PHOENIX — These owners know what’s up with the Broncos.
Brittany Bowlen is the 29-year-old child in training to one day succeed her father Pat as the Broncos’ principal owner.
“I have not met her,’’ Jed York, the San Francisco 49ers’ chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday with 9News. “I’ve heard nothing but positive things. There’s been enough people like Jonathan Kraft and Stephen Jones who reached out to me at that point. I’d love to connect with her and do anything I can do to be helpful.’’
York was in his mid-20s when he broke in with the 49ers as director of strategic planning. He was team president by the age of 28 and CEO at 29.
When the Broncos bring in Brittany Bowlen later this year to work in the team’s front office, she will work on what team president Joe Ellis referred to as strategic development initiatives. Strategy sessions, it appears, is the road to the top.
“My first job, half of it was working for our then-CFO, who his main focus was getting the new stadium built,’’ York said as he walked through the lobby of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and on through a breezeway to another building where many of the key NFL owners meetings take place. “Thankfully, the Broncos are not in that situation where they need to build a new stadium.’’
True, although naming their stadium is a different matter.
“The other piece of it was I worked in every single department,’’ York said. “I was sewing name plates on the backs of jerseys. You look at the show, Undercover Boss. It was similar to that. I just wasn’t undercover.
“But you got a sense that this is what it means to be in equipment room. This is what it means to be on the marketing team, or to be on the community relations team. It was a great experience to get to know people, but also to understand: What is their job? How do you relate to them?
“Because especially when you’re young and you’re sort of blessed with the position as opposed to coming from a different route, you need to earn people’s respect in the building.’’
One difference between York and Brittany Bowlen: York’s mom, Denise DeBartolo York, remains the 49ers’ controlling owner. The idea is for Brittany to not only one day become the Broncos’ CEO but controlling owner.
Still, York runs the 49ers and has been from a young man at 28 and 29 to one who is now approaching middle age at 39. Is there a challenge to constantly proving yourself when you’re that young and in charge?
“I think it’s more to understand the gravity of the position,’’ York said. “There’s no question from what I’ve heard she is smart enough for it. It’s just, 'how do you put together your group?' And how do you make sure that people who have been professionals in this business for 20, 30 years to follow somebody who hasn’t been alive as long as they’ve been in the industry?
“That’s a challenge. And how do you make sure that you’re there on merit and you can make the right decisions to put the right group around you? I have no doubt she will be able to do that.’’
Owners will tell you their initial hurdle was not age but inexperience. Pat Bowlen was 40 when he bought the Broncos. I interviewed him for the Denver Post when he was 69 and in his office during training camp of 2013.
Regardless of whether your 30, 40 or 65, Bowlen said when you start out as owner, “you don’t really know what you’re doing. It takes you a while to adjust. To me it was a real challenge. It was a fun deal. You have your disappointments. You have your losses and your wins. When you come in and buy a football team, you don’t really understand the picture until you’re there for a while.”
Is York a different owner now than he was a decade ago?
“Are we talking about four-coaches-in-four-years different?’’ he said with a smile. “I think she’s got a great team. Joe Ellis is great. John Elway is great. You’ve got a great team in place. You do need leadership at the helm from an ownership standpoint.
“And knowing Pat and how much he cared about the team, you have to care about the team and you have to make sure your passion is instilled in everybody else. And that you can direct the team from that standpoint.
“She doesn’t have to run every aspect of the team. But have the right people around you. And luckily she has great people on the football side, she’s got great people on the business side and it’s about making sure it’s all tied together. That’s what ownership needs to do.’’
