ATTENTION: This is an audio story, meaning that BSN Denver subscribers can listen to it if they don’t have time to stop and read it in its entirety. We would love to know what you think about it in the comments. Enjoy!
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For a business owner, Pat Bowlen was unique, in the best way possible for the Denver Broncos’ organization, fans and community.
Money and fame simply took a backseat to what Bowlen made priority No. 1 for 35 years as the owner of the team.
“As far as the business of football, winning is everything,” Bowlen said, making his business priorities crystal clear. “It doesn’t matter what it is worth. If you are worried about what it is worth, get into some other business.”
And the cost of winning certainly never got in the way of Bowlen giving his team the best chance to succeed every single year.
“I want to be No. 1 in everything,” he famously said, a quote that currently resides at the entrance of the team’s locker room.
Since March 23, 1984, when Bowlen bought the team, he and the Broncos were pretty darn good at following the direction of that quote.
In fact, Bowlen hit the ground running, becoming the first owner in NFL history to accumulate 300 wins in his first 30 years.
Under Bowlen’s guidance, winning was as consistent as could be. The team averaged over 10 wins per season for three and a half decades and had the most regular-season home wins (199).
Additionally, the Broncos had the second-best winning percentage (.596) in the NFL and the fourth-best among all of the major professional sports in America.
Pat made winning priority No. 1 when it came to football and the results poured in. In fact, 354 of them, to be exact.
The Broncos compiled 21 winning seasons, with 18 of those resulting in a playoff appearance. Thus, Bowlen made the playoffs more than not.
And that’s not it. Bowlen owns one of the most incredible stats in sports.
He had as many Super Bowl appearances (7) as losing seasons (7).
If that wasn’t enough on its own, the seven Super Bowl appearances are the second-most ever by an owner, while the seven losing seasons are the fewest of any team since 1984, the year Pat bought the team.
Additionally, he’s the only owner in NFL history to take four different head coaches to the Super Bowl.
But what Mr. B. truly cared about was winning the whole darn thing.
His dream and mission of being a world champion was realized three different times as he won Super Bowl 32, Super Bowl 33 and Super Bowl 50.
His legacy will live forever, not only with the Broncos but in Colorado and the entire NFL.
In his absence in the past few years, it’s been very clear his mindset and legacy have already been entrenched in the organization.
“One thing that’s important to me is that we put a team on the field that can contend,” Bowlen once stated. “I like to think that [the Broncos] are going to win the Super Bowl every year. I get a thrill out of that, and I know how much that means to Colorado and to Denver.”
Not winning wasn’t ever an option in Bowlen’s eyes. In fact, he often said ‘rebuilding’ wasn’t in his vocabulary. That subtle yet strong message passed down to general manager John Elway.
“If I say we’re ‘rebuilding,’ that sounds like an excuse. That’s why I don’t like to use that word because it sounds like an excuse,” Elway said following the 2018 season. “Our standards are still the same.”
The standards in Denver drastically changed back in March of 1984. Bowlen didn’t just bring a tremendous amount of on-field success, he impacted the entire state.
“Nobody is going to care whether the team is worth a billion dollars or whatever,” Bowlen said. “That doesn’t matter. It’s more about how successful you were as an organization and as a team on the field and in the community.”
A special thanks to Denver Broncos PR for providing the quotes to this story.
