Invesco Field at Mile High is a first-class football facility with all of the luxuries a 21st century football fan could ask for: wide seats, plenty of restrooms, mouth-watering concession stands – heck, they even serve jalapeño sausages and mocha lattes.
But for more than five years, the cavernous stadium on the edge of Dick Connor Boulevard has been mostly lifeless, still fighting the shadows of the old Mile High Stadium, long torn down.
Sure, raucous shouts have shaken the Invesco beams from time to time, but the ghosts of the old Mile High never made it to the new turf.
The odd bounces. The Fumble. The Blizzard. Rocky Mountain Thunder. Well-timed snowballs. The Orange Crush. The 4th-and-forever John Elway to Vance Johnson completions. Those memories, those ghosts, dwell only in our memories.
But Saturday night, Invesco Field may finally get its soul.
For the first time in seven years, the NFL playoffs come to Denver and with it, we hope, the spirits of the old Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos were nearly unbeatable in the playoffs, winners of 11 of 13 contests.
Mile High hosted many memorable regular season games, but its legend was built during the playoffs.
Morton to Moses in the AFC title game in 1978. Jeremiah Castille stripping the ball from Ernest Byner as he crossed the goal line in the waning minutes of the 1987 AFC championship game. The heart-stopping comeback against the Houston Oilers in the divisional playoff game in 1992. John Elway’s final victory lap, Lamar Hunt trophy hoisted over his head, after the AFC title game in 1999.
Now, more than four years after the new stadium was inaugurated, it’s finally time to make some playoff memories at Invesco.
Three-time Super Bowl champion New England comes to town with a quarterback named Tom Brady who’s 10-0 in the playoffs, and while the Patriots certainly were not our first choice for a first-round opponent, we’ll fire back with that tried but true cliche: If you want to be the champs, you have to beat the champs.
So welcome to Denver, Patriots. And welcome back to Denver, AFC playoffs.
It’s time for some Mile High magic.
