John Elway reflects on what made Pat Bowlen "Mr. B"

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Amongst a sea of his players, draped in orange on a frigid afternoon in Cleveland, Pat Bowlen strutted around the field during pre-game warmups in an outfit that stood out just as much as his player’s loud uniforms.

Rockin’ aviators and the famous fur coat, “Mr. B,” as the players he was surrounded by called him, looked like a rockstar or Hollywood actor, certainly not a modern-day owner.

But that’s just who he was.

“I think, as players, we thought, ‘This dude is a cool dude as our owner,’” John Elway—a man many would deem cool as well—said with a smile, reflecting on his former boss and friend. “I think we all thought that Pat was a pretty cool dude when he wore that fur coat on the sidelines in Cleveland.”

But Pat wasn’t too cool for school, as the saying goes. And that made all of the difference in the world.

“I think the most special time with Pat, and I think a lot of guys would talk about this, the most special time we always had with Pat was when we were in the Pro Bowl,” Elway said, recalling his many trips to the NFL’s all-star game.

It wasn’t special because Bowlen, the wealthy owner, put his players up in a boujee five-star hotel, although that wouldn’t hurt, or gave them extravagant bonuses for being among the game’s elite.

No, it was because their boss, the owner of a billion-dollar organization, not only spent time with them but clearly cherished every second of it.

“The thing that I really remember, especially being in Hawaii with him, was the pride that he had in the players that were with him and the guys that were over there,” Elway said. “That was his special time with us.”

During this finite time every year, Pat, who owned multiple restaurants on the islands, didn’t pass up an opportunity to show his players, or friends for that matter, how special they were to him.

“He was proud of his restaurants, but you know what? He’d walk in that restaurant and he was more proud of the guys he was walking into them with,” Elway said. “He was walking in with his players.”

To no surprise, the private rooms in his restaurants would be for a different party. Bowlen wanted to be in the middle of his restaurant showing off the players he so highly regarded.

It wasn’t only about flaunting his players, however. Pat would also bring them to Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki to go wave surfing and canoeing.

“That’s when you saw Pat,” Elway stated with a smirk. “He was at his best was when he got in those situations and that was really good.”

That adventure, however, stopped immediately after the Hall of Fame quarterback tipped his canoe during his playing days. But it didn’t put an end to Bowlen spending meaningful time with his players, it just shifted their activities.

“We’d go play golf,” Elway, the not-too-shabby golfer, recalled.

“He always had his buddies there and his buddies had been playing for six months. We hadn’t played for six months but we were always on the same team. We got blasted every time we played them, but we’d go back the next year and he’d say, ‘We’re going to play them again.’ I said, ‘Well, do you remember what happened last year?’ He goes ‘Yeah, we’re going to beat them this year.’”

This type of owner-player interaction and relationship is incredibly rare, especially in today’s age, where billionaire owners are in a completely different stratosphere than there millionaire players.

“With the type of guy he was—the competitive guy, the support we had—we all thought we were kind of hip because of Pat,” Elway said of Mr. B.

Pat wasn’t called hip by his players because of his wealth or possessions. Heck, Bowlen never had an iPhone. He had a flip phone his entire life. Yet, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time thought he was Pat Cool.

“He connected with players on a personal level. He showed concern very quietly, not aggressively, with some compassion and some empathy on players,” Joe Ellis said, giving a glimpse into who Pat Bowlen was that the public rarely got to see. “He would show up to see players that were injured and go to the hospital and he’d always be down in the training room asking how they were doing. He saw them in the lunchroom. He did that. He just in his own way could connect and show concern, care.”

In fact, Bowlen’s first stop every morning well before the sun was up was to the training room.

The owner would talk to every player getting treatment, ask if there was anything he could provide them with to get better, ask how their family was and finally ask if there was anything he could do to help them in their life outside of football.

Every. Single. Day.

“The one thing about Pat when I think about him and this football team was he ran this football team with his heart and not his pocketbook,” Elway said, letting his guard down. “The players felt that, and that’s—when you talk about the relationships that he had with the players—why was he so close to the players.”

“I think Pat never allowed the money to get in the way of that,” he continued. “I think he did a heck of a job of hiring people to do that so he didn’t have to do that and so the money would not interfere with the relationship that he could have with his players.”

Mr. B did countless other things to show his players that he wasn’t only a friend, but that he truly cared about them and their success. One of those was he never missed a practice.

“As a player, there is nothing that means more than when your owner, the main boss, is out there at practice every single day,” Elway stated. “There’s nothing that makes it more important to you than him being out there because if it’s that important to him then it rubbed off on us as players.”

For Bowlen, his approach to valuing people and relationships went beyond just the star-studded players, too.

Once spring rolled around, Bowlen would routinely pop in Joe Ellis’ office and ask if he wanted to skip work for the afternoon to play a round at Castle Pines Golf Club, where Pat had a membership.

Overlooking the magnificent Colorado view with Pikes Peak in the background on hole No. 6, Ellis turned to Pat and gave him a heart-felt message thanking him for bringing him along on the course a multitude of times.

“Without hesitation he said, ‘No, Joe, I thank you for joining me every time we come out here,’” Ellis said, choked up. “I’ll never forget that, never forget that. That’s the kind of personal connection that he made.”

For many who never knew him, Mr. B will be remembered for having the same number of Super Bowl appearances as losing seasons (7), for his 354-career wins and, of course, for the three Lombardi Trophies he brought to this great state.

But for those that knew him, the tremendous amount of on-field success takes a backseat to the type of man and, more specifically, friend he was.

In the most simple terms, Pat was proud of his players. Proud of his organization. And valued his friendships deeply.

That made Pat the man his players called “Mr. B.”

“I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world to get an opportunity to play for him and then also to get an opportunity to come back and work for him,” Elway said, speaking about his friend from the heart without any notes in front of him. “I don’t have the words that would explain how much Pat Bowlen meant to me and to my family and allowed us the opportunities that he did give us. He will be missed. I know he won’t be around, but I know every time we play a football game in Mile High or on the road, Pat Bowlen’s still going to be a part of it.”