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October 5, 2021 By: Mark Knudson

Could Peyton Manning and John Elway co-exist in the same Broncos new ownership backfield?

You know what they say, if you have two quarterbacks, you really don’t have one. Does the same hold true for retired Hall of Fame QB’s?

While the on-field fortunes of the Denver Broncos continue to improve, so do the chances that all the members of the Bowlen family will be able to cash in extra big when the team is sold – sometime fairly soon – for what could be close to $6 billion dollars. With a B. As in “Mr. B.”

Current estimates are in the $4-$6 billion range, but with the news that the process of selecting a new owner will essentially be an auction, the chances are good that the bidding ends up closer to the high end.

As the Broncos continue to work toward ending five years of misery on the field, fans can look forward to the misery of the Joe Ellis tenure coming to an end soon, too.

The big question that remains is who that new owner might be.

Two things are for sure: First, the Ellis-concocted imaginary candidacy of Brittany Bowlen has been formally eradicated now that 70% of the current Broncos ownership group (the Bowlen family) has formally gone on record as stating that they will absolutely not support the idea of 31-year-old Brittany ever owning and operating the team. She’s officially out (not that she was ever really in.)

The other known fact is that the new owner will be very, very, VERY wealthy. Other than that…

Who has SIX BILLION laying around, waiting to be invested in a football team? Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos is a name frequently mentioned, and cable TV billionaire John Malone, a Denver businessman, has also been talked about.

Unless an entity like the Anschutz family – 81-year-old Phil is a Denver business mogul and philanthropist who owns the Staples Center in Los Angeles among his numerous sports holdings, and son Christian is a Denver businessman – enters the picture, chances are decent that most Broncos fans may not have heard much about the new owner before he or she assumes control. Will he or she be a “football guy” as they say?

That’s where you flip a coin.

Some places have gotten lucky with new owners (the way Denver did when Pat Bowlen came to town in the early 1980’s) and others haven’t (the way Washington didn’t when Dan Snyder took over.) The only real common denominator is extraordinary wealth.

While the NFL has made clear it’s preference that the new owner be a single entity, and not a “group,” that’s not to say that someone like Peyton Manning won’t be working behind the scenes to put together an ownership group that’s attractive to the league. Broncos fans have certainly heard of him.

Broncos Country would most certainly welcome the chance to connect the future to their glorious (pre-Ellis) past. That could mean trying to find a way to keep John Elway involved on the perimeter, and at the very least get Manning involved in the day-to-day. A new owner that could pull that off would be an instant smash hit, and probably something of a miracle worker, given that Elway and Manning reportedly aren’t on great terms as far as working together in the future goes.

Elway is set to finally collect what the franchise owes him, dollars-wise, at the end of this season. His “competition bonus” is reportedly in the vicinity of $30 million. Remember, Elway declined Mr. Bowlen’s offer to become a 10% owner of the team after he retired and some close to him say he has worked for below market value compensation much of the time he’s been in Denver’s front office. He doesn’t want to work day-to-day any longer but having the face of the franchise stay involved in an advisory and public relations capacity could be a tremendous plus for the organization.

However, most believe that Elway will be out of the picture when a new owner takes over. It’s more likely that Manning could be the one calling signals again.

As for Peyton, only he knows exactly what kind of front office role he’d accept (if he doesn’t become the controlling owner) and if he’d accept not being the boss. Perhaps a VP/personnel role that allowed him to be involved in the draft, free agent acquisitions, personnel moves and the like? As detail oriented as the Hall of Famer is, no one can be in charge of everything and keep all the footballs in the air, as they say. But Manning’s football mind is as sharp as ever, and he too would be a huge plus for a new owner to have on his side. At this point, he’d be a bigger plus than Elway.

The calendar will likely have turned before we find out who will become the new owner of the Denver Broncos. But that won’t stop the speculation or the anticipation of finally having someone in charge that can return the Broncos to the kind of model franchise it was under Mr. B.

That’s truly when the Broncos will be back.