As Broncos’ old building comes down, Bolles has more than just memories

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In Garett Bolles’ garage sits a piece of the building that the Denver Broncos called home for 36 seasons: some of the locker-room stalls.

There’s probably no better souvenir for the All-Pro left tackle than that.

“To have my kids and family be part of that, it’s awesome,” he said from his perch in the Broncos’ new locker room, a space five times larger than the one they inhabited at the old Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre.

The Broncos moved into their new digs across the practice fields from the old home in July. Now, at midseason, its time has come. A demolition crew has arrived to carve up the building into which the Broncos moved in 1990. It was renovated several times, most recently in 2018, when the meeting rooms, locker room. training room, business offices and other areas of the facility received an overhaul.

So, not even a decade after the last upgrade on the old building was complete, it’s obsolete. A hill on which fans will watch training-camp practice is expected to be constructed there, using the dirt that was excavated to build the new facility. That hill sits just west of the recently-constructed parking lot — Walton’s Mountain, if you will.

At any NFL facility, the locker room is the closest thing to an office that a player has. Unless you’re Russell Wilson, your home base in the building is the spot in that room where your name is displayed, your helmet can rest when it’s not needed, where your jerseys and sweats and every other piece of work attire you need for the day is carefully placed on hangers, cleaned with efficiency and care by the team’s equipment staff. Photos and reminders of loved ones can be displayed. It’s your little corner amid the opulence of a typical NFL facility.

A PART OF BOLLES WAS IN THAT OLD BRONCOS HOME

It was appropriate that the longest-tenured active Broncos player got to take some pieces of the abandoned Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre with him for safe keeping. It was in that building he developed as a player, endured professional trials, didn’t receive a fifth-year option and then turned that rejection on its ear in 2020 by having the best season of his career to date, which led to a contract extension that in 2019 as he opened the season with a blizzard of holding infractions, few saw coming.

“Man, it’s been nine years in that building,” Bolles said. “My lasting memories? Man, I got drafted in that building. I became a Bronco in that building. I signed my second contract in that building. And I think technically my third contract. So who knows what’s gonna happen next? That’s gonna be — just a hill, I guess. I don’t know what’s going on over there. I got to keep some team stuff. I got some lockers from the old facility, that was pretty cool to be a part of that, to have my kids and family be part of that, it’s awesome.”

(Photo by Andrew Mason / Denver Sports)

Bolles survived and thrived. He grew up as a player — and as a person.

And those locker-room stalls?

“They’re in my garage,” Bolles said. “My kids already threw their stuff in there, so, they could clean up my house. So, I don’t have shoes and backpacks all over the floors anymore.

“Just go store whatever you want in those lockers, man,” he said, smiling.

Bolles doesn’t know if he got his specific locker. But that doesn’t matter much. What actually does is that he got to share a chunk of a special place with his family, to give it a home that outlasts the now-chopped-up edifice that was constructed and often renovated under the late Pat Bowlen’s watch.

Sure, the locker room would get low marks in the annual NFLPA surveys, but that was largely because of space limitations that couldn’t be overcome, despite feats of architectural and design intrepidity that maximized the space in ingenious ways.

“It’s a part of me and a history,” Bolles said.

“I became a man in that locker room, that facility. I’m just beyond grateful to be a part of all the change and what we do moving forward.”

Related

Broncos get Hufanga back on the field for practiceThe Broncos should get aggressive before Tuesday’s trade deadlineBroncos coaches Shanahan, Reeves advance in Hall of Fame selection processBroncos win over Chiefs made them contenders, but offense still has holesAlex Singleton was the AFC’s best defensive player in the month of OctoberIf the Broncos pull off a Jonathan Taylor trade it may have to wait until after Sunday