The Denver Broncos host the Buffalo Bills in the NFL playoffs Saturday at Empower Field at Mile High, pitting Wyoming’s longtime bond with the “home” team down Interstate 25 against the Bills, led by University of Wyoming alum Josh Allen.
The teams met in last year’s playoffs too, with Buffalo delivering a 31-7 win in the wild-card round. Allen holds a 3-1 record against Denver since Buffalo selected him seventh overall in 2018, after his three-year career in Laramie.
This time, the top-seeded Broncos have home-field advantage after a 14-3 regular season. Many see Wyoming as split between Broncos and Bills fans since Allen became a Bill. The truth is more nuanced.
Three Wyoming natives illustrate the divide. All started as Broncos fans but diverged after Allen became the state’s biggest sports star.
They are the convert, the loyalist and the fence-sitter, and they are probably relatable to every football fan in the Cowboy State.
The Convert
Jeff Gillotti, 60, a golf professional event manager, recalls sitting in a clubhouse with celebrities, including NBA Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler, when Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow spoke up.
“That John Elway,” said Winslow, a former tight end for the San Diego Chargers. “He’s just the luckiest player I ever saw.”
Gillotti, a Cheyenne native and lifelong Broncos fan who idolized Elway, interjected as Winslow kept “bagging on Elway.”
“I gotta agree with you,” Gillotti recalled saying. “He’s really lucky on the golf course. His swing’s terrible.
“The problem is, Kellen, when he takes that swing all the way to the top, those two Super Bowl rings weigh his hand down so much.”
Elway won two Super Bowls. Winslow never reached one.
Gillotti expected Winslow to laugh. Instead, the Hall of Famer ignored his calls and skipped future tournaments.
Thinking back, Gillotti called the joke the “dumbest” thing he’s ever said, but he told Cowboy State Daily he just had to say something.
After all, Elway was his “god,” and the Broncos were his team.
But that passion faded for Gillotti after 2018, when quarterback-needy Denver passed on Allen at No. 5 and took an edge rusher instead. Buffalo grabbed Allen at No. 7.
“I was a dyed-in-the-wool Broncos fan until that fateful day where they didn’t draft Josh Allen,” he told Cowboy State Daily this week. “That was it.”
Gillotti, a UW alumnus, expected Allen — tall, fast, competitive, with a cannon arm like Elway — to join the Broncos.
“Josh is going to go to the Broncos, and it’s going to be the best thing in the world,” Gillotti remembered thinking.
He was crushed when it didn’t happen.
“That was kind of it for me,” Gillotti said. “I lost it.”
Allen built Buffalo into contenders. Denver floundered. Gillotti switched to the Bills, embracing their history of playoff pain, including four straight Super Bowl losses in the 1990s.
“It was kind of hard to fathom at first,” Gillotti said. “Wait, I have to root for the Bills? I don’t want to root for the Bills. Their kickers miss field goals and they lose Super Bowls. Why would I want to be part of that? They’re all the way out in New York.
“But when it comes down to it, it’s Joshy.”
Gillotti had moved back to Wyoming from California as Allen starred at UW. He had been used to a team that specialized in 3 yards and a cloud of dust. But Allen was explosive. With each game No. 17 played in college, Gillotti’s fanhood just grew.
“Just watching him play there was just something different, something that screamed that there was something special here,” Gillotti said.
Denver, meanwhile, kept frustrating him with odd hires and picks like using a top selection on the No. 2 tight end from Iowa in 2019.
Allen, on the other hand, elevated Wyoming’s profile. In California, people had introduced Gillotti as being from Montana or Denver. Now people knew where he was from.
“It gives us purpose if you will,” Gillotti said. “It just helps that Josh is such a great guy, too.”
Gillotti avoids stadiums for TV comfort but plans to attend Saturday’s game in Bills gear, if he scores tickets. “My son’s a big Bo Nix fan, so I’m trying to be respectful,” he said.
Unlike many locals, he rejects compromise. “It’s not one of those things where ‘if the Bills couldn’t win, at least the Broncos won.’
“No. Those words will never be uttered,” Gillotti said.
The Loyalist
Steve Carver, 59, a certified public accountant from Cheyenne, is still a lifelong and loyal member of Broncos Country North.
Born in Laramie and a UW graduate, Carver traveled from Cheyenne or Casper to games, including the 1977 AFC championship at age 11.
“Ever since I’ve grown up, I’ve been a Bronco fan,” Carver told Cowboy State Daily. “My folks had season tickets.”
His fervor has cooled, but no team tops Denver — even as friends and even his 83-year-old father jumped to the Bills Mafia, as the team’s fans are known, because of Allen.
“He’s calling me when the Bills are winning,” Carver said. “I’m calling him when the Broncos are winning.”
Carver finds his dad’s flip baffling. “Dad, you’ve been a Bronco fan for, you know, 60 years and now for one guy that’s been at the university for two years, you’re going to flip and be a Bills fan?” Carver said.
He gets the Bills Mafia pull as Denver struggled and Allen soared. “There’s been a big shift of people that used to be Bronco fans, who now enjoy watching the Bills a lot more,” he noted, citing bar chatter about “Josh and the Bills.”
Carver calls the flip-floppers bandwagoners, pegging state support at 50-50. A Broncos win Saturday might sway some, but Allen’s grip runs deep.
Could the Broncos win them back?
“I think… that might be a lost cause.”
Fence-Sitter
Ron Downey, 60, “born and raised right here in Cheyenne,” has rooted for the Broncos going far back — even before the team’s 1977 Super Bowl run.
A measured sports fan, he avoids saying “we” when talking about his teams.
“I wouldn’t go die hard, but that’s who I’m rooting for and that’s who I want to win,” he said. “When I’m talking about the Broncos, I don’t say we. I don’t own the team. I’m not on the team. But I know people when they are talking about the Broncos or whoever their favorite team is and they’re always talking about ‘we.’”
Casual despite owning an Elway Super Bowl 32 print, Downey added the Bills to his interests after Denver passed on Allen despite needing a quarterback.
“It didn’t really shift it,” he said. “It just added to it. I mean, you know what? I want Josh Allen to win every day. I want him to do well.”
For Saturday, Downey eyes Denver’s defense but doubts Broncos quarterback Bo Nix’s consistency despite his penchant for closing out close games.
“I’m not sold on Bo Nix,” Downey said. “He looks fabulous at times, and he looks like somebody who shouldn’t be out there other times.”
“Whoever wins this game is who I’ll be rooting for the next couple rounds, but if Bo Nix has an incredible game, I think the Broncos will win,” Downey said.
Whom does he favor?
“It’s hard. I guess I wouldn’t care who wins,” Downey said. “You know, it’s a win-win either way for me. I guess I’d kind of like the Bills to win.
“I don’t know, it’s hard. I think it’d be really cool to see Josh Allen holding up the Super Bowl trophy. That’d be really cool.”
But he won’t be heartbroken if it doesn’t happen. Downey said he plans to let the game play out.
“I will absolutely watch the game, and whoever wins, I’m like, okay, well, that’s who I would jump on the bandwagon with for the next round and basically, for the next two rounds,” Downey said.
Justin George can be reached at justin@cowboystatedaily.com.
