PARKER — One of the final and most lasting images from David Bruton’s seven years as a Bronco was taken the evening of Dec. 20, 2015, in the bowels of Heinz Field. His arms draped around linebacker Danny Trevathan and the team’s head physician, Bruton hobbled back to the visiting locker room wincing in pain after playing nearly an entire game on a broken leg.
That image was as much a badge of honor and summation of Bruton’s NFL career as it was a reminder of the game’s physicality. In his eight years in the league, Bruton was the subject of so many of those photos; his big plays were met with bigger hits.