Denver Broncos

Mile High is not just an altitude. It is a state of mind, a standard of noise, a promise that this fanbase makes to its team every single Sunday — that we will be the loudest, most ferocious home crowd in professional football, and that we will back it up with 60 years of sold-out stadiums and orange-painted faces and a devotion that has never once been contingent on the standings.

We rode with John Elway through two Super Bowl losses so lopsided they still sting, and we stayed. We packed the old Mile High Stadium when this franchise was still finding itself, because we understood instinctively that this team belonged to Denver the way the Rockies belong to the skyline — it is simply part of what this place is. When Elway finally lifted that Lombardi Trophy in January 1998, and then again in 1999, the entire Rocky Mountain region felt the validation of a loyalty that had been building for three decades without reward.

Three Super Bowl championships. Elway. Terrell Davis. Shannon Sharpe. Ed McCaffrey. Champ Bailey. Peyton Manning's last magnificent ride in 2015. The Von Miller strip-sack that ended Cam Newton's season and gave us our third title. This franchise has given us moments that belong in the permanent collection of NFL greatness. And through every transition — every coaching change, every rebuilding phase, every quarterback carousel since Peyton hung it up — Broncos Country has not flinched. We are not a front-running fan base. We are a forever fan base. There is a difference, and we know exactly what it is.