In fact, when Sears sold the NFL jerseys in their catalog at that time, Denver was the only team to have a defensive player jersey (53 Randy Gradishar) as their representative, so the "Orange Crush" defense was the star of the team.
Still, Steve Watson took over the top receiving option from Haven Moses in his third season in 1981 and was the go-to pass catcher for Craig Morton as he ended his career and for the first formative years of John Elway as well.
Watson made the Broncos in 1979 as an undrafted free agent from Temple but only caught six passes in each of his first two seasons in Denver before his breakout season in 1981.
In 1981, the first season of Dan Reeves's coaching career and the final season of Craig Morton's quarterbacking career, Watson caught sixty passes for 1,244 yards and a league-leading thirteen receiving touchdowns as he made his only Pro Bowl in a breakout year.
Watson wouldn't be selected to another Pro Bowl but he continued to rack up receiving yards with 555 (in the nine-game strike season), 1,113, 1,170, and 915 in the following four seasons for the Broncos.
It was Steve Watson who was the go-to receiver for a developing John Elway as an intermediate threat and occasional long-ball target.
Watching these Denver games during a time when the football wasn't in the air as much as it is today, Watson's ability to get open deep as well as on shorter routes makes me think that he might have been more effective in today's game.
Watson's numbers dipped a little in 1986, catching forty-five passes for 699 yards and he played only five games in 1987, catching eleven passes in what would be his final season.
Watson finished his career with over six thousand receiving yards, three hundred fifty-seven catches, and a very good average of seventeen yards per catch.
I wonder if Watson had come along a few years later with his skills perhaps the Broncos would have won one of those lost Super Bowls under Dan Reeves as he would have given the team the bigger receiver that the team lacked with their quicker smaller pass catchers such as Vance Johnson and Mark Jackson.
And now, why Steve Watson was part of my childhood fandom.
You see, the local newspaper would every year or so mention Watson in the local sports section as his grandparents lived in Hagerstown.
That was the connection to Watson and I remember every time we made our weekly run for supplies, I tried to wear something Bronco-related on the remote chance that I would run into these people (remember this was in an era that wasn't easy to acquire items from a non-local team) who in my early teenaged mind would see me, talk to me, and make a connection with someone that knows a Denver Bronco!
In a shocking development, none of that would occur and I'm not a Broncos fan anymore but Steve Watson is still one of my favorite players and we welcome him to the Forgotten Superstars series.
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