On if Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Brittany Bowlen will be involved in the GM search
“She’ll be involved in a periphery way. I’ve asked her to do some background and research work on—we’re going to cast a look at a lot of candidates. I think it makes sense to interview multiple candidates. She won’t be involved in the interview process directly on the screen, but she’s going to do some background work and myself, [Chief Communications Officer] Patrick [Smyth] and some others that will keep her informed and have conversations because I want her to understand the process and how it works. But we’re going to limit the number of people, and I talked to her about this, that will participate in the direct interview process at this time.”
On if he or the trustees have considered a court order to get permission to start the process of selling the team before this year’s trial particularly because Beth Bowlen-Wallace has said a sale of the team will lead to a resolution of the trial
“I think the way to answer that is the trial has to take place or the claims have to go away before the team would be sold. We haven’t made that decision, but we’re basically just focused on getting through this trial and validating the trust, which validates us three trustees to make a decision whether to keep it in the family and name a child or sell the team. We’re not putting the cart before the horse here. This case is in front of judgeship, and we have to determine—and we’re ready to go to court—I wish we could have done it earlier. It would have been better for a lot of people, but we’re ready to go to court in July and get it resolved, and we’re confident that we’ll prevail and that the trust will stand up and we’ll be able to make a decision soon thereafter.”
On the new NFL mandate establishing a single controlling owner having final say on voting matters and if that puts the trustees in a time crunch, or if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has told the trustees that decision can wait until after the trial
“He hasn’t really talked about it. I have under his authority and the authority blessed by the finance committee the ability to do this through 2022—March of ‘22, I think. And so, we are in litigation. I think the other owners that I’ve spoken to as well as Roger recognize that that’s slowing things down a little bit in terms of the decision-making process. I know the league will want us to reach resolution as soon as we can. But the trial is going to have to happen first and it’s going to have to verify and validate Pat’s trust and our ability to execute it.”
On how Brittany Bowlen handled her responsibilities leading the organization’s COVID-19 Task Force
“Let me just say this, I think it was March 11th—I don’t know if I have the date right, but the NBA player came down with COVID and the sports world grinded to, basically, an immediate halt in so many ways. Brittany was working on several initiatives at the time and I remember calling her up and I said, ‘You’re in charge of the COVID Task Force,’ and she said, ‘What the [heck] does that mean?’ And I said, well, ‘You’re going to orchestrate this for the organization—policies, procedures, protocols, working constantly with the league, because we have to play this season. Right now, we have all kinds of games canceled, who knows what’s going to happen in the next six months, but we have to begin to prepare, so that we can get in every single game and play a full season and see where we go.’ She took it on, we had 13—I don’t know if I got the number right, I think I do, 13 of our top executives, myself, John Elway on down. She managed the process weekly, she worked with the league, she worked with the state very effectively. I think it was time consuming for her, so some of the other things she was working on, she still was able to do, but the rest of us were sort of all COVID all the time. She was able to keep the trains on the track. I know we had a couple of hiccups during the season. None of that was her fault, but at the same time, we did play every game and we got through the season. I think it’s a remarkable accomplishment for the league and it was a remarkable accomplishment for us. I commend the players, the staff, the coaches, everybody for being able to do so. Brittany was at the forefront of that. She’s done some other things and started some projects on some stadium improvements, fan enhancement, an international initiative. I’m going to give her an office down here at UCHealth [Training Center]. She can begin to sort of get a flavor of football a little bit, get a flavor of our big picture finances—she still needs experience, experience is critical for her and we’re trying to get as much of it as we can for her. We haven’t made a decision, but she certainly is the family member that would be on track if there can be an agreement amongst family members and others. Brittany, obviously as I’ve said no different from last year, would be the person to be chosen if it would be a family member. Again, we haven’t made that decision today.”
On whether he can be confident there will be ownership resolution one year from now
“I can’t predict the outcome of litigation other than to say I think we will prevail, but I can’t predict what will happen after that. There are two family members, one of whom issued a press release indicating they would like to see the team sold, at least that’s the way I interpreted it. There was another press release that followed that from the attorney for Mrs. [Annabel] Bowlen that said they didn’t agree with it. They represented, I believe, the other five siblings, Annabel and Pat’s children. That’s complicated and that has to be worked out. There has to be a conclusion to that and an understanding if Brittany’s going to run the team. There does. There’s just no other way around it. Will that happen before March of ‘22 or immediately after the trial? I’d like to think that it will happen in that time, and that’s for selfish reasons and it’s for reasons that are in the best interest of the organization, the team and the fans. I think all of those people, and the family, deserve an answer soon after the trial—without putting an end date on it because I can’t predict what will happen.”
Joe Ellis: Potential Broncos sale wouldn’t happen until after trial pitting trustees vs. Pat Bowlen’s two oldest children
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Originally Posted by BroncoJoe
