As the city of Denver, Colo. comes off celebrating two professional sports championships in the last two years, it is vying to see its baseball and football teams be in the conversation as legitimate contenders again. The Denver Broncos have not qualified for the postseason in the last seven seasons, most recently posting a five-win 2022 campaign. This offseason, the team hired Sean Payton, the former head coach who helped the New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV for the 2009 season, with the hopes that he could help improve the play of quarterback Russell Wilson.
Mark Schlereth, being a former guard with the Denver Broncos and three-time Super Bowl champion, has the credibility and résumé to give an inside perspective into the team’s quest to capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time since the 2015 season. He appears daily on the Schlereth & Evans morning radio program on Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, and during the football season, he is a game analyst with the NFL on FOX.
“I’ve got three jobs – I’m doing okay,” Schlereth said.
Earlier in the segment, Schlereth spoke about the venerable job Payton has done with football teams in the past. He is excited to see what he will be able to do as the head coach of the Broncos during an uncertain time for the franchise. Payton stepped down as the head coach of the Saints after the 2021 regular season and worked as an analyst on FOX NFL Kickoff last year.
“The guy can coach, and the guy consistently puts winners out there and holds his guys accountable – that’s all,” Schlereth said of Payton. “I don’t know about you guys, but I like winning. It’s been in short supply around here.”
Schlereth is involved with a chili company called “Stinkin’ Good” where he and restaurateur David Bloom are working together to spread it around the country. With all of these roles and responsibilities, he has remained busy after his football career and is not looking to join Payton’s coaching staff on the Broncos. Yet there is one other business idea of intrigue that he may look to become involved in down the road.
“I thought about starting a lawn mowing company [and] just [mowing] lawns in my neighborhood,” Schlereth said. “Dude, I guarantee you I could make six grand a month just mowing lawns. I would love it too.”
