A conversation with Steve Atwater
SANTA CLARA, CALIF.» Mac Freeman, the Broncos’ chief commercial officer, made a promise last season.
“When you come back to Denver, I’m going to get an office for you,” he told Steve Atwater, the Broncos’ Ring of Fame safety. Of course Atwater nodded, smiled his usual wide grin that belies his career as one of the game’s most feared tacklers, and said sure.
But he gave Freeman’s comments little thought until he and his family decided to move back to the place they called home for a decade when he starred on the Broncos’ secondary from 198998.
“I called Mac up and said, ‘Mac, were you serious about that or just joking?’” Atwater recalled. “He said, ‘No, we’re serious.’ So we sat down and talked through the details of it and it was perfect.”
So in June, Atwater moved back — back to where he’s felt he always belonged. After a year in New York with the Jets, many more in Georgia where he started a real estate management company, and then a stop in Maryland to be closer to his sons attending Princeton and Georgetown, the Atwaters returned to Colorado.
Last month the Broncos announced their seven-time Pro Bowler would be a fan development manager and a regular on their revamped 760 AM station, Orange and Blue Radio.
Last week Atwater sat down with The Denver Post to talk about his new role, his years as one of the most feared and productive safeties in the game, the Hall of Fame, of course that famed hit on Christian Okoye, his view of the Broncos’ No Fly Zone secondary and much more.
Tell me about your new role with the Broncos. “My official
position is manager of fan development, and along with that I do a radio show with Brandon Krisztal on 760 AM, Orange and Blue Radio. On the fan development side, basically I’m involved with events the team has with sponsors and season ticket-holders. If they have an event, I’ll go over and shake some hands, take some pictures and sign some autographs. It’s really a joy because I like seeing Broncos fans happy and I like interacting with people.”
So you’ve always had a deep connection with the team and the city over the years? “Yeah, I
have. And I was fortunate that I wasn’t forgotten about or — I don’t want to say forgotten about about because a lot of the younger people don’t know who I am anyway. Which is no big deal. It’s just the fact that I still get embraced is amazing to me.
“My wife and I walk around our neighborhood sometimes and look up at the mountains and say, ‘Man, why haven’t we been here enjoying the no humidity?’ And the people are just so friendly. I don’t have one complaint in the world.”
Do you have any aspirations of doing more at the team or league level, like working in personnel or moving up on the business side? “It just depends
on what other opportunities come available, and if they approach me about it, of course I would consider them. But I’m happy with my role right now and if there’s a way for me to help us be a better football team in any capacity, I’m down for it.”
As you’re standing on the sidelines for practices, do any players come up to you for advice? “Not really. And that’s really
not my place.”
What is it like for you watching the current Broncos’ secondary? Do you still watch from a player’s perspective?
“Yeah, I do look at it from the players’ standpoint. But also I’m far enough removed from it to not feel like I want to go out there and do it, or feel like it’s about me.”
When you retired, was it diff icult walking away?
“I was ready to retire. I can’t say that I really missed the physical aspect of it, but I definitely missed the locker room part. Several years after I stopped playing I went to Palo Alto, on Stanford’s campus. It was a career-transition program, and it was real past my time for doing that. That’s more for guys coming out of the league. I had been out of the league 10 years, but I went and it was interesting. We were doing certain drills and we’d get in groups and write up on the board what it meant to play in the NFL to us and what were some of the things that we missed. Each of the groups had basically the same things on the board: We missed the structure that it provides, we missed the teamwork, the locker room, the — I won’t say put on a pedestal, but the acknowledgement that you get as a football player versus in real life. It helps with humility. Also we discussed feelings we had once we got out.
“I know when we first moved to Georgia, I used to go to the basement for two or three hours, just hanging out by myself, didn’t really want to talk to anybody. I didn’t realize until I was in that meeting that I was going through depression at the time. Didn’t even realize it. I just thought, ‘Hey, I just didn’t feel like talking to anybody.’ I never thought about depression from missing playing football. That never crossed my mind until we were in that group and everyone was saying the same thing.”
What were your favorite moments as a Bronco? “Anyone
who asks me this I tell them the same thing. I still get chills from it. It was when we were playing against the Packers (in Super Bowl XXXII). I had hit Randy Hilliard and another guy and we go out of the game. So I’m sitting on the sidelines and John Mobley knocks the pass down that Brett (Favre) was throwing to the tight end. I hadn’t thought about it before the play, like, ‘OK, if he knocks this pass down, we win.’ So when he did, I just happened to look at the scoreboard and go, ‘Wait a minute! It’s over! We win!’ Look (pointing to the goosebumps on his arms). It’s crazy. I can go right back to that moment.”
THE Hit?
“Okoye?”
Yes. What do you remember from that? “I could hardly ever
forget that one. But leading up to that week of practice, Dennis Smith and I were talking and he was like, ‘Hey man, one of us, we have to hit him. We can’t go low on him.’ And you know me, I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah OK. I got you.’ And the opportunity — the hole opened and, hey, you’re up. I just went in and fortunately it went the way that it went, because it could have just as easily gone the other way.”
Did you know how big of a hit it was when it happened?
“No, no. I was hyped up about it, but I never knew that it would take on the life that it has taken on. I was just fired up and the crazy thing was I was mic’d for it, too. That just blows my mind how the whole series of events happened.”
Did you take a lot of pride in being a tough hitter? “Well,
yeah. I wouldn’t say so much a big hitter, but I wanted to hit someone early in the game so that they knew they weren’t going to be running the ball on us too much.”
What do you think of the Broncos’ “No Fly Zone” secondary? “Oh man. They’re
amazing. All of them, from Aqib Talib, Chris Harris, Brad Roby, Darian Stewart, T.J. Ward, Will (Parks), Justin (Simmons). They’re, I’d say, much better than our secondary was. We couldn’t call ourselves the No Fly Zone. And having the players they have, it gives them the flexibility to do different types of things up front. It makes everything better when you have a secondary like that.”
Do you deal with any lingering pain or injuries from the game? “You know what, I try to
do push-ups and crunches, but there are days I can’t do that because of my shoulder, my elbow. Mostly my shoulder. I still need surgery on my knee.”
Do you worry about CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), or effects from head injuries? “Certainly I have
thought about it and I’m thankful that I have all my faculties now, knock on wood. But that’s kind of a fine line with this sport. I believe that some people are prone to having concussions, more so than others.
“I don’t overly concern with myself with it because I’m a believer that if I can’t control something, I don’t want to put a whole bunch of time into it.”
Your name has come up in Hall of Fame discussions and you were a f inalist in 2016. How much do you think about it? “It’s kind of out of my hands
to a certain extent. I do think about it. So many players I played in Super Bowls and Pro Bowls with, well 95 percent of them are in and they look at me and are like, ‘Why aren’t you here?’ I don’t know. I did all that I could do. I dropped some interceptions in my day and I think if I had caught about half of those I think it’d be a shoo-in. (Atwater had 24 interceptions in his 11year NFL career.)
“I’m hopeful that eventually it happens.”
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @Nickijhabvala