Despite 2016 being the year that the Broncos won the Super Bowl, the biggest stories for the Denver Broncos all took place off (or adjacent to) the field, as Brandon Marshall’s national anthem protest, Peyton Manning’s retirement, Von Miller’s generosity and — bizarrely — the 2010 story of Tim Tebow’s contract signing dominated the top Broncos stories of the year.
If you were wondering, came in at No. 115 — and in fact, there were only two articles with the term “Super Bowl” in the title in the Top 100: The story of in downtown Denver at No. 67 and Mark Kiszla’s “” column at No. 84.
Nos. 1, 3, 5: Brandon Marshall’s national anthem protest
The biggest storyline of the year and the single biggest article of the year belonged to linebacker Brandon Marshall’s kneeling protest of the national anthem, inspired by his college teammate Colin Kaepernick’s preseason protest. The came in at the No. 5 most-clicked article, while the and stories were about Marshall losing endorsement deals in the fallout.
No. 2: The retirement of Peyton Manning
Though the No. 2 most-clicked Broncos story of 2016 , Woody Paige calling his shot that Manning would retire spread around the Broncoverse like wildfire. The clocked in at No. 32 on the list.
No. 4: Von Miller’s gift
“Broncos linebacker Von Miller gifted every player in the AFC West — including practice-squad players and those on injured reserve — with a bottle of custom wine and a thank you note. Thatap more than 200 bottles,” wrote Nicki Jhabvala in .
Here is the full list of the 100 most-clicked Denver Broncos articles of the year.
