DENVER \u2014 Former Broncos quarterback and Ring of Famer Craig Morton has died at age 83, the Broncos announced Monday.<\/p>\n
He passed away on May 9, his family confirmed.<\/p>\n
Morton played for the Broncos for six seasons (1977-82) and delivered the franchise\u2019s first playoff berth, two division titles, and three postseason appearances.<\/p>\n
For his performance during that 1977 season, Morton was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Year, PFWA Comeback Player of the Year, and NFL UPI MVP.<\/p>\n
He played through a painful hip injury during the AFC Championship win that sent Denver to Super Bowl XII.<\/p>\n
“Craig Morton is unbelievable,” said Ring of Famer Haven Moses following the Broncos’ first AFC Championship, according to a 1978 New York Times article. “To me, he’s the most valuable player in the National Football League this year.”<\/p>\n
Morton retired as the Broncos\u2019 all\u2011time leader in passing yards, touchdowns, attempts, and completions, and still ranks third in regular\u2011season wins.<\/p>\n
Morton was inducted into the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame in 1988, alongside Moses and Jim Turner. He was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.<\/p>\n
Before Denver, Morton played for the Cowboys and Giants, finishing his NFL career with 183 touchdowns, nearly 28,000 passing yards, and 81 wins.<\/p>\n
A standout at the University of California, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992.<\/p>\n
Morton passed away surrounded by his loved ones in Mill Valley, California.<\/p>\n
He is survived by his wife, Kym; his sister; his children; and his grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Former Broncos quarterback and Ring of Famer Craig Morton has died at age 83, the Broncos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,18097,18098,2858,18099,18100,18101,18102,37412,301,187,3943,6,18094,302,18095],"class_list":["post-732133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-basketball","tag-bronco","tag-bronco-preseason","tag-broncos","tag-broncos-2022","tag-broncos-2023","tag-broncos-2024","tag-broncos-depth-chart","tag-broncos-football-latest","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-nba","tag-nfl-scores","tag-nuggets","tag-russell-wilson-denver-broncos"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116559988935546505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}