{"id":1312563,"date":"2019-07-18T12:28:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T18:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/broncos-out-to-forge-new-identity-following-owners-death\/"},"modified":"2019-07-18T12:28:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T18:28:01","slug":"broncos-out-to-forge-new-identity-following-owners-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/broncos-out-to-forge-new-identity-following-owners-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos out to forge new identity following owner\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE – In this Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, file photo, Denver Broncos president Joe Ellis speaks during a news conference at the team’s headquarters in Englewood, Colo. Ever since soon-to-be Hall of Famer Pat Bowlen stepped down from his daily duties as owner of the Denver Broncos, team president Joe Ellis ran the team in a “What would Pat do” sort of way. With Bowlen’s death last month, that’s no longer the case. Ellis tells The Associated Press it’s time for the Broncos to establish a new identity. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski, File)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 Ever since soon-to-be Hall of Famer Pat Bowlen stepped down from his daily duties as owner of the Denver Broncos, team president and CEO Joe Ellis ran the team in a \u201cWhat would Pat do?\u201d sort of way.<\/p>\n

With Bowlen\u2019s death last month, that\u2019s no longer the case.<\/p>\n

Ellis told The Associated Press that while the team will always honor Bowlen\u2019s memory, it\u2019s time for the Broncos to establish a new identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to thinking about that,\u201d Ellis said Thursday from the sideline as the Broncos became the first NFL team to open training camp . \u201cI think it\u2019s a fair question at this point because he\u2019s no longer with us. He was with us (the last five years) even though he was not out here. I got to go see him and I always sort of felt his presence. And I think Pat would want us to move on from him a little bit, you know? I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to be able to do that totally because of what he\u2019s provided all of us \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s time to buckle up your chin strap here and do things the Broncos way,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cYeah, we want to make Pat proud. We\u2019re going to honor him. It\u2019s a subtle honoring with the decal on the helmet and he\u2019ll always be in the back of my mind. But you know what, we have to act independently now in some fashion. I hope you can make sense of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowlen died June 13 at age 75, nine weeks shy of his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

When Alzheimer\u2019s forced him to step away five years earlier, Bowlen entrusted Ellis to operate the team with full authority and represent the Broncos in league matters until one of his seven children was deemed ready to take over. Ellis drew on his working relationship with the notoriously publicity-shy Bowlen that spanned nearly three decades to continue operating the team as Bowlen would have during those five years.<\/p>\n

Ellis said he doesn\u2019t want to look back anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been so much talk about Pat and his excellence and everything that he\u2019s done and it\u2019s all well-deserved and it\u2019s well-acknowledged \u2014 he\u2019s going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cBut I know if he were here and he were advising me, he\u2019d say, \u2018Listen, you know, your job is to get everybody in the organization to pull together and do this for our fans and do this for themselves and each other, players, coaches. And do what I always wanted to do and not make it about me, make it about them, make it about yourselves, make it about the fans. Make it about winning. Let\u2019s focus on that. Let\u2019s not focus on me anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis noted the Broncos have to change the way they do things to reverse their recent slide that includes back-to-back double-digit losses for the first time since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Even with those 5-11 and 6-10 seasons, the Broncos have as many Super Bowl appearances \u2014 seven \u2014 as losing seasons during Bowlen\u2019s ownership that began in 1984.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to establish our own identity,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cSo much of our identity the past several years has been based on the success of Pat in some ways, right? And people talk about the Pat Bowlen era. Even if a child were to take over, it\u2019s not the Pat Bowlen era anymore. So, this is kind of in some ways this is Year 1 of establishing a different identity as an organization. Never forgetting everything that was Pat.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s ever going to forget what he did. We\u2019ll remember him. We\u2019ve got the decal on the back. His name is on that field house. His father\u2019s name is on this facility\u2019s front here at UC Health Center. So, he will continue to be honored and remembered, but I do know that he would want us to put our own stamp on this program. I just know that in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis said he\u2019ll meet with Brittany Bowlen, who is hoping to take over the franchise, next week about returning to the team to gain more front office experience. She\u2019s currently working for global consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Denver. Ellis said her role would be generally focused on the business side.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s going to come here and work hard. She\u2019s got to prove herself,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cThere\u2019s more pressure on her than any other employee. And then we\u2019ll see. If that works out, then there\u2019s room for growth. Pat always said, \u2018Listen, I\u2019d love to be able to keep it in the family if I can and have a child run it, but if that\u2019s not the case, then the team will be sold.\u2019 And so we\u2019re not there to assign anybody that role yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – In this Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, file photo, Denver Broncos president Joe Ellis speaks during a news conference at the team’s headquarters in Englewood, Colo. Ever since soon-to-be Hall of Famer Pat Bowlen stepped down from his daily duties as owner of the Denver Broncos, team president Joe Ellis ran the team in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 22:16:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}