The image I keep is John Elway spinning in the air. Super Bowl XXXII, January 1998, Elway thirty-seven years old and scrambling for a first down against Green Bay, leaving his feet and getting spun sideways by two hits like a helicopter blade. He popped up pumping his fist. A man who had lost three Super Bowls badly was finally about to win one, and he was willing to get hit like that to do it.

Eight trips, the full range of the experience

Denver has been to eight Super Bowls and won three. The early ones were brutal. The 49ers beat them 55-10 in XXIV, the worst rout the game has seen. Then Elway and Terrell Davis won XXXII over the Packers and XXXIII over the Falcons to close his career. Years later Peyton Manning rode a historic defense to win Super Bowl 50 over Carolina, throwing almost nothing and lifting the trophy anyway.

Why the Broncos give me hope

Because they are proof the wide-right years do not have to be the end of the story. Elway lost his first three by a combined margin you do not want to know, and he still walked off a champion twice. Broncos fans, you have the redemption arc the rest of us only get to imagine. That counts for a lot from where I sit.