You might respond to this headline with ‘and water is wet’ and I wouldn’t blame you, but I was looking over the Denver Broncos history and how often they have won a division title. In their 65 years, the Broncos have brought home 16 AFC West division titles. That’s not very many, but given their first winning season was almost 20 years into it then it doesn’t look so bad.

The other thing I noticed is that only those teams who had a franchise quarterback type player under center did they repeat often as division winners. 11 of those 16 titles were won while John Elway or Peyton Manning were quarterbacking the franchise. Craig Morton won two backed by the vaunted Orange Crush defense of the 70s, but the rest were one-off division winners like Jake Plummer and Tim Tebow. Now that latter list includes Bo Nix.

The craziest stat that I found researching this topic was that all but one Broncos team that did not win the division were one-and-done in the playoffs. The lone team that wasn’t was that 1997 Super Bowl winning squad. Every single other team that finished second or third in the division and made the playoffs did not win a game once they got there. That doesn’t have much to do with the franchise quarterback topic here, but I found this little tidbit too interesting to not share.

As for the division winners, there were plenty of one-and-done seasons there too, but all of their playoff wins sans-1997 are also there.

The question I meant to get to sooner before going off on that side quest regarding the playoff outcomes was whether or not Bo Nix joins Elway and Manning or ends up with the Plummer and Morton’s of history of pretty good but not all-time great. A few playoff wins over the next month would certainly move the needle some before adding more division titles down the road.

DENVER — Street racing continues to pose threats to Colorado drivers, so Denver7 looked into the trends we saw throughout 2025.

Denver Police report 80 citations and arrests as of December 17 for 2025. That’s 20 more than last year, according to Doug Schepman, director of communications for the Denver Police Department (DPD).

There is one strip of road in Denver we asked Schepman about specifically, after hearing from business owners that it’s particularly troublesome.

We’re talking about the 2000 block of S. Santa Fe Drive in Denver.

Michael Gray, owner of Discount Fishing Tackle, said it’s a weekly occurrence to watch or hear cars and motorcycles zip past.

“Recently, we’ve seen the kids on the motorcycles coming by with the front wheel in the air, going just as dangerous as can be, and especially dangerous because so many other people are going so fast on this road,” Gray said.

He said he’s noticed that as more turnoffs are removed and the spacing between traffic lights gets longer, more drivers tend to use it as their personal raceway.

“It doesn’t affect us really too much, but you don’t like to have something as dangerous as that going on all the time,” he said.

Schepman said patrol districts are aware that street racing occurs along this stretch of South Santa Fe Drive, and that officers are directed to patrol the area during periods when reports are more prevalent.

He adds that the community plays a critical part in helping investigators curb this problem.

The Colorado State Patrol said it has received more than 1,700 reports from the community this year.

You can continue to report street racing here.

LAS VEGAS — It was such a crazy Saturday night in Sin City, the Colorado Avalanche finally won a shootout.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the deciding goal to give Colorado a 6-5 victory at T-Mobile Arena against the Vegas Golden Knights. It was the first shootout win in five tries this season for the league-leading Avs.

More importantly, this Avalanche team hasn’t played in many back-and-forth chaotic games this season. But like every other test this club has faced, the Avs proved up to the task. Colorado clawed back from 2-0, 4-2 and 5-4 deficits in what was easily the craziest contest of this campaign to date.

“It wasn’t a perfect game from us, that’s for sure,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “But we kept fighting and guys played with a lot of heart. When you’re down against a good team twice by by two and you’re able to come out with a win, it feels good.”

Colton Sissons got behind Martin Necas, who scored twice for Colorado, and was able to avoid a Scott Wedgewood pokecheck attempt to tuck a backhanded shot inside the left post with exactly four minutes left in the third period to give Vegas a 5-4 lead.

It looked like a third regulation loss of the season was imminent. It was not.

That is now seven straight wins for the Avs (28-2-7). There has been 10 streaks of seven wins or better in the league this season — Colorado has two of them and ended three others.

MacKinnon found Artturi Lehkonen in the slot for a one-timer with 1:57 and the Avs found a 6-on-5 goal to even this one again at 5-5. It was MacKinnon’s third point of the third period.

Sam Malinski had a career-high three assists in the win, while his defense partner Samuel Girard had a goal and an assist.

“They were awesome,” MacKinnon said. “Making great plays, good poise. I think especially Malinski has been so good this season. Just feels like he’s getting better every week.”

Vegas forged its second two-goal advantage of the night with scores on back-to-back shifts in the second period. A little more than a minute after Colorado had tied this contest at 2-2, Ben Hutton put the home team back in front with a one-timer from Alexander Holtz at 11:36 of the second.

Brett Howden cut through the middle of the ice on a rush the next shift and was able to redirect Reilly Smith’s centering pass past Scott Wedgewood at 12:05.

The Avs haven’t had to chase games in the third period often this year, but hunted down the Knights again, with the top line scoring twice in less than five minutes. MacKinnon set up Necas for a one-timer from the left circle at 3:52 of the third period to make it 4-3. It was Necas’ second of the game and 18th of the season.

Colorado kept the push on and found a flurry of chances. Malinski’s shot from the right point dribbled through Vegas goaltender Carter Hart, and MacKinnon was there to sweep it over the goal line. That was MacKinnon’s league-leading 31st goal of the season.

Alexander Holtz had the lone goal of the opening period to give Vegas the lead. Tomas Hertl won an offensive zone faceoff back to Noah Hanafin at the left point, and the defenseman hit Holtz cutting to the net near the right post for a redirection at 2:43 of the first.

The Golden Knights quickly made it a 2-0 game in the second period. Devon Toews was unable to connect on MacKinnon’s cross-ice pass for a one-timer in the right circle. One he missed, Ivan Barbashev collected the puck, and the Avs were caught with four guys too deep in the offensive zone.