The first day of training camp is supposed to be a celebration.
But for Broncos boss John Elway, presiding over a rash of off-filed issues this offseason, getting a fresh start is going to take some time and some cleaning up.
In addition to two of his top personnel men getting DUIs, they’re now faced with the possibility of a suspension for linebacker Von Miller.
“There are times when unfortunately, we’re all human,” Elway said, via Mike Klis of the Denver Post. “When you have an organization of this size, some people are going to make mistakes. My feeling is face the problems, hopefully get the problem fixed. You want to be human about this, but also make sure people understand this is not what we’re about.
“But today we’re back to football. And that’s the best thing. In my job, just like this team will go through adversity this year, we went through some adversity in the front office. And we’ll deal with it, handle it and hopefully better for it.”
Director of player personnel Matt Russell was suspended indefinitely after his arrest, which included hitting two cars (one a police car) and having a 0.246 blood alcohol content. Director of pro personnel Tom Heckert didn’t hit anyone, but he blew a 0.162 nearly seven hours after his arrest.
“I was disappointed in them,” Elway said. “They’re better than that. They know that, and I know that.”
Elway said after originally considering bringing in outside help, but has elected to just spread the responsibilities around until Heckert returned.