Kiszla: Broncos owner Pat Bowlen always "got it"
Posted: 07/23/2014 02:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 07/23/2014 02:17:38 AM MDT
In a city whose heart bleeds orange, you can't spell Broncos without Mr. B.
So pardon us for feeling a melancholy shade of blue as Alzheimer's disease forces Pat Bowlen to relinquish power in day-to-day operations of the NFL team that has done Denver proud during three decades of his ownership.
For the past 30 years, Bowlen expected the Broncos to win the Super Bowl every season. And so did the rest of us.
Mr. B's primary cause had a profound effect: Nothing less than a championship was good enough for every player in the locker room, every ticket-holder in the stadium and every family room that shook with Rocky Mountain thunder whenever Denver crossed the goal line.
As Bowlen walks away at age 70 to wage a fight against a disease that can rob even the strongest man from his fondest memories, the urgency to win a championship increases with each step that Mr. B takes. If time can run out on the reign of a legendary NFL owner, then nothing lasts forever.
The clock ticks louder on a team built to win now. Nobody knows how many touchdown passes remain in the arm of quarterback Peyton Manning or exactly how many more playoff runs Mr. B will enjoy.
Nearly a year ago, as the Broncos embarked on a championship quest that fell one victory short against Seattle in the Super Bowl, Bowlen told The Denver Post he is the franchise owner, but the real power resides in heart of Broncomaniacs, who view winning football as a birthright.
PHOTOS: Denver Broncos Pat Bowlen turning control over to family trust
'This is their team. It's not my team,' Bowlen said.
Mr. B gets it: A sports franchise is far more than a rich boy's toy. For better or worse, the Broncos have become one of Denver's leading reasons to brag ... or cry. From coast to coast, the Broncos stand somewhere between Chipotle burritos and snow on Mount Evans as symbols of the region.
On the night in 1984 when word began to spread the Broncos were on the verge of being saved from bankruptcy by the son of a Canadian oil baron, the quarters in my pocket jingled as I ran from the apartment of a newspaper colleague to contact league sources on a pay phone at a convenience store. Times change. Thirty years later on a summer afternoon, as I pumped gas at a convenience store, word came through my car's speakerphone that Bowlen was stepping away from a team now worth more than $1 billion.
Any NFL investor can get rich. Great owners, however, do far more than count their money. While the Orange Crush bestowed an identity on the lost time zone and John Elway gave Denver those good championship vibrations, it was Bowlen who insisted the Broncos brand must always stand for excellence.
This is not to confuse the simple X's and O's of football with intricacies of computer science. But just as Steve Jobs put the shine on Apple, the Broncos were Mr. B.
Anybody paying close attention, however, suspected this end was near. After the Broncos beat New England to win the AFC title, Bowlen was a ghost of the brash owner who had paraded the sideline after big victories in the old days while wearing a fur coat.
'This one's Super,' said Bowlen in January, as Denver punched its ticket for the sixth NFL championship game of the owner's reign. Handlers kept close watch on Bowlen, treating him as delicately as a Fabergè egg, then whisked him to an idling vehicle spitting smoke from its exhaust pipes. It was time for Mr. B to go home.
When Elway returned in January 2011 as the front-office executive entrusted with restoring glory to a team that had lost its way, he came back as the dutiful, favorite son of Bowlen.
Whether that same sense of family purpose can be maintained as a new ownership structure shakes out? It remains to be seen.
For every Dan Rooney who does his father proud by preserving the Steelers as a civic treasure in Pittsburgh, there are a Jeanie and Jim Buss who turn the Los Angeles Lakers into something more closely resembling a family feud.
The Broncos will certainly strive to be a winning organization for the next 30 years. But it would be foolish to take excellence as a guarantee in the absence of Mr. B.
Bowlen bridged the gap between the old guard that loved football like a mom-and-pop business and football czars who made the NFL shield one of the most profitable and powerful icons in the sporting world.
William Clay Ford, the last surviving grandson of the Model T's creator, left this earth as owner of the Detroit Lions in March. A few days later, NFL leaders grieved again when Ralph Wilson of Buffalo died at age 95. During the upcoming season, the Bills will pay their respects by wearing a uniform patch saluting their departed owner.
One of these years, if there is any justice, the league will honor Bowlen by inducting him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The time is ripe for the Broncos to do something even better in recognition of everything Bowlen has done for a city where Broncomania has become a near-religious experience:
On the night of Feb. 1, 2015, with the turf in the Super Bowl stadium blanketed in blue and orange confetti, wouldn't it be cool if Elway handed the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Mr. B?
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or http://ift.tt/1jbLxYj
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