During college, I wrote a couple of “Day in the Life” articles from my freshman and sophomore years. I’m bringing it back today, though the day I picked this time around isn’t random. I’m giving the behind the scenes of the Broncos’ 24-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver’s first win over the reigning Super Bowl champions since 2015 — a streak of 16 games.
With the Broncos’ bye week keeping me out of commission for a bit, I wanted to bring back the series and share some fun moments from a memorable day.
9:30 AM — Wake up
No Halloweekend Sunday scaries for me. Typically my game day routine includes going to a church service in Washington Park, grabbing a hot chocolate and walking around the lake a bit, then making my way up to Empower Field at Mile High for an 11:30 a.m. start to my responsibilities, but the conditions — 4-6 inches of snow — led me to choose to sleep in a bit and listen to a sermon on a podcast, then work on knocking the snow off the Honda CR-V I drive. After a shower, I traded in my Halloween gladiator costume for my game day fit, a navy blue turtleneck under a navy blue suit, with an orange pocket square for a true Denver touch.
10:45 AM — Leave for Empower Field at Mile High
I live 10 minutes from the Broncos’ practice facility in Dove Valley, which makes getting to practice every day convenient. On the other hand, the location makes getting up to the stadium, which is just west of downtown Denver, a bit of a hassle. It was particularly bad with the conditions of the roads, which were actually worse in the neighborhoods than the highways, and it felt like a Marvin Mims Jr. kick return — a great deal of collisions around me and me going 22 miles per hour. I made it safely and relatively on time, and in my opinion no drive that either offense would make that day would be more impressive than surviving the snowy highway.
11:30 AM — Arrive at Empower Field
The check-in process is pretty smooth on game day. I bring my backpack and get that cleared by security, then take a press box-only elevator up from ground level to the level four press box of Empower Field. I sit at the same seat every time, with a great view near the 50-yard-line, and said hi to my friends and co-workers Steve, Zohere and Sydney on the way in. With temperatures around 27 degrees, I don’t hate the heated press box at all.
11:45 AM — Lunch
The most expansive meal offerings of the press box are available before the game. I grabbed an assortment of whatever meat was available, some yogurt and fruit and a pack of four Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The best part was watching the Cowboys absolutely take it to the Los Angeles Rams, which was showing prominently on the press box TV’s and occasionally the RedZone channel showing on the big screens at the stadium. After that, I checked in with our lead writer, Aric, about my pregame responsibilities. This time around, I had the chance to report a feature about one of the co-founders of the Broncos Europe site, Mark Tonge, and his international trip to attend his first Broncos home game.
1:20 PM — Heading down to field level with Mark and Peter Tonge
About an hour before kickoff, Aric and I made our way to the upper deck to meet Mark and his father, Peter. The Broncos made a couple of pregame field passes available, so I had the chance to interview Mark about his journey on the field as the Denver and Kansas City players warmed up and went through their pregame routines. I didn’t mind the cold at all thanks to the turtleneck, and I really enjoyed chatting with Mark. As a fellow NFL fan, I thought it was so cool to see Mark’s appreciation for the Broncos and his enthusiasm at capturing video and walking around the area just beyond the south end zone. Peter was also a fun companion, somehow wearing short sleeves and comparing the Denver tailgate scene to sports in Europe.
2:00 PM — Head back to press box
After the last practice field goals went through the uprights and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes jogged back through the tunnel, the three of us rounded the field once more and took the elevator up to the upper deck. The article published Thursday and was a great change of pace from our typical practice content, along with a fun opportunity to highlight a really impactful content source that is helping expand the Broncos’ international presence. After that, I settled back into my seat next to our design specialist Julian and awaited kickoff.
2:20 PM — Kickoff
At kickoff, I entered game mode. My responsibilities during the game include uploading, writing titles for and publishing short video clips of the Broncos’ highlights, while also keeping an eye on the trends and interesting facts of the game for future content. Denver kept me very busy in the first half, recording three turnovers and taking the lead over the heavily-favored Chiefs.
4:00 PM — Grab a hot dog and update highlights
The halftime food offerings are pretty consistent — a hot dog and maybe a treat or two. I snagged a hot dog and returned to my seat, while ensuring that all highlights were up on the site and properly formatted.
5:00 PM — Broncos start to run away with the win
The Broncos began to pull away from the visitors in the last half of the fourth quarter, and that meant I was very busy. I typically upload highlights of touchdowns, turnovers, big gains and sacks, and Denver did some of each in the second half to secure their second win in a row. Justin Simmons’ interception of Patrick Mahomes was my first realization that the Broncos were actually going to win, and witnessing history and one of the big NFL stories of the week was a blast.
5:30 PM — Game ends, head to locker room
Final: Broncos 24, Kansas City 9. I finish up the fourth quarter highlights and start to format the full-game highlights, then rush over to the elevator to go down to field level. The highlight of my day came in the moments while we were waiting for the locker room to open for the official availability. I could hear the absolute joy coming from the Broncos’ locker room, and at one point saw quarterback Russell Wilson, Simmons and left tackle Garett Bolles round the corner and head to the locker room. “I’m ready to celebrate!” Simmons exclaimed, skipping his way through the big doors into the home lockers.
5:45 PM — Locker room media availability starts
Once the Broncos gave clearance, I joined the media horde into the locker room and went to work with my main postgame responsibility: capturing audio. I went to media scrums for inside linebacker Josey Jewell, outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper, cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, safety P.J. Locke, right tackle Mike McGlinchey and cornerback Pat Surtain II and recorded each on Voice Memos on my phone. At the end of my availability, I sent each of those to Aric and our co-worker Ben Swanson to use for articles and other projects.
6:30 PM — Finish video highlights, move to defense sidebar article
After I finished up the full-game highlights, I checked in with Aric and received my writing assignment for the evening. The choice made a lot of sense: an article on the defensive performance, which included four takeaways and keeping Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense out of the end zone. I went back and listened through the major players and coaches I wanted to quote and typed them into a Word document, then got to work on crafting a fun sidebar off a big win.
8:30 PM Published the sidebar article
After about an hour of writing, I sent in my sidebar to Aric and readied the article in our content management system. Once edits came in, I made the changes, double-checked to make sure everything showed up and then hit publish. I also found out my assignment for the next morning, a “Mile High Morning” writeup of cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian’s interception and performance.
8:45 PM — Left Empower Field at Mile High
A group of Broncos content people and I left the press box together around 8:45, navigating our way through the staircase and out into the brisk Denver air. It was a long Sunday, but definitely a memorable one and gave the Broncos an abundance of momentum heading into the bye week.
9:15 PM — Arrived back in south Aurora
Thankfully, the roads cleared all the way up by the time I got back on the highway for my evening drive. Once I got back, I grabbed a quick snack, took a shower and got all ready for another day at work the next day.
Riker's Block 