The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. The Broncos were a small-market team that met with little success in their early years, but have since become one of the elite franchises of the league after having advanced to the Super Bowl six times. In their first four Super Bowl appearances, they suffered successively lopsided defeats, achieving near-legendary status before winning back-to-back Super Bowl championships in 1997 and 1998 under quarterback John Elway, running back Terrell Davis and coach Mike Shanahan.