Heritage Sports Art

Some History

The Mile High Running Back factory is what Mike Shanahans Denver Broncos could be called. In 2004 Shanahan was in his 10th year as Broncos head coach and in almost every one of those 10 years his number-one running back has rushed for over 1100 yards. From 1995-98 it was Terrell Davis , in 1999 it was Olandis Gary, in 2000 it was Mike Anderson, from 2002-2003 Clinton Portis was the man and in 2004 Reuben Droughns carried the ball.

Throughout Droughns career he was never the number-one guy. His rookie year was 2001  with the Detroit Lions, and as a back up his season best numbers were 30 carries for 72 yards. In 2004, when Shanahan installed him as the feature-back in Denver, he got the ball 275 times and amassed 1240 yards.

The Broncos made the playoffs in 2004 with a 10-6 record, finishing second in the AFC West behind the 12-4 San Diego Chargers. They met the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Wild Card game and got bombed 49-24 at the RCA Dome.

Despite the shellacking the Broncos took in the playoffs Mike Shanahan was quite pleased with his team. At a seasons-end press conference the head coach said "You don't finish fourth on defense and fifth on offense without being pretty good. No one should look at this as something you need to tear down and start over again; we're a good football team. We have a nucleus of guys."

With that in mind, prior to the start of the 2005 season Shanahan did make some changes. In a surprise move he traded the aforementioned Reuben Droughns to the Browns for Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers, two defensive lineman the Broncos hope will bolster their pass rush.

Droughns, who we mentioned led the Broncos with 1,240 yards rushing in 2004, was given permission to pursue a trade because he wasn't expected to start this year. Denver has no pressing needs at tailback. They have Tatum Bell, Mike Anderson and Quentin Griffin and signed Ron Dayne during free agency. They also used their 3rd round pick in the 2005 draft to select former Ohio State standout Maurice Clarett at tailback. It remains to be seen if Shanahan can turn Clarett, who has a well-documented, troubled past, into a productive running back at the Mile High Running Back Factory.

In Week 12 of the 2004 season the Broncos donned their orange third jerseys for a home game against the Oakland Raiders. That was the first appearance of the alternate uniforms since Nov. 24, 2002, when the Broncos donned them for another Sunday night game, against the Indianapolis Colts. Denver's orange 3rd jersey is the opposite to their navy blue home jersey in terms of color scheme. The jersey has an orange base with navy blue under the sleeves and down the side of the jersey. The white numerals and the collar also feature navy blue trim.

A quick note about 3rd jerseys - a 3rd jersey is a concept that became commonplace in baseball and hockey in the 1990's, and in the 2000s in the NFL. Most 3rd jerseys are worn occasionally at home as well as on the road, giving a team a third option as to what uniform to wear. And of course, the addition of a third jersey adds to the options fans can buy, thereby increasing apparel revenues and ultimately benefiting the team. More recently, baseball and hockey teams have begun adding 4th and even 5th jerseys to their roster of uniform possibilities, but this trend has not started in the NFL, nor is it likely to if for no other reason than the fact that the NFL season consists of only 16 regular season games vs baseball's 162 and hockey's 82.