive years with Denver being featured on the greatest primetime sports series in American history.
mathematical, haha.
Anyway, deadline for the season record prediction is day after tomorrow, Saturday, and deadline for the score prediction of the Raider game is this Sunday.
Place your predictions if you haven’t done so.
Nice to finally get our props! I remember those early years. The blame was mainly directed towards Howie Cosell whom supposedly hated the Broncos.
Lets hope we can gain back some of that respect and beat the Raiders.
baylinorcrush: from you previous listing of predictions so far it seems like we have quite a few predictions that we’ll have a winning season. I know you probably already said this but are you going to post the final prediction list after predictions are done?
I’ll go 9-7, which would thrill me no end!!~Broncos 24-17 Monday
So far:
35 predict a winning season
28 a losing one
11 have 8-8
So it’s a pretty mixed bag with the edge going to a winning season.
I’ll post the list Sunday AM with exactly how many predicted what, but I won’t get into the handles at this point, will wait til season end for that.
Wow seems like a mixed can of nuts…..gotta find the cashews! LOL!
I was just curious, I know you don’t want to here his name, but is there any correlation between the fans who think we’ll have a winning or losing season versus the QB they prefer? I know put your boots on its getting deep in here. I’m just wondering my mind kind of wonders off sometimes.
Bay,
I am not sure how much free time I will have after this so my score prediction is:
Broncos 27 – Raiders 9
I heard an analyst say our biggest weakness is up the middle, DT -> Joe Mays -> Safeties. If I were running the ball I would try to stay as far away from Mays as possible, is it me or does every time he makes a hit on RB its spectacular.
Bay: trust you got my score prediction. It’s 20-23 broncos, just in case.
Broncos are gonna surprise a lot of people this year. Hopefully I am not one of them, haha.
Von DOOOOOOOOM!!
Some Tebow fanatics picks:
OC 7-9
IloveTebow-GoBroncos 6-10
stevecan2 5-11
shaztah 5-11
Orton fanatic, just one really, haha:
sndvl 10-6
So yeah it has something to do with it.
alex, I did, and please don’t do that all year long since you have done that already multiple times, if you write any prediction while on a current blog I won’t miss it, guaranteed, just take my word for it, thanks.
I have a lot of confidence in Mays. I think that he is turning out to be a good MLB and a leader. In fact, I have seen, heard, read quotes from him almost as much recently as Dawkins or anyone else. I think that’s a good sign. Not saying that interviews make a good football player, but I think that the cameras and mikes gravitate to the players who are important leaders on the team. We may be weak at DT, but I almost hope that RBs underestimate my man Joe Mays. Mark my words, he WILL make them regret it.
If Mays is as good as we think he may be then he should replace DJ as our leading tackler because he will have PLENTY of work up the middle.
baylinorcrush watches these blogs closer than the moderator does, haha.
I would just be a little scared of Mays laying a lick on someone. His hit on the TE from KC last year on their onside attempt, man awesome. I know those hits are always worse because you’re going full speed but man. Maybe Mays will turn into the leader in the middle that we need, kind of like Wilson was for us.
Put me down for 10 – 6, with the addition of:
-TE that can play
-McGahee
-VonDOOM
-Sanity
I think the broncos are much improved.
I mean they should be scared of Mays laying a lick….sounded good in my head…
I used to raft a lot in Buena Vista.
About the whole “we have the third hardest schedule in the league” thing that you mentioned, Bay, I have confidence that, at the end of the season, the general tune we’ll all be singing is: “TAKE THAT!! And we even had the third hardest season in the league!”
That said, I feel that I wasted my one season prediction, but hey, that’s what I get for not listening when I am told to think it through. I don’t know if you keep track, but I hope that I won’t catch too much flak when my score predictions show more wins than I predicted for the season.
Whoa! I’m a Bronco fanatic first, foremost and Elway…
RabidOrange, 7-9, nothing outrageous about that, a hair in the optimist column though, in my opinion.
And don’t worry, for some bloggers it’s impossible to
RabidOrange, 7-9, nothing outrageous about that, a hair in the optimist column though, in my opinion.
And don’t worry, for some bloggers it’s impossible to EVER predict a Bronco loss.
Sorry, posted before I could finish.
Yeah, sis, LOL.
bay, just letting you know that about the QQ situation, I posted on the last blog I think it was when they all started their discussion on it AGAIN, basically what you said in the top of this blog. You just say it much more eloquent than I do. I am also surprised that you didn’t have me on that short list you have a little bit ago, but no problem. I’m Broncomaniac before Tebowmaniac anyway.
Yeah Bay, The river is down now, so on to blogging
Now Orton fanatic? That’s a stretch. Obviously I’m a fan. And I am probably his most vocal supporter here on this blog. I suppose it’s easy to be singled out.
Maybe some are just weary to voice their support for fear of being vilified. That won’t stop me. I got used to the “abuse” two offseasons ago.
I have maintained my stance for two simple reasons. Orton has the experience. He gives our team the best chance to win at the QB position.
Yes, we know Orton and his limits. They’ve been repeated ad nauseum. That doesn’t necessarily mean he still can’t be successful.
We will get our answer soon enough.
I just don’t see any reason to throw Tebow in there to build for the future (which to me sounds like accepting a losing season) when we threw last season away because hoodie JR was out to prove a point.
The recipe for Orton to have a strong season and be successful (strong D and run game) will also be key for Tebow to have success. In my opinion.
Which one would think should be an ideal situation to place Tebow in.
Worked for AR and the Pack.
Yeah, for a Tebow guy you break the trend with your 11-5 prediction, that’s for sure, thanks for pointing it out.
As for you article about the QQ I read that but unfortunately you placed it at the very end of a blog so it had no effect at all. I think we can all honestly say we are sick and tired of the QQ, and as I said as soon after Fox made Orton the regular season starter, the QQ is now temporarily dead, and since I invented the QQ, I’m in my rights, so please all give it up, get a Bronco life instead.
We go it, Orton is the starter, I have moved on.
I thought about re=post on the new blog, but thought better of it in hopes the talk would subside, but I guess that was a dream.
McD didn’t throw Tebow in there?!?!?!?!
Tebow started after McD was fired, and only because Orton was hurt anyway, no idea what you are talking about….
That paragraph made no sense.
“The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can.” – Albert Einstein
I am interested in the DT, in preseason the looked pretty good at times. Going from the 34 to 43 we may have some talent that wasn’t evident last year.
Look back at the blogs for the last 6 monghs I have 517 posts where I made my point over the QQ, lol.
months
I think maybe that’s why we didn’t spend big in FA. If Orton has another statistically good season he’ll want a decent contract and if the Broncos are truely not sold on Tebow then they’ll want to try and retain Orton. Orton will be looking at FA licking his chops.
I think Tebow needs a year; I was all excited about him (Tebow) until I watched him play this preseason. I am in Orton’s corner this year.
Have you noticed that almost all of McD’s guys are no longer on the team. I believe the only reason Tebow would remain a Bronco is because he’s under contract. McD’s prized possesion may not be a Broncos next season.
Tebow will be under contract but they can’t pay their starting QB and 2-3rd string QB, whatever he is, close to the same amount. Fox wants to win now and win consistently, not win now and lose later.
Not many McD’s drafted guys, yes, but there are still over 20 McD players on the roster, just saying.
As far as the QQ, I will always be the lone voice of support for Adam Weber. I know it’s futile, but so is endlessly discussing the others. Let’s stop beating this blog with a dead horse.
Funny, I just read a bleacherreport article from one of their columnists about the “10 players who will be benched in 2011″, Orton is the lone pic on the front page…
Yeah, sorry that’s what I meant.
I hope this aggressive style of defense will result in turnovers and not open us up for getting burnt.
I still find it amazing how much is at stake in this game, a win and evrything is kosher in Bronco Country for a couple of weeks, a loss and we are already up against it, nothing like a first regular season game usually is… We are not good enough to overcome losing this game in my opinion.
I really liked our first draft with EFX, if we keep doing that, it won’t be long before we are back on top.
Not for the ones who are hoping for a winning season anyway…
sndvl u are not alone, lol i also like orton, sorry to all you tebow lovers but no one could have had a winning season with the defense that we had last year besides elway maybe lol with a good defense and some balance on the run instead of pass as your first second and third option we should be in much better shape, and as a bronco fan i never remember having a rebuilding season it was always win now, why do a rebuilding season now, not what we do
I agree this game will definitely set the tone for the rest of the season.
Elway himsefl said it would take multiple drafts for us to get back to where we once were, and he should know, so good start with this draft, but just a start.