Taylor Ritzel's eight boat celebrates the big Olympic win in London. (US-PRESSWIRE)

Red Miller coached the Broncos from 1977-1980, during their Orange Crush days. My, my how the times have changed.

“They’re bigger all over,” Miller said of the differences in players today compared to when he was coaching. “We had big guys, but we didn’t have as many big guys. We had fast guys, not as many fast guys.”

Miller got a good look at the size and speed of the 2012 Broncos Wednesday when he stepped onto the grass at Dove Valley with his wife and grandson to watch the Broncos practice. Then he met with John Fox after practice.

Fox wanted to congratulate Miller on his granddaughter’s big accomplishment. Taylor Ritzel won an Olympic gold medal in rowing last week.

“She was a swimmer in high school, got sick, had to drop out,” Miller said. “She scouted around to see what she wanted to do and finally her mom talked her into rowing.”

Good thing Ritzel took that path. She was an NCAA champion at Yale three out of four years before becoming an Olympic gold medalist.

Miller is mighty proud of his granddaughter, but still doesn’t quite believe she won gold.

“I want her to get here and I want to hug that thing.”

Make sure to follow Predominantly Orange on Facebook and on Twitter.

Prior to winning their first Lombardi Trophy in 1998, the Broncos suffered four Super Bowl losses while being outscored 163-50 (US Presswire)

By my calculations, ESPN, The NFL Network, and NBC are scheduled for approximately 18 hours of pregame coverage of Super Bowl XLVI.   You can either tune into these programs to find out the latest team news regarding injuries, final game day preparations, pre-game meals, Saturday night bed checks, team bus arrival times, and other useless trivia knowledge, or you can search the internet for Bronco Super Bowl history. The New England Patriots and New York Giants may have the spotlight today but The Broncos are still the most important team to us.    To help get you started, I’ve included a brief synopsis of the Broncos Super Bowl history.

(more…)