Not long after Mark Jackson, on Jan. 11, 1987, caught the game-tying touchdown in the AFC championship game from John Elway to conclude “The Drive,’’ he was named honorary president of an English football club. 

It took him seven months to find out about it. 

The Broncos were in London 38 years ago to prepare to face the Los Angeles Rams at old Wembley Stadium on Aug 9, 1987, in the preseason American Bowl, the third NFL game played in England. Jackson had become well known for catching a 5-yard touchdown pass from Elway at Cleveland that tied the AFC title game 20-20 with 37 seconds left in regulation. Rich Karlis eventually won the game 23-20 with a 33-yard field goal in overtime. 

“I remember meeting some guys in the lobby at the hotel, and they told me they had voted me honorary president of their football club,’’ said Jackson, a Broncos wide receiver from 1986-92. “They had seen me in ‘The Drive,’ and I became then their honorary president. I didn’t even know it.” 

Jackson ended up making members of the club proud when, against the Rams he caught four passes for 46 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown. Never mind that the Broncos lost 28-27. 

On Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Broncos will face the New York Jets in the third regular-season game they have played in London. With that in mind, several former Broncos looked back at when Denver first played in London in the preseason, well before the NFL held its first regular-season game in the city in 2007. 

The first preseason game in London was Minnesota defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 28-10 in 1983, and the second was Chicago beating Dallas 17-6 in 1986. The Broncos were invited to participate in the third, when it was much more unique for an NFL team to go overseas. 

“It was a big deal for me,’’ Jackson said. “I was a 24-year-old Black kid from the projects of Chicago, and that was definitely a next-level experience. I remember the eggs were orange and I thought that was strange, and then I come to find out their chickens were a lot healthier than ours in the United States and the yokes a lot oranger.” 

The Broncos next played in London in the regular season in 2010, a 24-16 loss to San Francisco, and in 2022, a 21-17 win over Jacksonville. But those games were obviously much more like business trips than their one preseason game there. 

So, it’s no wonder many memories of the trip are from what happened other than during the game. 

“My best memory was trying to get the guards at Buckingham Palace to flinch,’’ said running back Sammy Winder, who played for the Broncos from 1982-90. “I went out there with (fellow running backs) Gerald Willhite, Steve Sewell, and Ken Bell. We were making funny faces and dancing just to get a flinch out of him, but we never did.” 

Jackson remembers then-head coach Dan Reeves being rather relaxed during the trip. After one practice, he said Reeves gave him permission to take The Tube from the workout and then walk around London. 

Broncos players went out at night. And even though NFL players weren’t as recognizable in 1987 in London as they are now, they still got the royal treatment. 

“I went with (fellow receivers) Vance Johnson and Ricky Nattiel to the Hard Rock Cafe and there was a line that went around the corner,’’ Jackson said. “But they let us go right to the front, so we had carte blanche.” 

The receiving trio of Johnson, Jackson, and Nattiel later would gain fame as “The Three Amigos.” The nickname had not been tagged since Nattiel was a rookie who had yet to appear in a regular-season game. 

Come game time, the crowd of 72,786 was buzzing plenty for a preseason game. 

“It sold out,’’ said Gary Kubiak, a Broncos backup quarterback from 1983-91 and their head coach from 2015-16, which included winning Super Bowl 50 in his first season on the job. “The fans were there 3 hours before the game and were so excited about American football. I just remember there was cheering from the opening kickoff until the end. They cheered around the clock. It didn’t matter if it was a timeout or what, they were going a hundred miles an hour.” 

Actually, there was some booing at halftime. That’s when fans were unhappy when the Colorado State band played “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from the musical “Evita.” The United Kingdom, you see, was just five years removed from the Falklands War against Argentina. 

But Broncos star quarterback John Elway, who had been ranked No. 4 in a British poll for NFL Player of the Year in 1986, received plenty of cheers. He got the start and completed 9 of 15 passes for 106 yards. Kubiak then came on and completed 13 of 22 passes for 176 yards with one interception and threw the touchdown pass to Jackson, and another one of 32 yards to Nattiel. 

Kubiak’s second strike with 1:57 left in the game put the Broncos up 27-21. But the Rams then scored the winning touchdown on a 4-yard run by Charles White with 28 seconds left. 

“It’s been a great week in a great city,’’ Reeves, who died in 2022, told reporters after the game. “If you could give me two more points, I’d be real happy.” 

Not only did the Broncos lose, but when they got back to the locker room, there was no hot water for their showers. 

“Some of the guys didn’t take a shower, but I manned up and took one,’’ Winder said. “It wasn’t iceberg cold, but it was cold. But looking back, we laughed and joked about it.” 

Karlis’ most notable memory came when he was sitting on the bench during the game. 

“The funniest thing that happened to me was sitting on the sideline during the game and a guy comes out of the stands and sits next to me and is chatting it up with me for a little while,’’ said Karlis, who played for Denver from 1982-88. “And then one of the Bobbies (English policemen) said to the guy, ‘Hey, get back in the stands.’ Obviously, security is now 10 times what it was then.” 

It is now, indeed. Playing regular-season games overseas has become a big business for the NFL. 

There are seven international regular-season games being played in 2025, including three in London. Since the New York Giants defeated the Miami Dolphins 13-10 in the first regular-season game in London in 2007, Sunday’s matchup will be the 41^st in the city. 

“It’s just the league wanting to spread its wings and develop these international markets,’’ said Karlis. “I think as a player and probably the coaches, I can’t imagine that they look forward to these trips. I mean, they become a bit of a distraction. It’s one thing if it’s the preseason, but in the regular season everyone is chasing the money. … I’m sure (Broncos coach) Sean (Payton) will keep them focused, that’s for sure.” 

Indeed. Payton said before the Broncos departed for London there would be “no sightseeing” by his players, and it is a business trip. Unlike in 1987, when the team was at a hotel in Central London, the Broncos are staying an hour north in the small community of Ware. 

With that in mind, if a current Broncos player has been named honorary president of an English football club, he might not even find out about it.