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Broncos fans pack Vail businesses for Super Bowl

Susan Chung and Jill Schneider, of Denver, sit at the bar at Vendetta's in Vail and react to Seattle's touchdown from the kickoff return that started the second half of the Super Bowl on Sunday and brought the score to 28-0.
Anthony Thornton | athornton@vaildaily.com |

VAIL — The weather was nice for both an East Coast Super Bowl and the fans here out West watching it.

Enjoying the first sunny morning on the mountain in days, Broncos fans packed the slopes full of orange and blue, wearing jerseys over their jackets and celebrating Colorado football while taking powder turns.

Visiting from Fairfax, Vir., Anh Ko and her daughter Hannah Ko were decked out in the orange outside Two Elk. It was their first trip to Vail, but Hannah, a Broncos fan, already owned a Peyton Manning jersey.



“She already liked them before we came, so we’re really excited about watching the game here in Colorado,” Anh Ko said.

Manning jerseys like Hannah Ko’s were a common sight on the mountain, but more so in the morning than the afternoon.

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“I think the crowds left around 2 or so to get back to the Front Range by the start of the game,” said Cesar Hermosillo, who was on the first gondola up the mountain and wore a Terrell Davis jersey for the day. “But I saw a ton of kids in Peyton Manning jerseys, for sure.”

Weston Sands, of Fort Collins, shredded Tea Cup Bowl in a Tim Tebow jersey, taking a moment to drop to one knee and “Tebow” after a glorious powder run. His buddy, Mitch Hoover, rocked an old Shannon Sharpe jersey.

“We’re planning on staying out on the mountain all day and then watching the game in West Vail,” Hoover said.

But it wasn’t all Broncos fans at Vail on Sunday. The lifties at the bottom of Sourdough Express were rooting for Seattle, getting the occasional cheer of support, and fist of disapproval, throughout the day.

Manuel Leon, of Mexico, a senior at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was in town enjoying a family reunion. Decked out from head to toe in orange, he said he was only a Broncos fan for the day.

“We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and they had a whole exhibit set up for the Broncos,” he said. “That’s not something you see every day at a museum tour.”

Wearing an orange jacket and orange pants, Leon said he’s ordinarily not a huge fan of American football, but loves Colorado and may have been caught up in the moment.

“With my orange jacket and this amazing blue sky, I see nothing but Broncos colors all day,” he said.


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