The “Greek” File
During an interview with The Denver Post, retiring Broncos director of sports medicine Steve “Greek” Antonopulos was asked for his favorite memories since joining the team in 1976:
Favorite win (non-super Bowl)
In October 1977, the Broncos traveled to face the defending Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders, who had won 17 straight games dating back to the previous season.
“(Kicker) Jim Turner caught a (25-yard) touchdown pass on a fake field goal (from holder Norris Weese) and (linebacker) Tom Jackson went over and gave the bird to (coach) John Madden. That was a tremendous victory in Broncos history. I was blessed to be a part of the elation of that.
In the playoffs after the 1986 season, the Broncos traveled to Cleveland to win the AFC championship game in overtime, highlighted by “The Drive” to end regulation.
“‘The Drive’ was so special. The weather was awful. It was dreary. Rainy. Sleeting. The worst locker room in the NFL to a point where we had to tape our athletes in the bathroom if you could imagine that, the locker room was so small. It was embarrassing, the whole concept. The elation and what historically happened there for the Broncos was unbelievable.”
Favorite road stadiums
“The old Kingdome in Seattle was a great place because of the crowd noise and it was a good place to travel. And then Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City has always been one of my favorites. The fans are incredible and it was the first of the modern stadiums in the old days. It’s just a cool place.”
Most bizarre (non-serious injury)
“Oh boy, a couple of those. It wasn’t really an injury. Rick Massie was a receiver from Kentucky. He had a fear of flying. We had a few of those guys, but he was to the hilt. We’re on the tarmac going to play San Diego. We were taxing to take off and he just went nuts and jumped out of his seat and was screaming and the pilot pulled up, opened the door and let him get a breath. He closed the door and he went nuts again. (Coach) Dan Reeves made the decision to have him drive to San Diego for the game. We had to put him on injured reserve because he couldn’t travel. The one other was (running back) Rob Lytle back in the day. He had the fingernail on his thumb totally torn off and was bleeding all over the place. And he played the whole game. He was special the way he handled it.”