Bad few years for the Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos is a great American football team currently playing in the Western Division of the NFL. They have a long and prosperous history as a sports franchise and have won the Super Bowl twice in the past. Quite recently, the team was in the news
because of an apparent suicide by one of their players. The team’s wide receiver, Kenny McKinley, was found shot to death in what police are calling a suicide in his apartment a few days ago. This is a huge blow to the football team because the young man had
just started his second season with the Broncos. The team has not been having a good couple of years but hopefully they will be able to put this loss behind them and continue with their successes.
The Denver Broncos is a team that was created in 1959 when Bob Howsam, the original owner of the team, was given a charter to start a professional football team in the American Football League (AFL). The team is based in Denver Colorado and it won the first
ever AFL game in 1960 by beating the Boston Patriots. The 1960’s were not a good decade for the team as they could not find too much success on the field. The Broncos almost had to wind up operations in 1965 after a terrible season but a change in ownership
and management started the ripples of success throughout the franchise. In 1973, the team had its first winning season under new head coach, John Ralston. Even though many players were not happy with Ralston’s leadership and he was dismissed a few years later,
the team seemed to have found its form. In 1983, the first real superstar of the team arrived in the shape of John Elway. The new quarterback helped the team to reach five Super Bowls, two of which the team went on to win. Elway retired in 1998 and the team
has been performing solidly well ever since. In 2009, the Broncos hired new head coach, Josh McDaniels, and also a new quarterback named Kyle Orton. With these two the team had a strong start winning the first six games of the season. Their 2010 campaign started
off very well as well except for a couple of injured players and the devastating loss of Kenny McKinley.
Kenny McKinley was a fantastic young talent for the Broncos. He was a high school and college level star who while playing as a wide receiver in 2005, passed for 16 touchdowns and 1470 yards and rushed for 750 yards while scoring 12 touchdowns. This feat
earned him the title of the 29th best athlete in the State of Georgia for that year. He continued to impress at the college level and in his senior year at university he set many rushing and scoring records. This was in 2008 and he closed out the
year by putting his name on the South Eastern Conference record books. The 23-year-old was then drafted into the NFL as a fifth round draft pick by the Denver Broncos and he played 8 games for the team in his rookie season. His story was cut short when he
was found dead in his home 2 days ago with what apparently looked like self inflicted gunshot wounds.
The Broncos team and the entire NFL were in mourning over the loss of this talented young player and no one could have thought that he was capable of committing suicide. A lot of sources close to McKinley said that he was a well adjusted and happy individual
who they did not think was depressed or had any sort of suicidal tendencies. But despite that, he still seems to have killed himself and the Broncos will be feeling his loss for a long time to come. This was not the first time that tragedy struck the franchise.
In 2007, two players from the team died. In January of 2007, the team’s cornerback, Darrent Williams, was killed in a drive-by shooting and a few months later running back Damien Nash died after he collapsed during a charity match. His death was ruled as an
apparent heart attack.
The team got over the two losses in 2007 and managed to move on, but this latest death is going to be felt by the team for a long time yet. Hopefully they will be able to continue on their campaign and get back to winning football games sometime soon.
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