ATLANTA — Amid the celebration of Pat Bowlen’s Hall of Fame-caliber career as Broncos owner here this week, there has also been sadness.
Alzheimer’s disease has robbed Mr. B of the opportunity to appreciate the honor he is expected to receive during a Pro Football Hall of Fame vote Saturday. He will have earned it without feeling its emotional reward. He will share it without understanding. It can leave Bowlen’s intimate loved ones and fans throughout the Broncos region feeling a tad melancholy.
Perhaps this will help: Going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is not an achievement for today. It’s about forever.
There are Rookies of the Year, Most Valuable Players and even Super Bowl champions for the here and now. Every year there’s a new winner. Even New England and Tom Brady haven’t been able to win ‘em all.
The Hall of Fame is an award for immortality. The longest lasting of all achievements. Every year till the end of time, that bronze bust is there for tourists to absorb.
“It will span generations,’’ Beth Bowlen Wallace, one of Pat’s older daughters, said in a sit-down interview with 9NEWS on Friday. “My children, my children’s children will be able to go see their grandfather, great grandfather -- great, great grandfather -- immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he were to get elected. It’s an incredible achievement. That’s why I use the word, ‘surreal.’’
Beth and her younger sister Brittany Bowlen represented their father at the annual Merlin Olsen Hall of Fame Luncheon here Friday at the downtown Marriott Marquis hotel.
Each daughter has stated they would like to one day replace their father as the Bronco’s principal owner and it was perhaps worth noting they met the Denver media separately Friday -- although they were bonded by the identical message that this week is not about them or ownership issues but all about their father.
Brittany’s eyes welled with tears as she answered a question about how her father is doing.
“He’s super stoic. He has a fight for life that is unimaginable. It’s amazing,’’ Brittany said. “And he still gets to have those moments with us.’’
She talked about how nearly a year ago, as she was about to earn her MBA from the Duke University business school, she was called in by Pat’s caretakers.
“(They) said you have to hurry, he’s having a lucid moment,’’ Brittany said. “In the Alzheimer’s community, people know that sometimes neurons start snapping and you have that lucid moment. So, I rushed to the house and my dad said, ‘What are you doing with your life?’
“‘Well dad, I’m in business school. Working hard.’ And he said ‘OK. Well, start today, because I want you to be important.’
“And it was that Pat Bowlen moment, like, don’t give up on your dreams. To get to have those moments still makes it really special.’’
Beth and Brittany, Brittany and Beth were both asked, in so many words, during group media settings about the ownership dispute that has mushroomed into a lawsuit filed by their uncle Bill Bowlen against the three trustees in charge of the Pat Bowlen Trust.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called the dispute “sad,” and “not something (Pat Bowlen) would have wanted,” during his state-of-the league media session Wednesday.
Brittany and Beth both figuratively swatted the topic away, saying this week is about honoring their father and hopefully celebrating his final coronation.
However, Beth, in her one-on-one interview with 9NEWS, did expand by saying the perceived discord within the family is based on just that – a perception.
In the name of their father, can this coming together of the Bowlen children this week in this bustling southern city bring peace and harmony to the family?
“It’s interesting that the media has portrayed our family as divided,’’ Beth said. “I’ve never felt our family as divided. That’s something that’s been portrayed in the media quite honestly. Certainly going through this experience as a family is going to galvanize us. It would galvanize any family to go through such an incredible experience together.
“So whether he’s inducted or not, I know this will bring us all closer. But there has not been strife amongst this family.’’
