The Broncos will play their 1,001st regular-season game Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. Have a ball.

Dissimilar to Broncos first general manager Dean Griffing 6½ decades ago, current GM George Paton will not be scrumming in the stadium’s south stands section for footballs kicked into the end zone seats.

Several of the 75,125 fans in attendance who catch an errant field goal attempt can keep permanently the official NFL ball that costs about $200. Paton will remain calm in his second-deck suite.

However, in 1960 when the New York Titans played the Broncos before 5,861 folks at Bears Stadium, Griffing would wrangle an official AFL football that cost $20 away from a kid and return it to the sideline for use again in the game.

The Howsam family that paid $25,000 for the Broncos were on a tight budget in 1960. Players salaries totaled $416,500, and the team would sell for $150,000 a year later.

The Walton-Penner group that paid a pro sports record $4.65 billion in August of 2022 for the Broncos has an allotted salary cap figure of $246 million for 2025, and the franchise is valued at $6.85 million.

What a difference 65 years makes.

The original Broncos won a mere 39 games in 10 regular seasons. The 1996-97-98 Broncos won 46 regular-season and postseason games, and the 2012-2015 Broncos won 55 games overall.

The 2017-2022 Broncos won 35 games.

These 2025 Broncos are closer to a 12-5 record than the 5-12 record of ’22 and the 2-11-1 black marks of ’63 and ’64.

The Broncos are back to the prestigious past of eight Super Bowls and ahead to the future of adding to 22 division titles and playoff appearances and three championships.

Welcome back, Broncos.

The Broncos will celebrate a grand opening on Sunday and a grander closer the first weekend of January. Victories in those two games and nine or 10 more would produce a regular season revealing shades of 1977, 1987 and 1997.

Interestingly enough, despite the decade droughts in Denver professional football, from the first year of the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 through 2024, the Broncos possess the combined leagues’ fifth-most triumphs and ties (479 plus six) to trail only the Steelers (524 plus four), the Cowboys (ha), the Dolphins and the Vikings and rank above the Patriots, the 49ers, the Packers and the Chiefs. They are tied for second in most Super Bowl advancements at eight (behind the Patriots at 11).

But, in the moment, are the Titans, who used to be the Oilers.

The Houston-Nashville franchise does not bring George Blanda, Dan Pastorini, Steve McNair, Ryan Tannehill or Coach Bum Phillips. Instead the Titans’ latest starting quarterback is Cam Ward, the No. 1 NFL pick in the last draft by the terrible Titans last season.

Ward’s coach is Brian Callahan, who could have been the Broncos head coach in 2022 instead of a “Star Wars’’ fanboy in a fishing cap – Nathaniel Hackett. Callahan had been a young assistant with the Broncos from 2010-15 (and earned a Super Bowl ring) before joining the Bengals. Hackett was fired with a 4-11 record and two games to go. Callahan ended up with the Titans and mismanaged an even worse rookie coaching season of 3-14.

Callahan and Ward may be willing, but are not ready, to confront the Broncos, who could have the most ferocious force on defense in the NFL. The Broncos are not Ball State, and Cam will not score 62 points. Rather, he could fizzle out with one touchdown, two interceptions, four sacks, 13 incompletions and 15 yards scrambling.

Callahan says that he “doesn’t need Ward to do anything superhuman.’’ Yes, he will have to be CamMan if the only forecaster in the nation to pick the Titans by one point is correct and not a fool.

But center Lloyd Cushenberry, inside linebacker Cody Barton and outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones should warn the rookie of the altitude, the fortitude, the magnitude and the attitude at Mile High.

Meanwhile, on the other side, “Bo Nix Go Six” four times and will be able to rely more often in the Broncos’ initial game on running backs J.K Dobbins and RJ Harvey, the successful Denver debut of Evan Engram as The Joker is wild, and Courtland Sutton to finish with eight receptions for 100-plus yards and two touchdowns.

The betting line is ludicrously low at 8.5 points in favor of the Broncos, who prevail easily at 34-10.

The Broncos go full footballs-out.