For the third consecutive year, the Denver Broncos failed to make the playoffs in 2008. It was a difficult time for the organization as a new franchise quarterback, Jay Cutler, adapted to life in the NFL and the fan base remained divided about whether or not Jake Plummer might still have been a better option.
After losing three straight games to end the year 8-8, needing only one win in that stretch to secure a playoff berth, Shanahan was let go on December 30, just two days after a 52-21 beatdown at the hands of the Chargers.
Following the press conference in which Mr. Bowlen made the announcement, Erickson, the team’s director of video operations and football technology was sent to the locker room to do one last check of Coach Shanahan’s locker. (Football being football, the team had to make sure he didn’t leave with sensitive material in his possession.)
When he arrived at Shanahan’s locker, Erickson found a distraught Mr. Bowlen sitting in the coach’s place. Erickson remembers the heartbroken look on the owner’s face after having had to let go the man who had delivered his only world titles and whom he had essentially promised a job for life.
“He told me it was the hardest thing he ever had to do,” Erickson recalls, “but he said, ‘I think it’s what we have to do to win.'”
It took a full five years and a very tumultuous two-year stretch under Josh McDaniels, but Bowlen was eventually proved right. He recruited John Elway to run the football side of his business and the team returned to the Super Bowl for a sixth time under his guidance.
Even against difficult decisions and high cost, Mr. Bowlen was always committed to being the best and doing what was best for the fans. That’s what Merilatt and Erickson will remember as Bowlen is inducted into the Ring of Fame on Sunday.
