Broncos, Brandon Marshall irked by 'dirty' label

"We just play hard, man," Marshall said when asked about the notion the Broncos are a "dirty" team.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- If your defense attacks quarterbacks with the speed and frequency of the Broncos, you're going to have some collisions. And given the difficulty of adjusting one's trajectory at full speed with little room before contact, sometimes helmets are going to be involved.

But there's a difference between being having those types of plays and being a "dirty" team. That implies not merely a desire to stop an opponent with the context of the game, but to injure and harm beyond it.

And that word understandably rankles the Broncos.

"I disagree with it," Head Coach Gary Kubiak said. "We…