With excitement and anticipation, fans across the [Broncos] country gathered to witness the 8th Super Bowl in franchise history. Whether you were watching for the game, the commercials, the halftime show, or maybe you just showed up for the food, fans were not disappointed (excluding the forever-bitter Patriots fans).

The favored Carolina Panthers suited up against the Denver Broncos on February 7 at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area, their first time hosting since 1985. Setting an early precedent that his team wasn’t one to doubt, Peyton Manning and the Broncos snagged the first points on the board with a solid drive that ended in a field goal.

After taking an early lead, the Broncos continued to shine throughout the game…or should I say their defense shined. Although Cam Newton, Carolina’s Quarterback, was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) this season, Von Miller arguably stole the title from him on the 7th of February. To wrap up many of his accomplishments throughout the season, Miller had 2.5 sacks, six tackles, one pass deflection, and a critical second forced fumble in the fourth quarter. Malik Jackson had five solo tackles and 1 touchdown and DeMarcus Ware had 2 sacks and 4 QB hits, making both defenders honorable mentions.

Sure, we probably all tuned in to see the country bleeding orange and blue alongside us, but we’re not sure if Peyton Manning did. Only completing 57% of his passes for a total of 141 yards, no touchdowns, and only 1 interception, he didn’t show up as much as we were all expecting him to. But, he still celebrated that night, for good reason.

As exhilarating as it was for all Colorado fans to root for our home team, Super Bowl 50 was special for multiple reasons. Not only was the game the third-most watched U.S. broadcast of all time, but it was also the “golden anniversary” of the National Football League. If you hadn’t already noticed, the Roman numerals usually associated with the game weren’t present as the league “temporarily suspended the tradition” so that a big 5-0 could be featured instead. Otherwise, this year’s game would have been known as Super Bowl L. Not as cool sounding, huh?

Pop culture is also a large integration into the Super Bowl Franchise, specifically the music and commercials. Lady GaGa (or should I say Caesar Flickerman) performed a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, Coldplay had a subpar Haftime performance, and Beyoncé almost fell on stage and gracefully recovered. As each costs an average of $5 million to air, one would expect no disappointments from big-name companies, but that’s never the case. Whether you have Mountain Dew’s “puppy monkey baby” chant stuck in your head or you found Drake’s “Hotline Bling” T-Mobile parody amusing, you’ve got to give credit to advertisers’ creativity and the wads of cash they pay for you to see their product. All light-heartedness aside, the stand-out commercial was the anti-domestic violence PSA, featuring shots of a mangled house as a 9-1-1 call is being placed by a woman pretending to order a pizza. For more on the Super Bowl commercials, make sure to check out Tali’s article!

So, whether you’re as happy as all of Colorado is that Denver sealed the victory (24-10) or as disappointed as Eli Manning was when the Broncos scored their fourth-quarter touchdown, you have an entire year to either soak it in or suck it up.