(2 of 7)
Denver and Dallas, Broncos and Cowboys, the upstarts v. the Establishment.
This Sunday's meeting in the Superdome in New Orleans offers a symbolic asymmetry that the big bowl has not known since Joe Namath's cocky New York Jets humbled the mighty Baltimore Colts in 1969. Denver Coach Red Miller, ebullient and emotional, is in his first year as a head coach after wandering in the desert of long-ignored assistant coaches. Tom Landry, stoic and singleminded, is the only head coach the Cowboys have ever known (his 18-year tenure surpasses his closest rival in job security, Bud Grant of the Vikings, by seven years). Bronco
Quarterback Craig Morton is a Cowboy reject, the Dallas starting quarterback until Semi-Peerless Roger Staubach unseated him. In their locker room after beating the defending Super Bowl Champion Oakland Raiders for the A.F.C. title, the Broncos were ecstatic, scarcely believing the dream had come true. Shouts, cheers and champagne washed their victory. When the Cowboys filed into their redoubt after their N.F.C. title win over Minnesota, there was no raucous celebration and no bubbly wasted by the cool young professionals from Dallas. And in their cities ... well, Denver fans went berserk, while the Dallas fans, accustomed to such moments, took the win in quietly appreciative stride and started looking for hotel rooms in New Orleans.
The outburst in Denver's Mile High Stadium after the Super Bowl slot had been assured was the peaking of a fever that has raged this fall in the Rockies, leaving all of its victims colored a resonant orange. The team color has banished every other hue from the spectrum in Denver. T shirts, scarves, pins, sweaters, radios, coats, can openers, beer mugs, the hair on otherwise-sane heads and Christmas trees have been dyed to match the Broncos' Orange. Defensive End Lyle Alzado, star of the A.F.C.'s best defensive unit, an indefatigable worker in community projects and perhaps the team's most popular player, mused: "Who the hell would want an orange Christmas tree? I sure wouldn't." Enough Denverites did, however, to strip the shelves of spray paint. And the distributor for the sweet soft drink that bears the fortunate—not to mention cleverly exploited—appellation, Orange Crush, has had to hire 20 additional employees to meet the demand.
Season Ticket Holder Charlie Goldberg is the man who started painting the town orange in 1971. Goldberg bought bolts of orange cloth, cut them into strips and distributed them to fans at the gate before a game against the San Diego Chargers. The gesture was made to express support for then-Head Coach Lou Saban, whose family was abused by disappointed fans. Says Goldberg: "By God, the Broncos went out and beat the hell out of them, then the next week, went and zipped Cleveland." A monochrome mania was born. It found voice when Running Back John Keyworth warbled a ditty into a bullet on the Denver charts: Make Those Miracles Happen.