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Bob Diddlebock

Denver Sports Media Examiner
Bob Diddlebock is a survivor of both The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. Currently a Time magazine correspondent, Diddlebock has written for ESPN.com, The Sporting News, Sport magazine and most of the nation's major daily newspapers.

  

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This article is part of Denver's Best

What's orange and blue and read all over? My list of the best Denver Broncos books

September 29, 10:46 PM
by Bob Diddlebock, Denver Sports Media Examiner
 
A surprising number of Denver Broncos, past and present, can not only read, but they can write, too.

Broncos of all stripes – not to mention a checkered gaggle of hangers-on and sportswriters -- have published 50 or so books over the team's 48-year history.

Truth be told, most of these efforts have been fairly lame, the worst ranging from hagiography to squishy I-was-there narratives. In other words, no National Book Award prospects here.

Still, a few entries stand out a wee bit, offering dollops of biography, reportage, history, photography, statistical data and behind-the-scenes vignettes that will probably entertain most die-hard Orange maniacs, inform a smattering of casual fans, and perhaps even educate younger students of the game.

That said, here's today's lineup:

  • Floyd Little's Tales from the Broncos Sideline (Sports Publishing LLC, 2006): Notable, if only for its RB author, who's still a Denver hero 35 years after his last carry. His sincerity and modesty run deep.
  • The Color Orange: A Super Bowl Season With the Denver Broncos (Russell Martin, 1987): An effervescent recap of John Elway's 1986 season, from the top -- “The Drive” against Cleveland – to the bottom (a Super Bowl loss to the Giants).
  • Romo: My Life on the Edge (Bill Romanowski, 2005): An often-wrenching, largely pharmaceutical take on what made one of the NFL's most-savage warriors crazy.
  • '77: Denver, The Broncos, and a Coming of Age (Terry Frei, 2007): A broad portrait of Denver as it grew into a big-league town and its pro football team joined the NFL's elite. Clunky writing aside, '77 is a valentine to the Mile High City.
  • Broncos: From Striped Sox to the Super Bowl & Beyond (Bob Collins/Chet Nelson, 1980): Two Denver newspapermen present at the Broncos' creation fondly retrace the team's first 20 wild, woolly years.
  • A Few Seconds of Panic (Stefan Fatsis, 2008): This Wall Street Journal reporter-turned Broncos practice kicker dishes on today's team in a training camp account of NFL life.
  • 106 Yards (Al Carmichael, 2007): This $80 whopper (400 pages, photos galore) gives Carmichael – an ex-Broncos WR (1960-61), former Marine and long-time Hollywood stunt man – the room to share his action-packed life's story.
  • Blitz: An Autobiography (Tom Jackson, 1987): A look at the iconic, Raiders-hating LB who always played way over his head. Pleasingly conversational, without being mawkish.
  • Denver Broncos 25 (Special Productions, 1985): Short on text, but alive with color photography that charts the team's progress from the lean early years through the salad days of the 1980s.
  • The Vance: The Beginning & The End (Vance Johnson, 1994): A rockin', sometimes pornographic, and ultimately sad account of one Bronco's spiral into oblivion.
  • World Champion Broncos: The Official Broncos Collector's Edition (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1998): An over-sized Super Bowl tribute filled with frothy essays, dynamic photography, and just enough history to foster an appreciation for how far the team had come from its humble AFL beginnings.
  • Think Like a Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time (Mike Shanahan, 1999): Yep, a business book from The Man that opens a window into how the Broncos' supremo thinks. Make no mistake: This two-time Super Bowl winner knows exactly what he's doing and exactly where he's going every single second of every single day.
  • America's Game (Michael MacCambridge, 2004): An engrossing, well-researched NFL history that goes into deep detail on the AFL's 1959 founding, the league's pioneers (including Denver's Bob Howsam) and the creatively scrappy work they did through the 1960s.

Topics: Denver Broncos , NFL , Books
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