He led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl. RIP.
Posted on 05/11/2026 8:12:21 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Longtime NFL quarterback Craig Morton, who led the Denver Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance, died on Saturday.
He was 83.
Morton spent the end of his career with the Broncos, and he helped lead them to their first playoff appearance and Super Bowl berth during the 1977 season. The team went 12-2 that year in the regular season before losing to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII.
Morton spent 18 years in the league in total, first with the Cowboys after the franchise selected him with the No. 5 overall pick in the 1965 NFL Draft. He spent a decade with the Cowboys before they dealt him to the New York Giants during the 1974 campaign. He was there for more than two years before landing with the Broncos for the 1977 campaign.
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He led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl. RIP.
It was fun to follow his career. The reason that this previous Californian became a Denver Broncos fan was that Denver was the NFL team to which Morton arrived.
RIP Craig Morton.
Craig Morton seemed to be through with the Giants, largely due to a lack of an offensive line, and a misplaced hope in Larry Czonka. They were miserable years for Giants fans. Denver led to his resurrection, where the Broncos beat out the Oakland Raiders who had been perennial division champs. The Orange Crush defense and an okay offense left them to the first night time Super Bowl, and a bad performance against the far more talented Cowboys.
He was a gamer and by all accounts a good guy.
RIP Craig.
Yeah I was a big fan of Morton in that Sb.
Sad... RIP, Craig...
It seems that former NFL players never make it to old age...
Cowboys would have won SB V if Staubach started.
I am sorry to see him go, however, there has not been a QB who appeared in 2 superbowls that played worse. he played like he was bought off by the mafia to cover a score.
As a Cal Soccer player with a blown out knee cartilege, I spent time in the training room and Craig was often there getting tapped before practice. At the time I thought with all that tape he was definitly protected from injury. That was before I saw how hard they hit in football.
I recall a game with Penn State where Cal was headed for a loss in the remaining minutes of the 4th quarter. The play was a Hail Mary Pass to wide receiver Jerry Bradley (on a solo pass route). Craig had to throw the ball 50 yards and Penn State had four backs waiting with Bradley (Bradley was a stand out sprinter on the Track team as well)
The Penn State backs all jumped for the ball and the result was a tip in the end zone. Bradley did not jump but was able to dive and make the falling catch and Cal Won that game.
Thanks for the memory, RIP Craig.
Here is the grok summary of this game:
1965.
nytimes.com
On October 30, 1965, California (Cal) defeated Penn State 21-17 in Berkeley. With time expired, Cal quarterback Craig Morton threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Bradley for the game-winning score.
Nice memory!
He was the first QB we had who could actually throw passes, which is why we never went to a playoff game until we got him, not too long after he was discarded by Dallas. No surprise they let him go after his knees were both shot, due to one too many hard hits over a long career. I don't remember seeing him ever actually running. I think his knees no longer tolerated that. But if he got protection, and a receiver got open, he could really nail it.
We fans had never seen that being done, or at least not by a Broncos team. Before him, the only major talent we had was Floyd Little. The talentless QBs just took the snap & handed it to Floyd & their only job was complete. And the talentless coaches just called "Little Up The Middle" over & over & over, so that our opponent's defenses knew what was coming 90% of the time.
RIP Craig.
Colorado ping.
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