BILLINGS — The Montana Football Hall of Fame will enshrine its 2024 class Saturday in Billings and among the inductees will stand a tall, well-known quarterback.
It could be argued that 6-foot-7 Brock Osweiler is the reason the Denver Broncos reached — and went on to win — Super Bowl 50.
Osweiler was backing up Peyton Manning, who was recovering from a mid-season injury, when he became the starter in early November of 2015. Osweiler led Denver on an incredible run that helped the Broncos earn home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Osweiler started six straight games helping the Broncos achieve a 4-2 mark.
Maybe his most impressive game in that stretch was a Sunday night regular season win in the snow over Tom Brady’s New England Patriots. Osweiler was so steady in that win that Sports Illustrated pasted him on it's magazine cover the following week with the headline, "Brock On!"
Osweiler's first NFL start was actually on his 25th birthday as the Broncos beat the Chicago Bears, 17-15. In a fun piece of trivia, the Kalispell native became the first NFL player to win his first career start on his birthday.
What fans may not remember is that Osweiler originally committed to play basketball at Gonzaga when he was a freshman at Flathead High School in Kalispell, from where he later graduated in 2009.
But another hall of famer with Montana roots — Dennis Erickson — helped Osweiler change his mind about Gonzaga. Bailing on basketball and committing to Erickson, who was Arizona State's head football coach, Osweiler became the Sun Devils' first true freshman quarterback to start a game since Jake Plummer.
In Osweiler’s only season as the full-time starter, he broke ASU’s record for completion percentage and became the only player in school history to throw for over 4,000 yards in a season.
That was enough to declare for the NFL after his junior year when he was picked up by the Broncos.
Fast forward to Denver's 24-10 Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers, where afterward he signed a lucrative free agent deal with the Houston Texans. Osweiler finished his seven-year NFL career with 30 starts.
He now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife and two daughters while working for ESPN as an in-game college football color analyst. Osweiler also hosts camps back in the Flathead area and nationwide under his Champions Collective foundation.
The Montana Football Hall of Fame ceremony starts at 6 p.m. on June 22 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.
