In a league driven by parity, NFL teams can convince themselves that they’re never far from being back in the conversation.
Every year, there are playoff teams that fall and bottom dwellers that make a surprising run to the postseason.
Sometimes the malaise lasts — it did in Denver for nearly a decade after winning Super Bowl 50. Sometimes it doesn’t — would it surprise anybody if Kansas City and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes were back in contention this fall?
Even in a sport where the wide-open on-field product is a feature rather than a bug, there are still power players and power centers.
As the NFL spring owners meetings in Phoenix wrapped up a couple of weeks ago with black SUVs idling to whisk multimillionaires and billionaires from the Arizona Biltmore to waiting jets, the Broncos had provided plenty of material to fill reporters’ notebooks.
On the field, Sean Payton and George Paton discussed the acquisition of Jaylen Waddle, the decision to move Jonah Elliss to inside linebacker, the upcoming draft and more.
Away from it, owner and apEO Greg Penner and president Damani Leech turned up the pressure on the club’s Burnham Yard stadium project, talked about their new, $175 million team headquarters nearing completion, the impact of hosting an AFC Championship Game and coming within four points of the Super Bowl and more.
Tangible stuff. Quite a bit of it.
Less obvious in some ways but just as palpable: The reality that, as they approach five years owning the Broncos, Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner are a growing power center in the NFL. Their stature is growing similarly in Denver and the state of Colorado, too.
Those points were driven home further on Friday when the couple, through their family entity Penner Sports Group, finalized the purchase of a 40% stake in the Colorado Rockies.
The Penners are not going anywhere with the Broncos and the NFL. They will not have day-to-day roles with the Rockies, sources told The Post, and they are plenty busy with football.
Not only are they waist-deep in the myriad, complex processes and business dealings that come with trying to build a new stadium and entertainment district — a project that, if everything progresses roughly along the team’s preferred timeline, will last another five-plus years — but they are set to move into their new HQ in June. They’ll be in the team’s draft room all three days, as they always are, later this month. They are overseeing projects like the team’s $8 million “All In. All Covered.” high school helmet program and other community initiatives. They’ll likely work out a contract extension with general manager George Paton in the coming months. On and on and on.
Thatap just the team. Between the pair, they also now serve on seven NFL ownership committees.
Carrie Walton-Penner: Health and safety, diversity and the NFL foundation.
Greg Penner: The powerful labor committee, compensation, ownership policy and finance.
Those committee assignments put Penner in the middle of the league figuring out whether and now how to invite private equity money into team ownership groups, determining compensation for commissioner Roger Goodell and, in the coming months and years, negotiating first with the NFL Referees Association on a new collective bargaining agreement and then with the NFL Players Association on the same. The biggest story at this year’s league meetings was about whether replacement referees will be needed this fall. As soon as next year, conversations about extending the NFL season to 18 games, growing the international slate, negotiations about player revenue shares and more will likely dominate the conversation.
Essentially, the Penners are in some way, shape or form involved in virtually every core issue the league will tackle in the short and intermediate future and probably the longer-range future as well.
Friday’s announcement about the Rockies stake changes nothing. It remains to be seen just how much their investment in Dick Monfortap team will be felt or seen immediately, though it very clearly puts the club in a much better cash position than it previously was.
It remains to be seen, too, to what degree the Rockies become part of the Penners’ overall influence and impact on Denver and Colorado sports. Perhaps it will be in the background for years and decades to come. Perhaps not.
What is clear this spring, though, is that they’ve gone from the new owners on the NFL block to among the league’s foremost figures in less than a half-decade. Ownership groups around the NFL have most certainly taken notice.
Along the way, the club has returned to prominence on the field and has planned a major facelift for part of central Denver.
In Phoenix recently and in the aftermath of Friday’s announcement, though, this all feels like itap still closer to the beginning than the pinnacle of the Penners’ influence in football and on the Front Range.
