The city of Denver could have three championship parades in the next eight months.
It’s impossibly greedy, sure, but also not downright insane.
After the Denver Broncos beat the New York Giants in miraculous fashion on Sunday, anything feels possible. We’ve seen magic at Empower Field at Mile High before, but this was next level stuff.
The Broncos were down 19-0, 26-8 and 32-30 in the fourth quarter and still won. John Elway, Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning all had wild comebacks over the years, but what Bo Nix and the Denver defense did might’ve been the wildest.
They scored 33 points in the fourth quarter to steal a game they had no business winning. Even a couple of days removed, it’s borderline impossible to wrap your mind around.
For perspective, the Giants had five touchdowns. The Broncos had four touchdowns and a field goal. Basic math says that should be a 35-31 victory for New York. It’s another crazy wrinkle in Denver’s 33-32 theft.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s the Broncos year.
The NFL is funny like that. You don’t need to “learn how to win” before hoisting the trophy at the end. In other sports, teams can’t really skip steps. In professional football, getting hot at the right time can lead to a title.
This Denver defense combined with an offense that is seemingly never rattled (despite how poorly they perform at times) means the sky is the limit. Clearly belief exists inside the locker room, as most other teams would’ve given up and called it a day. The Broncos didn’t.
It’s still a long-shot they win the Super Bowl this year. But it also doesn’t feel out of bounds to bring up. The AFC, and the whole league, is wide open. Don’t rule out a parade in downtown Denver in February of 2026.
And that might be the warmup.
The Colorado Avalanche are off to a blazing hot start. They’re 5-0-1 and all those goalie headaches from a year ago are gone. Even with starter Mackenzie Blackwood battling an injury, backup Scott Wedgewood has been nails. He even won an award for his efforts on Monday.
Nathan MacKinnon looks to be hunting another Hart Trophy, given to the NHL’s MVP, and superstar defenseman Cale Makar could add a third Norris Trophy. If the Avalanche’s depth keeps improving, of course they can win their second Stanley Cup in five seasons with this core.
Meanwhile, the NBA is tipping things off tonight. The Denver Nuggets won’t get going until later in the week, but it definitely feels like championship or bust on the hardwood. Nikola Jokic remains the best player on Earth. And the Nuggets new front office had a monster offseason adding role players around him.
Perhaps the last piece of big business before the season began was extending starting shooting guard Christian Braun. Denver got that done on Monday, and this squad is ready to go. If they can get past the Thunder in the West, a team they took to seven games last year with a worse roster, the Nuggets will reach the mountaintop once again.
Can you imagine the chaos of back-to-back parades in June for the Avs and Nuggets? They would most likely be only days apart. Two parties for the price of one — and you know Denver would show up and show out for both.
The reality is we’d take one title in 2026. One is more than enough when other cities don’t get any for decades. But we also had a long drought from the Avalanche in 2001 to the Broncos in 2016, so these current groups are making up for lost time.
Right now, all three teams have championship potential if everything clicks down the stretch. Someone has to take the whole thing at the end of each season.
Why not Denver?
Why not us?