From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Broncos Have a Void That's Difficult to Fill   
      
   Denver Broncos Feel Loss of Owner Battling Alzheimer's Disease   
      
      
   Pat Bowlen, right, the owner of the Broncos, ceded control because of   
   Alzheimer's disease.   
   JOHN LEYBA / THE DENVER POST, VIA GETTY IMAGES   
   By KAREN CROUSE   
   JANUARY 10, 2015   
   ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos are like the perky family whose holiday   
   card is the picture of beatitude. Outwardly, it looks as if all is well. What   
   others fail to see, but what is glaring to the Broncos, is the shadow   
   darkening this season's    
   group portrait.   
      
   Unbeaten at home and 12-4 over all, the Broncos are two victories from a   
   second straight trip to the Super Bowl. They will host the Indianapolis Colts   
   on Sunday in a divisional playoff game that is a sequel to the teams' season   
   opener, won by the Broncos.   
      
   As Denver closed in last month on a fourth consecutive A.F.C. West title, its   
   leader was conspicuously absent. The local fans have talked themselves hoarse   
   lamenting how Peyton Manning, their future first-ballot Hall-of-Fame   
   quarterback, has not been    
   himself lately. And it's true, Manning threw as many touchdown passes in the   
   first half of the season opener as he did in the last four regular-season   
   games (three). Manning was the artisan behind last year's Super Bowl run, but   
   the man the players and    
   the staff wish could magically turn up in the postseason is the architect of   
   their franchise, Pat Bowlen.   
      
   Bowlen bought the Broncos in 1984 and built a championship culture using   
   caring and commitment as the mortar and bricks, and community as the   
   insulation. With the support of his twin columns, quarterbacks John Elway and   
   Manning, Bowlen became the only    
   individual owner to orchestrate more than 300 victories and six Super Bowl   
   appearances in his first 30 seasons. Last July, on the eve of training camp,   
   Bowlen yielded control of the team because of the progressive decline in his   
   health caused by    
   Alzheimer's disease.   
      
   On July 23, the day Bowlen's retirement was announced, Elway, the team's   
   general manager since 2011, met with reporters. For 22 seconds, no words came   
   as he gulped back tears and breathed from the bottom of his diaphragm. When he   
   was able to speak, the    
   first words out of his mouth were, "This place will never be the same."   
      
   In one respect, nothing has changed. Starting with Joe Ellis, who assumed   
   control of the team, everybody has practiced what Bowlen always preached: Make   
   football your top priority and strive to be the best at your job.   
      
   But Elway was right. The Broncos are like a riderless horse without Bowlen,   
   who has not attended a game this season. Aside from a brief appearance last   
   fall for the team picture, he has stayed away from the practice site, where he   
   kept an office.   
      
   John Fox, the Broncos' coach since 2011, said: "I've missed him a lot. In my   
   tenure here, it was not unusual that every day he'd stop by my office and   
   visit."   
      
   At the stadium Bowlen built, where the Broncos have lost eight games in the   
   past four seasons, Bowlen had a locker next to Fox's for storing his personal   
   belongings. After every game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the men   
   would meet at their    
   lockers and go over what had transpired like children fresh out of gym class.   
      
   "He was very positive," Fox said. "I can remember countless times we'd lose a   
   game and I'd say, 'Sorry, Mr. B.' He was always very classy in the sense he'd   
   say, 'You didn't play a down.'   
      
   "He's just a great guy to have around, and I miss him."   
      
   The Broncos player with the longest tenure is Ryan Clady, an offensive lineman   
   in his seventh season with the team. In 2008, as a rookie, he received   
   second-team All-Pro honors. Clady said that on the day the news was announced,   
   Bowlen found him in the    
   training room and congratulated him.   
      
   "That's the kind of owner he was," Clady said. "He was definitely hands-on. It   
   is a little strange not seeing him all the time."   
      
   Ellis said, "I think everybody feels that way."   
      
   He added: "Everything that he taught us, everything that he stated, we've   
   carried out. But his presence in the building meant so much to me and   
   everybody else. And when he wasn't here, it's definitely had an effect on   
   everybody in the workplace. It's a    
   noticeable void."   
      
   During the first television timeout in the Broncos' opener against the Colts,   
   the team paid tribute to Bowlen in a short video. The next month, at Denver's   
   annual Walk to End Alzheimer's, friends and relatives calling themselves Team   
   Super Bowlen raised    
   more than $68,000 for the Alzheimer's Association.   
      
   Since Bowlen stepped down, the Broncos have chosen the Alzheimer's   
   organization, whose Colorado chapter has headquarters in Denver, as one of   
   their 10 community partners. They have teamed to raise awareness and provide   
   support for the more than five    
   million Americans living with the disease, including more than 68,000   
   Coloradans.   
      
   Linda Mitchell, the Colorado chapter president, described the Broncos'   
   involvement as "a game changer."   
      
   She said: "To have their stamp of approval has been huge to us. It's a gift   
   like nothing we've ever received."   
      
   The Broncos provided eight tickets to Sunday's divisional playoff game for a   
   drawing among those who registered on the Alzheimer's Association of Colorado   
   website. More than 8,000 signed up for a chance to win a pair of tickets. On   
   Tuesday, after the    
   giveaway was announced, the site attracted 7,720 visitors. On the same day   
   last year, it had 248, said Khristine Rogers, the Alzheimer's Association of   
   Colorado vice president for communications and marketing.   
      
   For the past week, Rogers said, the site had 9,969 page views, up from 1,420   
   in the same period last year.   
      
   "What's really happened is the Broncos have given us a platform that's really   
   amplified our ability to connect with people," Rogers said.   
      
   Ellis has maintained one of the most important relationships of his life   
   through frequents visits with Bowlen. Their conversations skim over the team's   
   current performance. Ellis said he brings up stories from the past, plugging   
   into Bowlen's long-term    
   memory to recharge their friendship.   
      
   "I talk about the good times," Ellis said, "and try to get some chuckles and   
   laughter going."   
      
   The architect of the Broncos no longer pays attention to every detail.   
      
      
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