We’ve gone back to the future, with the AFC once again a wicked-hard turf war between the Broncos and Patriots, just as football gods Peyton Manning and Tom Brady intended. “No team can go through so many years, over and over, with losing. You’ve got to do something about it,” Denver offe nsive tackle Garett Bolles declared Thursday, saying good riddance to the pain that Broncos Country endured for a lost decade. The Broncos and Patriots are back, baby. Their combined records? 21-4. Let’s be honest: What football prognosticator had this on his BINGO card for 2025? It’s December, and somebody in the league office has rolled back the standings to 2014, with New England and Denver ranked No. 1 and No. 1A  in the AFC. The sun shines brighter in Colorado, the New England clam chowder tastes yummier and the NFL is more damn fun when the Patriots and Broncos are great. It’s Raiders Week in Colorado, which used to be a bigger hoot than dressing up like Dirty Al Davis for Halloween, until the Silver Black became chronically Sad Boring. This Broncos’ trip to Las Vegas, however, means everything in the AFC hierarchy. With New England finally resting on a well-earned bye, Denver can reclaim the conference’s top seed by beating the Raiders. “We control our own destiny,” Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said. And there’s nothing quite like rubbing success in the face of Massholes, proudly and loudly the most obnoxious sports fans anywhere in the United States. Even a chattering chowderhead, however, can stop flapping his gums long enough to relate with the years of football misery endured by Broncos Country. Prior to this season of renaissance, in the five years immediately after the messy divorce between Brady and coach Bill Belichick, the Patriots’ cumulative record was 33-51, with not so much as a single playoff appearance. Earlier this week, Broncos coach Sean Payton waxed nostalgic and poetic about where all the persnickety old power freaks in the league have gone. He wishes Belichick was still roaming the Patriots sideline in a hoodie. “I’ll be honest with you,” Payton said. “I miss (Belichick) not being in the league. … I wouldn’t be surprised, and I would be somewhat hopeful that he ends up back in the league. We’d all be better for it. He’s something.” Well, as much as I hate to burst Payton’s bubble, I’m afraid that at age 73, Belichick isn’t going anywhere his young girlfriend doesn’t lead him by his … nose. So I wouldn’t get your hopes up about seeing Coach Hoodie back anywhere in the league, much less as a hated rival for Denver. But who needs Belichick? The plot lines between the Broncos and Patriots seem destined to be deliciously intertwined. Just like the good, old days. In quarterback Drake Maye, New England not only has a bona fide football hero with Brady-esque tendencies, he could win the MVP at the tender age of 23. His late-game heroics have Bo Nix blushing over comparisons to John Elway. It’s only the beginning, but Drake and Bo have the makings of a QB rivalry built to last a decade or more into the future. For the present, the No. 1 seed in the AFC figures to be  a fight to the finish of the regular season between the Broncos and Patriots. What’s at stake? Way more than an opening-round bye that allows the AFC’s top seed to be only two home wins away from a berth in the Super Bowl. As anyone who walked into a windy, damp night colder than a witch’s heart after the magic of Tim Tebow got exposed 45-10 by the Patriots in 2012, Foxboro is one inhospitable place to play football in January. For all his GOATness, Brady was winless in playoff games staged at his own personal house of horrors in Colorado. Home field isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. The Broncos are on a mission that Peyton dared to make a statement by announcing this team was Super Bowl material before it won a single game in 2025. “This is what it takes to build an empire. That’s what we want,” Bolles said. “This organization has been an empire, right? You go back to the John Elway and Steve Atwater days, people feared to play the Broncos” Every champion in the making needs a rival to intensify the motivation and serve as a constant reminder the pursuit of excellence can’t afford to take even a single day off. So let’s all welcome back the Patriots to the top of the AFC heap. Broncos Country missed those Massholes more than any of us knew. ...read more read less