Originally Posted by penchief:
Their altitude advantage is the single greatest competitive advantage in all of sports. It helped them pad their regular season records and earn playoff births. Playing at home in the playoffs afforded them the same advantage. That is why good, not great, bronco teams made it to the super bowl so many times only to get blown out by vastly superior teams.
The boost they get record-wise from their thin air home games cannot be understated. Between that and their documented history of cheating on and off the field, Denver is no better than other run of the mill team. Their fans who think they have some sort of great legacy crack me up.
Here is the bronco legacy in the order of most important contributions to their three tainted super bowl wins.
Thin air advantage.
Cheating the salary cap.
John Elway.
Cheating on the field and dirty play.
Manning’s farewell tour and subsequent reach around from the league.
Elite defense during Super Bowl L run.
Denver fans are some of the most delusional and self-entitled fans in the league. The chief’s legacy already surpasses theirs and will only dwarf it by the time Mahomes, Reid, and Veach are done.
I think that "cheating on the field and dirty play" needs to be subdivided into categories. You've got equipment cheating like vegetable oil, you've got sportsmanship cheating like diving at the backs of players' knees, you've got a special category for Romanowski trying to break players' fingers in the pile, and I'm pretty sure that Aqib Talib and Von Miller carried guns in their waistbands. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TIED5573:
Is there any Chief player speaking on record about the altitude advantage? Ever?
I'm sure you can find some guys after they retired talking about it, but it's not something anyone talks about when they're playing, I think it's a mental thing. [Reply]
It seems like the highly trained athlete would be less affected and with oxygen available the recovery should be pretty rapid. I would think the linemen would be most affected. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TIED5573:
It seems like the highly trained athlete would be less affected and with oxygen available the recovery should be pretty rapid. I would think the linemen would be most affected.
Originally Posted by Mecca:
It literally almost killed Ryan Clark...
After a short search on the Google, it's pretty well documented about the advantage. The one article indicates it would take approximately 11 days to fully acclimate.
Hence the reason the Olympic training center is in Colorado Springs. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
I'm sure you can find some guys after they retired talking about it, but it's not something anyone talks about when they're playing, I think it's a mental thing.
Um, altitude isn't a mental thing, it's definitely physical. There's literally a little less oxygen at higher altitudes. Roughly, there's about 4% less O2 at 5,000 ft. vs. sea level. Doesn't sound like much, but air is only 21% oxygen in the first place. So playing at DEN means a visiting player must perform with only 80% of the O2 his body is normally used to.
Less O2 means your muscles will burn through the available O2 faster, and it will take longer for your body to reaccumulate it. So lactic acid production and build-up are both going to happen faster.
In other words, you get tired quicker and it takes longer to recover. At the beginning of a game, highly trained athletes won't notice this as much as a regular person might, but it's cumulative, so by the 2nd half (or earlier for fatties) is when they probably really notice it.
However, if you live at higher altitudes, your body becomes accustomed to making do with less O2. It takes a few weeks for your body to produce the extra red blood cells. So Broncos players don't feel the effects as soon or as much as a visiting player.
That's why playing at Mile High is such an advantage for DEN. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Um, altitude isn't a mental thing, it's definitely physical. There's literally a little less oxygen at higher altitudes. Roughly, there's about 4% less O2 at 5,000 ft. vs. sea level. Doesn't sound like much, but air is only 21% oxygen in the first place.
Less O2 means your muscles will burn through the available O2 faster, and it will take longer for your body to reaccumulate it. So lactic acid production and build-up are both going to happen faster.
In other words, you get tired quicker and it takes longer to recover. At the beginning of a game, highly trained athletes won't notice this as much as a regular person might, but it's cumulative, so by the 2nd half (or earlier for fatties) is when they probably really notice it.
However, if you live at higher altitudes, your body becomes accustomed to making do with less O2. It takes a few weeks for your body to produce the extra red blood cells. So Broncos players don't feel the effects as soon or as much as a visiting player.
That's why playing at Mile High is such an advantage for DEN.
I mean it's mental in the sense that players try to ignore it while they're playing. [Reply]