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LONDON – The Broncos have dragged a billionaire to the basement. How did this sorry excuse for an NFL team and a rich man who now runs it get stuck down here, 15 feet below street level, where the Broncos can barely see a ray of hope, much less sniff the playoffs?
“We’re not where we need to be,” said Greg Penner, the new Broncos CEO and one of the crazy-rich Waltons who purchased the team earlier this year for $4.65 billion.
At the bottom of a crooked, creaking staircase that led to the basement of a former London bank transformed into a tavern, Penner stood early Friday evening among stacked wooden chairs in a cramped storage room. I ain’t no Shakespeare, but as a fit and energetic 52-year-old man tried to offer reassurance that a football franchise that has forgotten how to win can somehow escape the 2-5 mess it’s in, the metaphor of a billionaire stuck in the basement was too rich to ignore.
In one respect, it doesn’t matter how much money Penner is worth. Once you start to live and die with the Broncos, a loss on Sunday can feel like a nightmare.
“You wake up on Monday morning and you wonder: ‘Did that really happen yesterday?’ ” Penner said. “You kind of go through the first day or two of the week in a bit of a fog … Finally, on Wednesday or Thursday, you start looking forward to the next game. But it’s painful.”
As he talked about the team’s abject failure on the field, a party rocked above Penner’s head. Broncomaniacs who have staged a takeover of jolly old England danced to classic American rock and drowned their sporting sorrows with pints of cold British lager.
Die-hard fans entertain doubts Nathaniel Hackett can hack it as a head coach and have yet to see conclusive proof Russell Wilson is a quarterback capable of leading the Broncos back to Super Bowl relevancy.
But there’s an even bigger question for a Denver civic treasure that has endured unprecedented upheaval during this calendar year:
Do Penner and the crazy-rich Waltons care about winning football games with every fiber in their souls, with the same orange-and-blue passion the late Pat Bowlen did?
My feeling is you can trust Penner to treat this team as a civic trust, not just a toy share with family and friends.
Yes, he watches the team from a cushy seat in a luxury box high atop the stadium. But defeat wallops Penner like a punch to the gut.
“When we lose a game and you have to ride the elevator down to the locker room, it’s dead silence. Nobody wants to say anything to us. We don’t want to say anything,” said Penner, who often piles into that elevator with general manager George Paton and downcast assistant coaches. “Then you get to the locker room. This is a proud team and these guys want to win. You see that in their eyes. It’s tough, because they’re working hard, but we just haven’t put the pieces together.”
Ask about the team’s bungling rookie head coach, and while Penner does offer support to Hackett, the bottom line is: “He knows we’re not performing at the level we expect.”
I got the sense Penner would be reluctant to fire Hackett in frustration, even if the Broncos lost a fifth game in a row by falling short against Jacksonville. But should Denver fail to demonstrate significant improvement during the back end of the schedule, I’d also be surprised if Hackett returns as coach in 2023.
After making a $245 million contract commitment to Wilson before he completed a touchdown pass for the Broncos, however, Penner has little choice except to cite a championship ring previously won as the Seahawks’ quarterback and believe: “He can be a great quarterback for us.”
Losing is no longer an acceptable option in Broncos Country, because fans are sick of it.
“At the end of the day,” Penner said, “we have to win for them.”
With a stronger sense this new ownership cares group as much about winning as Broncomaniacs do, I shook Penner’s hand, climbed the stairs and bounded out the door of The Barrow Boy & Banker tavern into the crisp evening air.
At a nearby subway station, I was startled when I bumped into a familiar American face, who called out my name as we fumbled for our tickets.
“It hasn’t been easy for this team,” said Joe Ellis, who served as the trusted top lieutenant to Bowlen through the Super Bowl glory years of the franchise.
“But Greg Penner is a smart guy. The Broncos have a good man in charge. He’ll figure it out.”
While I suspect the crazy-rich Waltons will be patient with Hackett and anybody else dragging the Broncos down as long as they possibly can, Penner also calmly said something that should hit any under-performer in this football operation like a hammer.
A billionaire doesn’t get rich by merely expecting to win.
Success is an ultimatum.
Accountability means success will be celebrated, but failure has consequences.
“You have to have a level of patience. We have a lot of new pieces here and we’ve got to get those pieces working together. But at the same time, you have to have a sense of urgency,” said Penner, whose succinct words should send a chill down Hackett’s spine.
“We need to win now.”
Nobody pays $4.65 billion for a football team to be stuck in the basement.
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