Top Ten

There's too much negativity on Hole Punch Sports sometimes. Dirk Nowitzki chokes this, only your brother reads that...so without further adieu, I give you Denver's ten greatest athletes of my lifetime. I decided against pretending I know how good Frank Tripucka was. (For the record, I was born in 1982.)

10. Rod Smith. Smith drops too many passes and was never as popular as running mate Ed McCaffrey, but he gets the edge here on longevity and consistency. He's had at least one thousand yards receiving in eight of the last nine seasons. And despite his sometimes-faulty hands, Smith has made plenty of big catches, my favorite being his 80-yard touchdown in Super Bowl XXXIII.

Plus, just about everyone considers Jerry Rice the best receiver of all time, but Smith even beat him out for a roster spot one year. True story!

9. Todd Helton. Helton has had the misfortune of playing on some truly awful teams. He's both a fantastic fielder and amazing slugger, and he's always been a hard-nosed player. While he hasn't avoided steroid rumors, everyone knows he's clean.

His batting stats speak to historic greatness: the excellent Baseball-Reference.com says he's ninth all-time in on-base percentage and seventh all-time in slugging percentage. However, and I hate saying this, he's got to be, at least partly, a Coors Field creation. While his slugging percentage falls behind only Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Pujols, Bonds, and Foxx, he doesn't even hold the franchise's career mark-that goes to Larry Walker, who hit for slightly more power when he was in Denver.

8. Joe Sakic. Sakic probably deserves a higher spot on this list due to his steady play in Colorado over the last decade-plus. I don't want to be a jerk today, but the Avalanche captain was ineffective in too many playoff series. Than again, he also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP for Denver's first major pro sports championship. A great player, but easily the least fun to watch of anyone on this list.

7. Alex English. English was the NBA's leading scorer in the 1980s, which is the kind of number that makes people hate statistics. (He won just one scoring title.) But English brought offensive firepower to the Nuggets' only sustained run of competitiveness since I've been around. He's also a Hall of Famer.

6. Shannon Sharpe. Elway's most reliable target for most of the 90's, Sharpe was a rare tight end who actually had wide receiver skills. Sharpe demanded double-teams, though that says more about the team's receivers before the emergence of Smith and McCaffrey than it does about his skills.

Yes, Sharpe should be ranked lower for leaving for Baltimore-after all, do you see Dikemebe Mutombo on this list?-but the Broncos were underpaying him for years, so I can't hold a grudge. Besides, I can forgive anyone with his trash-talking skills.

5. Peter Forsberg. It's not fair to knock Sakic for disappearing in playoff series when Forsberg had trouble even staying on the ice. That said, he combined speed, grace, skill and power in a package that actually made hockey fun. He gets extra credit for his clutch play and toughness.

4. Larry Walker. He fought injuries his whole career and, like Helton, benefited from Coors Field. So what? Walker was the most versatile and entertaining baseballer I've seen. His 1997 MVP season might have been the most complete year ever for a Denver athlete. He was second in the league batting average, hitting .366. He led the league with 49 homers and finished third in doubles. He also led the NL in on-base, slugging, and, obviously, OPS.

That said, he was even more exciting on the basepaths (33 stolen bases) and in the outfield, where he notched a dozen assists. Nothing pleased me more than when runners tested his arm.

Actually, one thing did. I remember Walker being beaned late in a close game once (Reds or Pirates or some other meaningless game), then walking towards the mound talking trash but not actually charging. I usually don't like that, but on an ensuing groundball he went way off the basepath to knock over an infielder and break up the double play, and I'm pretty sure the Rockies ended up winning thanks to that play. Like Forsberg, he wasn't always in the lineup, but he was Michael Jackson-bad.

3. Terrell Davis. Yes, he only had four good years, but three of those were solid gold. Besides, before Davis, who'd ever heard of a clutch running back? Seven straight playoff games of at least 100 yards fueled both Super Bowl runs, and, including the loss to Jacksonville in the 1997 playoffs, Davis averaged 142.5 yards per playoff game for his career.

He won Super Bowl XXXII MVP with a record-tying three rushing touchdowns (even though he missed most of a quarter) and took home the regular-season MVP the next year. I don't really care if T.D. makes the Hall of Fame, because in his prime, he was better than almost all the runners already enshrined.

And oh yeah, he was a sixth-round draft pick who fought off an abusive childhood and miserable college experience to become, briefly, the NFL's best player. What a stud.

2. Patrick Roy. If he'd been in Denver his whole career, he'd probably deserve the top spot on this list. (Not that I'd give it to him.) Roy holds two amazing NHL records: career wins and playoff MVPs won. Like baseball's Walter Johnson, he wasn't the best player ever in his sport, but he was the greatest at the most important position.

I loved the two Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears comment, but my favorite Roy moment came in the 2001 playoffs. He'd had a terrible game in the opener. For some reason I was driving my boss' car across town (I think to sell his Avs tickets, actually), and some local sports radio morons were saying that Roy was still motivated, but he was simply no longer capable of greatness. I couldn't believe the absurdity of it...and Roy went on to lead the Avs to their second Cup and capture his third playoff MVP.

1. John Elway. Touchdown passes are great for guys like Dan Marino, but Elway held the meaningful records for the position: most wins (like Roy), most fourth-quarter comebacks, and started in the most Super Bowls.

But with Elway, it was all about the moments. Who can forget the Drive? Or when he caught the touchdown pass from Steve Sewell?

What set Elway apart was his constant striving for greatness. Just like he was best at the end of games, Elway saved his best moments for the end of his career. Remember when his wild-card team knocked off the home-field Chiefs to get to the AFC Championship game? And when he hit Sharpe on that third-and-six in Pittsburgh to keep the drive alive and the Steelers offense off the field? How about when he ran the bootleg and became the oldest player ever to score in a Super Bowl? Or his dive late in the game that gave the Broncos the emotional edge to knock off the Packers?

How about when he threw for 400 yards the next season against Kansas City, hitting Sharpe for the winning touchdown, to run the team's record to 13-0 and tying the then-NFL mark with eighteen consecutive wins? Or what about the only time he faced Marino in the playoffs which-typical of both players-was his only win over Marino in three tries? (I recall the Dolphins spent a thousand-something on a special heater to keep Marino's helmet warm on the sidelines during that game...what a woman.) Do you remember how he got off to a terrible start in the first half of that incredibly windy AFC Championship game against the Jets, then hit Eddie Mac with a 47-yard pass in the second half to spark Denver's first touchdown drive? And then, in his last game, remember how Elway won MVP with 336 yards passing and, for good measure, broke his own record as the oldest player to score in a Super Bowl?

In short, John Elway is the greatest hero in the history of mankind.