CANTON, Ohio — As we’ve come to learn, the Bowlens do not always agree with one another.
It says something about Steve Antonopulos, then, that the Bowlens unanimously picked him to be Pat Bowlen’s presenter at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction Saturday at Thomas Benson Field in Canton, Ohio.
“Well, Joe called me in the office and I had no idea,’’ Antonopulos said in describing how he was notified of the honor by Broncos’ president Joe Ellis. “Didn’t even think about it. It was completely off the radar. He called me in the office and 30 seconds later (team public relations boss) Patrick Smyth was there. I mean after I got off the phone with Joe, I had to go in the back and I lost it to, be honest with you.’’
Greek, as we’ll call Antonopulos from now on, has been a Broncos’ trainer since 1976. He is the only person who was employed by the Broncos all 35 years that Pat Bowlen owned the team.
Bowlen died June 13 following complications with Alzheimer’s. Bowlen gave the disease a fight as the he lived several years with the challenge before passing away at 75.
"As everything he’s ever done," Greek said. “He fights to beat everything. That was always his mindset. In fact, initially you would have never thought he was told that he had it. He fought it from the get-go. For a couple years he didn’t want anybody to know about it or tell anybody anything.
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“He fought the hard fight and even in recent times seeing him he still fought. He didn’t know what he was fighting but he fought.’’
Bowlen is a Hall of Famer because of his 354 wins (an average of more than 10 per season), seven Super Bowl appearances, three world championships, plus his enormous contributions to the league. But there was a personal characteristic that made him such a winner.
“He had great focus,’’ Greek said. “One thing about him, he was not about getting the accolades. He demanded his employees to do that. He went about things humbly. He didn’t try to get all the press and all that, it wasn’t about him. He wanted other people.
“A perfect example is when we won the first Super Bowl. ‘This one’s for John.’ It wasn’t about him. John had been through all this stuff, and now boom. Here it is. ‘This one’s for John.’ And that’s the way he was.
“And I think from his committees in the NFL. It wasn’t about one side or the other. He wanted to make sure both sides worked together. And it worked for both. Some people aren’t like that.
There can only be one presenter for each Hall of Famer. Some might have been surprised Greek was selected and not, say, John Elway. But no one knew Mr. B like Greek. Each day for Bowlen started with a visit to the trainer’s room to check in on his players. And sometimes Greek had to treat his boss, a pretty fair athlete himself.
“He had a very bad ankle that – he stepped off the curb jogging,’’ Greek said. “We had to take care of that. He always had tightness. He hated coming in to the trainer’s room to say anything about an injury.’’
As the presenter, Greek attacked his responsibility with his usual professionalism.
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“It was an emotional thing to start with without a question,’’ he said. “They tape the interview and presentation and the preparation for it was worse than the actual – in the sense of emotion – was harder than the presentation itself. Because there were so many stories and things that came about in the process that I thought about it. It was just an incredible experience.”
His taped presentation will carry Bowlen's induction as there otherwise is never a speech for a posthumous inductee. Later in the evening, former Broncos' cornerback Champ Bailey will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
"And you know what, he was one of Mr. Bowlen’s favorite players,'' Greek said. "There’s no better than to go in with Champ. Even when he was hurt he was tough as nails. He hated – the great players hate to come to the athletic trainer’s room.''
Several of Bowlen’s former players have said his Hall of Fame induction will be bittersweet as the beloved owner won’t be around to accept the honor. But perhaps solace can come from living on forever as a football immortal.
“It’s the ultimate,’’ Greek said. “His family deserves it so much to get the reward that he’s going to receive. And it justified his hard work and putting this whole thing together. I mean imagine how this team was when he first got a hold of it. What he did with it was phenomenal.’’
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