When Broncos star cornerback Pat Surtain II stepped to the podium after last Sunday’s game against Las Vegas to address the media, he noted that teammate Riley Moss was “definitely making history” as a “White cornerback.”

It turns out Surtain had been informed of a statistic after the game, and it’s not one you ever will find in the NFL Record & Fact Book. Surtain was told that Moss in the 34-18 win over the Raiders had become the first White cornerback to have an NFL interception since Jason Sehorn of the New York Giants in 2002.

“He’s making history,’’ Surtain told The Denver Gazette on Friday about hearing that statistic. “He’s changing the game. He’s revolutionizing the way how they talk about the white corner.”

Surtain has great respect for Moss but he’s also having fun with him being a White cornerback. Last Monday, he posted on social media a photo of the Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson characters in the 1992 movie “White Man Can’t Jump.” Only he had superimposed on it his face on Snipes’ Sidney Deane and Moss’ face on Harrelson’s Billy Hoyle.

Surtain said a friend helped him with the post. It has since gotten more than 19,000 likes on X, formerly known as Twitter, and been reposted more than 2,000 times.

“Once I saw it, I knew I had to post it and the next thing I knew it went viral,’’ Surtain said.

As for Moss, in his second Denver season and first as a starter, he loved the posting.

“It was funny,’’ he said. “I retweeted it. It’s fun. You got to keep this stuff fun.”

Moss, who starred at Centennial High School in Ankeny, Iowa, outside of Des Moines and in college at Iowa, has heard for years talk of him being a White cornerback. He focuses on his job but doesn’t shy away from the discussion.

“Obviously, it’s rare and it’s crazy,’’ Moss said of being the NFL’s first white starting cornerback since Sehorn last played in 2003 for the St. Louis Rams. “And to think that it has been 22 years (since Sehorn’s interception), that’s crazy. … But I just do my job and that’s all that really matters. It’s like you keep it professional but then Twitter does the rest.”

Yes, social media was abuzz after Moss’ interception. And many of the posts have noted that Moss is flat out a great athlete.

Moss was a track star in high school, and at one point held an Iowa state record in the hurdles. He was known for his speed in college. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds at the 2023 combine although he said he is “faster” than that.

“Obviously, I’ve been gifted with a little bit of height and speed,’’ said the 6-foot-1, 193-pound Moss, who was a third-round pick by Denver in 2023 but played only 23 snaps from scrimmage as a rookie.

Through five games and entering Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High, Moss is rated by Pro Football Focus as the NFL’s seventh-best cornerback. That’s even higher than Surtain, a two-time Pro Bowl selection who is No. 16.

“He’s just a ballplayer no matter what people might say at the end of the day,’’ Surtain said. “I really think he’s a great corner. The sky is the limit for him, and I see nothing but greatness in his near future.”

Nevertheless, Moss’ teammates still make note often of Moss being a White cornerback. Moss said they “bust my chops” “a decent amount” but that “we have fun with it.”

Indeed, they do.

“We always give him (the business),’’ said Broncos safety P.J. Locke. “I told him he’s got to embrace it because the world is going to do it to him. After he got his pick, all that stuff was flying around on social media with him being a white corner getting a pick.”

Surtain is now asking fans to help him come up with a nickname for Denver’s impressive cornerback duo. He said suggestions he has liked so far are “Yin and Yang,” “Salt and Pepper” and “Pulp Fiction.”

The 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction” starred Samuel Jackson and John Travolta. We’ll see if a a future posting by Surtain has the faces of the two cornerbacks superimposed over Jackson’s Jules Winnfield character and Travolta’s Vincent Vega.

Harris’ next stop Ring of Fame

At Sunday’s game, the Broncos will honor cornerback Chris Harris Jr., who played for them from 2011-19 and retired earlier this year. He’s hoping the next time he is honored at the stadium will be for an induction into the Ring of Fame.

“Hopefully, I’ll be back one day in the stadium permanently,’’ he said. “I think definitely as a player that was a goal to be in the Ring of Fame.’’

Harris figures to be a no-brainer for that honor. After joining the Broncos as an undrafted rookie in 2011, he made four Pro Bowls in his nine seasons with them, was on the Super Bowl 50-winning team and was named the NFL All-Decade Team. He finished his career with the Chargers from 2020-21 and with New Orleans in 2022.

“It’s going to be amazing,’’ Harris said of being introduced Sunday. “It’s definitely a great feeling to come back home and just being back in the stadium is going to bring a lot of memories.”

Harris will attend the game along with his wife Leah, his five daughters and his parents. He attended Denver’s walkthrough practice Saturday and greeted some former teammates and on Sunday will meet up with some former Chargers teammates.

What I’m hearing

— With Luke Wattenberg going on injured reserve Saturday due to an ankle injury, second-year man Alex Forsyth will be Denver’s starting center for the next four games and perhaps longer. Tackle Alex Palczewski figures it will be a seamless transition. “Alex is unbelievable,’’ Palczewski said “The way I see him prepare every single week is crazy. He knows everything that’s going and that’s just unbelievable.” Forsyth will again snap to quarterback Bo Nix, which he did at Oregon in 2022.

— Sunday’s game is a matchup of two coaches with old-school tendencies who will try to establish the run in the Broncos’ Sean Payton and the Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh. “On paper, it’s looking that way but we’re going to go with how the game goes,’’ said Denver running back Javonte Williams. Williams, who has rushed for 138 yards with a per-carry average of 4.9 yards the past two games after rushing for 52 yards with a per-carry average of 2.2 yards in the first three, surely wouldn’t mind if it turns into a battle on the ground.

What I’m seeing

— The Broncos are becoming even more inexperienced at wide receiver. Tim Patrick, who is 30 and entered the NFL in 2018, was surprisingly released during final cuts. And now Josh Reynolds, who is 29 and entered the league in 2017, was placed on injured reserve Saturday due to a hand injury and must miss at least the next four games. The Broncos still have seven-year veteran Courtland Sutton and six-year man Lil’Jordan Humphrey, but their other receivers are second-year man Marvin Mims Jr. and rookies Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele. Patrick is fitting in well with Detroit and has five catches for 72 yards in the three games he has played.

— Broncos offensive lineman Calvin Throckmorton, who was elevated off the practice squad Saturday for Sunday’s game, once snapped the ball to Chargers star quarterback Justin Herbert. Both played at Oregon. While Throckmorton was mostly a tackle for the Ducks, he did snap to Herbert while starting one game at center in 2018 and two in 2019.

What I’m thinking

— The Broncos have a quick turnaround after Sunday’s game, next playing Thursday night at New Orleans in the return game for Payton, who previously coached the Saints for 15 seasons. We’ll see if Denver’s offense shows up on a short week. In their last three Thursday games, the Broncos averaged just 10.3 points and lost all three. They fell 17-14 at Cleveland in 2021, 12-9 at home to Indianapolis in 2022 and 19-8 at Kansas City last season.

— Payton often has used the description “Shangri-La” in describing an ideal scenario he seeks for Nix. For those who want some background, Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet’s Kunlun Mountains that was written about in the 1933 novel “Lost Horizon” by English author James Hilton and then made into a 1937 movie by the same name. It has been depicted as an earthly paradise.