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Speaker 1: What's up, Broncos Country. Welcome back to the Broncos podcast

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Speaker 1: Network in YouTube for the latest episode of Broncos Now.

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Speaker 1: As always, I'm your host of Sidney Jones, and coming

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Speaker 1: up on today's episode, we'll recap the NFL's annual League

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Speaker 1: Meeting that took place earlier this week in Arizona and

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Speaker 1: what we learned from Broncos ownership, head coach Sean Payton,

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Speaker 1: and others all done more coming up. Earlier this week,

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Speaker 1: the NFL held its annual League meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Speaker 1: Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner, owner Carry Walton, Penner,

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Speaker 1: head coach Sean Payton, General manager George Payton, team president

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Speaker 1: de Money Leech, and several others were all in attendance.

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Speaker 1: Sean Payton opened up the week on Monday at the

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Speaker 1: AFC Coach's Breakfast and talked about how it feels to

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Speaker 1: be back at the annual league meeting. I've done this

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Speaker 1: a long time, and I know a lot of the people,

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Speaker 1: the coaches, a lot of the owners, not just our

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Speaker 1: own ownership group, many of the other owners, some of

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Speaker 1: which I've worked for in some of just now for

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Speaker 1: sixteen years as head coach and twenty two years total.

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Speaker 1: So it's good to be back and see uh uh

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Speaker 1: and and not just it's it's everyone. It's the this

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Speaker 1: is the it's not the circus. But it's the same

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Speaker 1: group of people. You see it the combine for the

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Speaker 1: most part, a little bit different owners meetings. Um, we'll

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Speaker 1: have a draft and uh, it's good to see those

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Speaker 1: people and good to see a lot of the media

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Speaker 1: people that I've worked with before, some of you this

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Speaker 1: is the first time, and um, all good. He went

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Speaker 1: on to talk about the team's a free agency strategy,

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Speaker 1: his preseason approach, and several other topics, one of those

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Speaker 1: being the rumors surrounding wide receivers Courtland Sutton and Jerry Judy.

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Speaker 1: I would say a number of teams have called on

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Speaker 1: those players. Um, but I said it yesterday that it's

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Speaker 1: not something we're interested in do them. So you'd have

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Speaker 1: to do your homework and you can do you know,

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Speaker 1: figure out how it all got started. But obviously there's

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Speaker 1: a in the off season. There's everyone wants to be

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Speaker 1: on top of any type of transaction. I understand that,

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Speaker 1: m and it'll continue, I'm sure as we get closer

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Speaker 1: to the draft. If you really look at the draft

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Speaker 1: and you look at the receiver depth in the draft,

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Speaker 1: it's not a real deep draft. So if you're a

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Speaker 1: team that's looking for receivers, we're not the only team

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Speaker 1: people called, you know, I'm sure Houston with Brandon Cook's

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Speaker 1: other players like that. It's it's pretty common in the

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Speaker 1: off season, I think. And during general manager George Peyton's

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Speaker 1: media scrum, he talked about how the team executed their

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Speaker 1: free agency plan and how they're looking to prepare for

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Speaker 1: the NFL Draft. You know, going back and we made

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Speaker 1: the trade for us, we knew that one of these

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Speaker 1: years we'd have to be aggressive, you know, and this

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Speaker 1: was kind of and then when we got Sean here

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Speaker 1: and we met and you know, if there are players

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Speaker 1: there that a positions of need, we're going to be aggressive.

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Speaker 1: You know, we don't have the picks, only have five picks,

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Speaker 1: and and so we were aggressive, and you know, we

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Speaker 1: had a plan, and I felt like we executed that plan.

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Speaker 1: You know, we certainly have to make some hey, you

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Speaker 1: know in those top thirds and really all the picks, Mike,

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Speaker 1: we only have five, and so really since free and

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Speaker 1: she finished, you know, Sean, myself and and a couple

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Speaker 1: of our scouts. We've sat in the dark room and

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Speaker 1: just where we've hit the draft. I didn't go to

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Speaker 1: any pro days, and we just focused on on the

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Speaker 1: draft and specifically you know, those top threes and and

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Speaker 1: so we're really gonna have to make Hay Plus owner

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Speaker 1: and CEO Greg Penner and team president and Demoni Leech

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Speaker 1: spoke on the future of Empower Field at Mile High,

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Speaker 1: including the current renovations that are taking place in the

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Speaker 1: stadium market research survey that was sent out to season

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Speaker 1: ticket holders. Currently things are as we say. I tell

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Speaker 1: Greg every two weeks I give a Greg update on

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Speaker 1: where we are. We are on schedule and on budget.

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Speaker 1: The scoreboard is down, as you saw, Bucky is down.

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Speaker 1: Bucky's you know, safely being taken care of, which we appreciate.

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Speaker 1: I think we made some videos of that. But stadium

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Speaker 1: scoreboards down. You know, we'll come back up to the

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Speaker 1: end of the summer seventy percent bigger. Really excited about that. Um,

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Speaker 1: we're doing the suite renovations and blocks. I think we

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Speaker 1: were really conscious of trying to maximize how many suites

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Speaker 1: we have available for the concert series this summer. So

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Speaker 1: that's progressing well, looking at a lot of designs. We're

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Speaker 1: almost finalized with our designs interior for our team store

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Speaker 1: and the new stadium club, which which will be really

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Speaker 1: great when they come together. Yeah, it was it was

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Speaker 1: an interesting process for us this fall. We had a

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Speaker 1: chance to visit I don't know, I mean obviously the

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Speaker 1: games that we played on the road, but then had

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Speaker 1: sort of intentional visits where we spent more time at

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Speaker 1: probably five or six stadiums. We didn't come away from

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Speaker 1: any of those saying this is this would be a

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Speaker 1: you know, if we decided to get on the path

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Speaker 1: of a new stadium Denver saying this would be the

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Speaker 1: perfect stadium for us. I think it's really unique to

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Speaker 1: the market. You know, we'd want something that's inherently Colorado

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Speaker 1: the Broncos. But we saw a lot of interesting aspects

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Speaker 1: from different typ It's a roof, covers, different types of fields,

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Speaker 1: different mix of seats, So it was a really really

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Speaker 1: interesting process for us. Now joining me here inside the

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Speaker 1: Broncos podcast studio is a fellow team reporter, Phil Melanie.

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Speaker 1: Phil was down in Arizona this past week at the

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Speaker 1: annual league meetings. Phil, it's great to have you on.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I do I look like I've

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Speaker 1: been in this time a little bit, look a little

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Speaker 1: tanner I to say, I had a nice time down

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Speaker 1: there at the Arizona Belmore whether it was beautiful and yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was a good few days. Yeah, you guys were

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Speaker 1: down there for a while, I mean Saturday to Wednesday. Yep,

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Speaker 1: I believe. How was the week overall? Really good? I

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Speaker 1: got a chance to talk with all of the Broncos

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Speaker 1: leadership business side, football side, the ownership group, President, Demoni Leech,

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Speaker 1: George Payton, Sean Payton. So yeah, it was a good week.

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Speaker 1: That's great. I'm so glad it was Phil. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: know earlier in their show we heard from Sean Payton,

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Speaker 1: George Peyton, owner and CEO Greg Penner, and de Money

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Speaker 1: Leach like you just mentioned, but you know, through all

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Speaker 1: of their prescom grums that they had. I guess what

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Speaker 1: was your main takeaways just from the week and everything

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Speaker 1: that they talked about down there. I think that one

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Speaker 1: takeaway was that it seemed like everybody was on this

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Speaker 1: same page, you know, talking to Sean Payton about you know,

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Speaker 1: the guys coming back in the off season program starting here.

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Speaker 1: His message about that was, Hey, it's time to get

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Speaker 1: to work with these guys. He and he talked about

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Speaker 1: conditioning in the weight room. I mean, that was a

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Speaker 1: big priority for him, and he said last year the

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Speaker 1: injuries got out of control and to try and prevent that,

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Speaker 1: you know, let's get this team really in good shape.

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Speaker 1: And Greg Penner was asked about, you know, expectations for

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Speaker 1: the season and instead of saying, oh, make the playoffs,

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Speaker 1: or hey, at least ten wins or he didn't say

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Speaker 1: any of that stuff. He just said, we're really focused

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Speaker 1: on the process here and that starts with getting to

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Speaker 1: work here with the off season program. And I thought

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Speaker 1: that that was really good that, you know, Greg Penner,

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Speaker 1: Sean Payton, you know, business football, they're on the same

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Speaker 1: page with regard to what it's going to take to

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Speaker 1: get this thing turned around. And the other takeaway was

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Speaker 1: from Sean Payton's Coach's breakfast availability there. I think that

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Speaker 1: he really set the tone with some of his comments there.

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Speaker 1: You know, he talked about studying last year's team and

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Speaker 1: that the film was really hard to watch, you know,

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Speaker 1: and he talked about like the kicking game not being

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Speaker 1: good enough and a focus on improving special teams and

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Speaker 1: he's you know, and he was really direct with his comments.

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Speaker 1: I felt like, and so I think, if you're a

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Speaker 1: player on this roster and you're about to come back

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Speaker 1: for the offseason program, I think you heard the message

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Speaker 1: from Sean Payton this week at the owners meetings just him.

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Speaker 1: You know, he said, if it sounds like I'm complimenting

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Speaker 1: the defense and being hard on the offense and special teams,

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Speaker 1: it's because I am so. Yeah, exactly, So I think

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Speaker 1: those guys will hear the message loud and clear. And

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Speaker 1: you know, Sean Payton is an expert at motivating, right.

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Speaker 1: You know, this is what makes him such a great

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Speaker 1: coach is that he gets the most out of his players.

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Speaker 1: And I think that he really said it to him

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Speaker 1: this week. I think Broncos fans should be really excited

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Speaker 1: based off of that. Yeah, most definitely. I Mean, he

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Speaker 1: talked about the preseason. Somebody asked, Hey, well, the starters

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Speaker 1: playing the preseason and he was like, what are you

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Speaker 1: talking about. Of course they're going to play in the preseason.

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Speaker 1: And he talked about, you know, the last time I looked,

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Speaker 1: we played tackle football. You know, we got to get

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Speaker 1: these guys ready to play tackle football. And you even

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Speaker 1: saw that with the moves of Broncos being a free agency.

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Speaker 1: They got big guys, they got strong guys, they got

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Speaker 1: athletic guys. You know, he said that some a JP Ryan,

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Speaker 1: the running back that he signed from the Bengals, he's

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Speaker 1: built to last. You know, these are things that he's

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Speaker 1: not doing by accident. You know, he's got a plan

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Speaker 1: for all of the free agents, and there's a reason

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Speaker 1: why those guys are now Broncos. You know. So all

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Speaker 1: of this is all building towards the same message, and

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Speaker 1: that's Hey, it's time to get to work. It's time

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Speaker 1: to focus on being physical, being big, and that's how

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Speaker 1: you win football games. So absolutely, yeah, well so, I

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Speaker 1: know there was also a lot of talk about Mike

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Speaker 1: Shanahan in the hope that he'll get voted into the

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Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Fame. I know, you talked to

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Speaker 1: several national media members about it. What was their consensus, really,

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Speaker 1: talked to a lot of prominent media members, Peter King

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Speaker 1: from NBC Sports, Albert Brier from the MMQB, and then

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Speaker 1: our friend Adam Schefter from ESPN, and all of those

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Speaker 1: guys know what, Mike Shanahan meant to the NFL. I

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Speaker 1: mean you talk about the back to back Super Bowls,

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Speaker 1: he's the only coach who's eligible for the Hall of

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Speaker 1: Fame who's won back to back Super Bowls and is

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Speaker 1: not in the Hall of Fame. So that alone, you know,

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Speaker 1: you would think, is hey, that's enough there. But you

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Speaker 1: look at the impact that he's made on the NFL

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Speaker 1: at ay, with his offensive system being adopted by so

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Speaker 1: many coaches. You look at his coaching tree. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he's still involved as an advisor with his son out

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Speaker 1: there in California with Kyle Shanahan, so you know, he

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Speaker 1: he's left the lasting impact and just his time with

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Speaker 1: the Broncos, one of the winnings coaches in NFL history,

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Speaker 1: you know, and really helped quarterbacks toward the end of

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Speaker 1: their careers. You know, like Steve Young with the forty

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Speaker 1: nine ers, he really helped their John Elway obviously here

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Speaker 1: and you know he even took Jake Plumber to an

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Speaker 1: AFC Championship game in the mid two thousands. So I

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Speaker 1: really think that when you think about Mike Shanahan, he's

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Speaker 1: one of the best coaches of all time and he

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Speaker 1: belongs in the Hall of fame, and that's what a

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Speaker 1: lot of these media guys were saying the same thing.

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Speaker 1: You know. I think that Peter King said something like

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Speaker 1: his footprints are in the sand of the NFL, you know, Like, yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: Like he's he's left his mark, you know. And I

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Speaker 1: think that coaches like that their legacy deserves to live on.

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Speaker 1: And ken I agree. A no owner and CEO Greg

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Speaker 1: Penner also spoke on it, So everyone take a listen

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Speaker 1: to what he had to say. Very hopeful and and

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Speaker 1: I had a chance to get to know Mike this fall.

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Speaker 1: He's been a great sounding board for me, especially in

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Speaker 1: the coaching search. Um, you know, he's one of the

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Speaker 1: winning coaches in football history, very respected. You look at

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Speaker 1: his coaching tree and people that he's developed, and his

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Speaker 1: schemes and and who's running those across the league. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he won back to back Super Bowls and um, we're

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Speaker 1: very hopeful that and expect that that he'll have success there. Well,

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Speaker 1: what did you think about what Greg Penner had to say? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that that's important for him to come in

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Speaker 1: and recognize, you know, what the Broncos pass has been about,

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Speaker 1: you know, and for him to really be an advocate

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Speaker 1: there for Mike Shanahan, I think says a lot just

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Speaker 1: knowing the rich tradition that's here in Denver and to

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Speaker 1: be able to get another person into the Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 1: That's a big priority for Greg Penner. So I thought

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Speaker 1: that was a nice thing to, you know, for him

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Speaker 1: to come in and be like, look, what's happened here

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Speaker 1: in the past is really important and uh and he

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Speaker 1: also said that, you know, Mike was a part of

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Speaker 1: the coaching search that the Broncos just had, right you know.

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Speaker 1: And obviously Mike Shanahan and Sean Payton both went to

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Speaker 1: Eastern Illinois, so easy to stump for a fellow alumnus there.

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Speaker 1: But hey, that's a good idea though, right, Like you're

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Speaker 1: looking for a new head coach, let's lean on some

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Speaker 1: of the resources that are right here. Yeah. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: Mike Shanahan knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl. Hey,

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Speaker 1: what do you think we should be looking for? And uh,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a big reason why Sean Payton is

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Speaker 1: here now too. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, a couple more things, Phil,

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Speaker 1: I know. NFL owners approved a couple of new proposals

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Speaker 1: at the league meeting this week as well. Um, they

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Speaker 1: approved that teams will be allowed to play to a

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Speaker 1: short week Thursday night football games in a season. Players

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Speaker 1: will now be allowed to wear the numbers zero. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think so first on the Thursday night. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think that Thursday Night is a big priority for

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Speaker 1: the NFL right now. You know, they had the new

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Speaker 1: partnership with Amazon last year and streaming. They're trying to

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Speaker 1: hit a younger audience with that, so they want those

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Speaker 1: games to be really competitive. They want that to be

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Speaker 1: good football. And I think that at first, playing on

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Speaker 1: Thursday night was sort of like whoa, Like the next

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Speaker 1: week is already here. But I think fans have now

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Speaker 1: gotten used to it, you know, and Thursday Night now

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Speaker 1: they are expecting football, and so it's sort of become

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Speaker 1: ingrained in the way that we consume the sport, and

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Speaker 1: they want those to be good matchups. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: easy for us here in town to look back to

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Speaker 1: that Broncos and Colts matchup last year. That was a

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Speaker 1: rough one. Broncos fans were even leaving the state and

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Speaker 1: before all overtime started, you know, and Al Michaels his

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Speaker 1: legendary quips, you know, the Broncos and Cults were victim

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Speaker 1: to that also, so they want that to be competitive.

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Speaker 1: So I think they want those matchups to be really strong.

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Speaker 1: So it makes sense that they they're going to allow

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Speaker 1: good teams they want play a couple of games. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was gonna say, as part of the change, you know,

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Speaker 1: not all teams will be guaranteed to play a Thursday

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Speaker 1: night game now exactly exactly, So they want good matchups there.

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Speaker 1: They want that to be compelling television because Thursday night

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Speaker 1: it's only game that's on TV, and it's streaming, and

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Speaker 1: it's hitting a younger audience, and I think that that's

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Speaker 1: a big priority. Now. The players are probably like, what

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Speaker 1: the heck, you know, why why do we have to

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Speaker 1: play two short weeks? You know, but the NFL keeps

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Speaker 1: so much data and statistics and they they really use

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Speaker 1: that to drive their decision making. And according to their data,

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Speaker 1: it says that there's not a higher tendency of injuries

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Speaker 1: on these short weeks. So, um, with that data backing

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Speaker 1: up what they're saying, they're saying, look, this isn't a

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Speaker 1: thing that's leading to injuries. So um. The other thing

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Speaker 1: is I think that the players enjoy the ten days

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Speaker 1: off after you know, we enjoy that exactly. Yeah. It's

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Speaker 1: sort of like a little mini bye week there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: definitely afterwards. So, um, there's a balance there. It's a

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Speaker 1: short week, but then you get the payoff on the

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Speaker 1: other side of it. So if they can make that

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Speaker 1: product better, why not not? Um. So I think that

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Speaker 1: that's one thing, and then the zero that's going to

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Speaker 1: be interesting. You don't know how I feel about it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I wonder if all teams will adopt this idea or

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Speaker 1: if like, you know, like I could totally see a

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Speaker 1: situation where Champagne's like, we're not wearing zero, you know,

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Speaker 1: and that that's sort of just a policy, but m

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Speaker 1: Jaguars immediately afterwards really wants to wear zero exactly. So

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Speaker 1: I think it's sort of a flashy number, you know.

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Speaker 1: Um and you know, like up at CEU coach Prime,

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Speaker 1: you know, he's like, hey, if you want to wear

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Speaker 1: a single digit, you got to be that guy. You

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Speaker 1: got to earn it, you know. So I wonder if

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Speaker 1: maybe some people will take that approach like hey, zero,

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Speaker 1: he's a special number or something like that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the number thing has been changing, you know here, like

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Speaker 1: Randy Gregory for the Broncos was five. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: so you wear a single digit there. So I think

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Speaker 1: that it's just a natural evolution of the game where

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Speaker 1: you know, it's fun and whatnot. I don't mind it,

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Speaker 1: but maybe some purists or maybe some people might say, hey, zero,

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Speaker 1: that doesn't look right up. Yeah, so I love to

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Speaker 1: see how the Broncos handle it. Does he work for

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Speaker 1: you down there? Yeah, But it's good stuff. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I like that there's a lot of league issues. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of Broncos issues, you know, obviously talking about

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Speaker 1: stadium renovations and all kinds of different things there. So, um,

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Speaker 1: I think that it's a good week and you learn

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Speaker 1: a lot. And it had been kind of a quiet

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Speaker 1: little bit there for the Broncos. So yeah, good to

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Speaker 1: hear from these guys and uh and then it's also

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Speaker 1: appreciate it to be down there with them. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: well I appreciate you coming on the podcast and sharing

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Speaker 1: your insight from the league meetings. Well, thank you very much, Sidney.

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Speaker 1: I gotta get back out on the sun. It's supposed

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Speaker 1: to be one this weekend. Get back I'll lose this. Dan, Well,

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Speaker 1: thank you, thanks said well. That'll do it for today's episode,

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Speaker 1: A Broncos Now Broncos Country. Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: I'll meet you right back here on Denver broncos dot

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Speaker 1: com and the Denver Broncos YouTube next week for another episode,

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Speaker 1: see you often,