BRONCOS

Here’s hoping Taylor Swift isn’t the best show at Mile High this year

Jul 10, 2023, 8:00 PM | Updated: 10:03 pm

Global superstar Taylor Swift is coming to Empower Field at Mile High this weekend.

Who would’ve thought the New York Yankees would be the second biggest show in town?

Yes, the Bronx Bombers will take on the pitiful Rockies at Coors Field in a few days, but just down the street Swift is the main attraction at the home of the Broncos.

It’ll cost you a minimum of $1,100 to sit in the nosebleeds to see Swift on Friday night. You can go watch the Yankees demolish the Rockies for a cool $38 on the same evening.

And while Swift will put on two spectacular performances in Denver, here’s hoping neither is the best thing we see at Mile High this year.

It’s beyond time for the Broncos to be what they were circa 2015 — and that’s worth the price of admission.

Swift’s shows will be rowdy, but a different kind of rowdy than the 2013 and 2015 AFC Championship Games. Think about those two glorious days for a moment. The sun shining and the stadium painted in orange.

Both times the Broncos beat Tom Brady and the Patriots. The first one never felt all that stressful, a 26-16 win for the greatest offense in NFL history. We don’t have to talk about what happened two weeks later in New York.

And the second one, an all-time nailbiter. Peyton Manning hit Owen Daniels for two touchdowns in the first half, Von Miller picked off Brady and the party was on. Then the offense stopped moving the ball and things got dicey.

The all-time great Denver defense held on like 26 times (maybe not that many) and one final stop on a two-point conversion sent them dancing to Santa Clara with a 20-18 victory.

The Broncos beat the Panthers in a dominant Super Bowl 50 win, and brought back largely the same defense the following year. You could argue the Thursday Night opener against the same Carolina team was the last time Mile High reached its true potential… at least for a football game.

Denver destroyed Cam Newton (again), and snuck away with a 21-20 victory thanks to a missed field goal in the final moments. That year ended with the Broncos shockingly missing the playoffs, and we know they still haven’t been back.

And anyone who doesn’t think Mile High has lost a little juice over the years would be lying. No, it’s not that the fans have stopped caring or stopped showing up. It’s that it’s hard to bring the same enthusiasm for a regular season game against the Jets with Brett Rypien under center as it is a title game.

Heck, Swift played here in 2018 and that was probably one of the most energetic nights the stadium has seen over the last five years. It’ll have that same magical feel this weekend, but that doesn’t do the Broncos any good in July.

Can Sean Payton and Russell Wilson be the duo that gets us back to meaningful December football? At least a shot at the postseason when the Chargers are here on Dec. 31 should be the bare minimum.

If by Week 17 the Broncos are already out of it, the changes will be plentiful. Wilson, Justin Simmons and George Paton would all likely be gone. Only a handful of guys on the roster, mostly this year’s huge free agent signings, would be safe.

That can’t be the case. Please, please no. Great Broncos fans have suffered far too long for a concert in the heat of summer to be the highlight at the stadium in 2023.

And that’s no disrespect to Swift. She’s the best thing going right now in all of music. But the sports entertainment needs to be stepped up at a venue that only has nine critical dates on the calendar this year.

Those are the nine home games for the Broncos where we need to witness the best shows in a long, long time.

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Here’s hoping Taylor Swift isn’t the best show at Mile High this year