Results from the Sweet 16 are in, as you can see here in the updated bracket. Beyond the fold you will see the Elite 8 contests in list form that you can vote upon in the comments in this thread or by sending me a ballot via the contact form. Also find some commentary included on how the Sweet 16 went.
The Sweet 16 saw not only one, but two, #1 seeds fall. Floyd Little was taken down by Peyton Manning, and Gary Zimmerman fell to Mike Shanahan–both by fairly sizeable margins of 11-5. If there was any recency bias in the former matchup, it’s hard to blame at this current point in history, as in the near future it will be Hall of Famer vs Hall of Famer. In the latter, you had a Hall of Famer go up against the coach who brought said Hall of Famer to Denver. Shanahan has polled quite well thus far, and while his career in Denver did not end well, it looks like any rehabilitation of his image has not needed to be substantially large.
The only other higher seed to sweat it out was Karl Mecklenburg, who had a tough battle with Rod Smith. Ed McCaffrey isn’t the only Broncos receiver of the 1990s to receive deserved high fan praise. Otherwise, we’ve had two top seeds (Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis) with perfectly unanimous victories thus far, and two others (Champ Bailey and Steve Atwater) with only a single vote go against them during their ascent in the brackets. But now, some of those powerhouses will have to face off against each other–who will come out on top?
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Here are your Elite 8 matchups, which again will be open until this time on Friday at 10 PM MT. Then, we’ll take the weekend off before proceeding to the Final Four!
#1 Shannon Sharpe vs. #2 Karl Mecklenburg
#1 Terrell Davis vs. #2 Champ Bailey
#2 Randy Gradishar vs. #5 Peyton Manning
#2 Steve Atwater vs. #4 Mike Shanahan