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

September 29, 10:46 PMDenver Sports Media ExaminerBob Diddlebock

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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.