| | | | | | | |  Saturday, September 8, 2001
Saying goodbye to Mile High
By Al Michaels
Special to ABC Sports Online
I mentioned on the air last year that if I had to select my 10 favorite games in 15 years of announcing Monday Night Football, five or six of them would probably have been played at Mile High Stadium. In terms of the number of thrills that have been provided at one location, there is no venue during my MNF career that even comes close.
|  | | John Elway couldn't pull off the "Mile High magic" against the Chiefs in 1994. |
I go back to 1987 in Week 10 when the Chicago Bears -- two years removed from their Super Bowl championship -- came to Mile High. It was a great game that featured Jim McMahon and John Elway.
To this day, it was one of those extremely rare games that was phenomenal from start to finish. Normally, games have an ebb and flow. They get good for a short period of time and perhaps climax with a sensational ending. But this was one of those games that held its head up from the opening kickoff. It was 60 minutes of intense action, won by the Broncos, 31-29.
The following year, on Sept. 26, 1988, Mike Shanahan, then the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders, brought his team to Mile High. It was Shanahan's first return to Denver after leaving the Broncos organization.
The Broncos jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead, but the Raiders came back to win 30-27 in overtime.
I could go on and on, but for me, nothing can top the 1994 classic between Kansas City and Denver. The Broncos, for a number of years, had the Chiefs (specifically Marty Schottenheimer's) number. Kansas City couldn't get over the "Mile High mystique," and it appeared that would be the case again, in a game that kept going back and forth. It featured a tremendous duel between two of the greatest quarterbacks in history, as well as several other All-Pro types.
|
Elway on Mile High:
|
|
Throughout his 16-year year career at Denver, John Elway developed a reputation for staging miraculous comebacks at Mile High Stadium. On Monday night, he will be a part of the ceremonies to unveil INVSECO Field at Mile High, a stadium that was built partly on his ability to lead the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl championships.
"I don't look at it that way," says Elway, who is the NFL's all-time winningest quarterback. "Nobody ever wants to quit playing, but it would have been nice to play a few games in the new stadium. I miss Mile High because there were a lot of great memories at Mile High, but I'll take some pictures before they tear it down to remember it.
"It will be great. Having driven by it for the last three years and not having been inside it. This is going to be the first time I go inside it. I am looking forward to that Monday night. I've heard great things about it."
Entering his third year of retirement, Elway is enjoying his time away from the game, but hopes to get into management in the near future. He already is a part-owner of an Arena Football League franchise.
"I would like to eventually get into that. I have been real reluctant. I have four kids. I can build my schedule around them right now, and I'm helping coach my son's football team. I am enjoying life, and enjoy waking up on Monday mornings without the aches I did for 20 years before."
--Mike Diegnan
|
The game appeared to have ended when Joe Montana hit Willie Davis in the corner of the end zone with eight seconds left. I say appeared to have ended because by the time this thing finally wound down, John Elway was launching one into the Chiefs' end zone to try to win the game. He was unsuccessful, and Kansas City pulled out a 31-28 victory.
I remember walking out of the stadium that night thinking, "This is why America loves football as much as it does."
As disappointed and as down as Bronco fans were when they walked out of Mile High that night, the buzz around me -- at least on the way to the parking lot -- was, "Wow. We've just witnessed one of the greatest regular season football games ever played."
In all of my years of doing Monday Night Football, I don't think I had ever seen a situation where so many people around the country only wanted to talk about what happened at Mile High that night.
I'm really just scratching the surface here when it comes to the thrills that Mile High has provided, but I would list those three, with the Montana-Elway duel at the top.
The other thing that I always loved about Mile High, and will really miss, is that it was a throwback stadium. It was constructed in bits and pieces, expanded a number of times through the years, and bore no semblance to what the architects originally had in mind. It looked like a giant erector set when you drove up to it.
Mile High Stadium had a feel unlike any other in the National Football League. For starters, it wasn't enclosed, so you could look outside the stadium -- an aspect I loved. You could see a part of downtown and the cars traveling on Interstate 25.
And the building shook. That always gave me pause, because having been on the air during the opening segment of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series at Candlestick Park, I know what it feels like when stadiums shake. I will never forget the similarities between what it felt like at Candlestick in 1989 and what Mile High always felt like when people began to stamp their feet.
|  | | The Denver Broncos will open INVESCO Field on Monday night. |
There are many wonderful memories, and I can only hope that the magic we saw through the years at Mile High can be transferred across the parking lot to INVESCO Field.
The new stadium will develop its own character, and 50 years from now, someone will write an online story about the demolition of INVESCO Field and the great memories it provided.
The Denver region has always had a special affinity for the Broncos. Now, of course, you have all four major team sports operating in the city. The people appreciate the Avalanche, Rockies and Nuggets, but there will always be something about the first kid on the block. It's almost as if when the Broncos came aboard as one of the original eight teams in the American Football League in 1960 it began to enhance the reputation of Denver as an emerging, big-time United States city.
That's the type of thing a sports team can do every now and again, and I don't think the people of Denver have ever forgotten that.
Four-time Emmy Award winner Al Michaels is in his 16th season calling the play-by-play for Monday Night Football.
| | |
| | | | |
ESPN.com:
HELP |
ADVERTISER INFO |
CONTACT US |
TOOLS |
SITE MAP
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Group. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Employment opportunities at ESPN.com.
| |
| 
 |
