Broncos

DENVER (CBS4) ― The Denver Broncos have replaced the duties of "General Manager" but they have not given the title to anyone since the team fired Ted Sundquist in March.

CBS4's Gary Miller sat down to talk with Sundquist about life after the Broncos. Sundquist was the team's general manager for six years and he had been with the Broncos for 16 years. He also earned a master's degree in public administration from the University of Colorado in 1992.

Some things Sundquist misses, others he doesn't. But he said he was surprised when head coach Mike Shanahan gave him the news in March.

"I was shocked and I would be remiss to say I was disappointed. I was very disappointed," he said. "I'd been with the club for 16 years and it certainly felt like we'd accomplished a lot over that time period."

"Certainly as general manager we'd gone through a stretch where we had five winning seasons in a row, which tied a club record. In my tenure we went to the playoffs three times and were on the brink of a Super Bowl with an AFC championship. There's a little bit of unfinished business there, at least for me."

He listed bringing Champ Bailey and Jake Plummer to Denver as among his proudest accomplishments, as well as an Draft day trade in 2006 you might remember.

"I was very proud of our ability to trade up from 29 to 15 and pull of the trade for Jay Cutler who I do think is the future of the franchise at the quarterback position," Sundquist said. "He's an exciting player and he's going to do a lot of exciting things for the fans at Invesco (Field at Mile High)."

But Sundquist also knows there have been some mistakes along the way. "Certainly hindsight being 20/20 ... one of the moves we made in drafting Maurice Clarett. We felt like it was worth the risk for the reward that was potentially there and it just brought heartache and grief."

Sundquist is a man noted for working 16 hour days, so just how is he filling his time these days?

"I'll tell you what, we have a lot of clean closets here," he said. "The other day somebody called me and said 'What are you doing?' and I said 'I'm watching Rachael Ray on the cooking channel with my wife.'"

But Sundquist is using this downtime to plan for his next life move.

"I'm just trying to take a little bit of life inventory and get a feel for where I take things from here."

That introspection also includes football. "I've actually started doing some analysis and some reports on the teams which have been successful and how we compared to them and kind of play a little bit of devil's advocate and say 'What could I have done differently? Who could we have taken here that would have changed the football team?'"

And yes, when Sundquist says "we" he means the Broncos. "When you're with a club and an organization that long ... it's hard to kind of remove yourself."

"I've gotten some tremendous support from people out in the league, people who know the business, the agent community, other general managers, coaches, media types. It's been outstanding and that's really what's gotten me through the last few weeks."

Sundquist has a year left on his contract, so he doesn't need a job right away, but he is ready to start looking.

"Change is inevitable, especially in our business and I'm excited about what the future brings."

"I was happy in Denver, let's get that straight. I love the fans. We love living here. I went to college down the road. I've been a Bronco a long time and that's going to be hard to change.

"I'd like another opportunity to lead a club and try to bring a championship to another town. Certainly I've had an opportunity to see that done here in Denver and we have been extremely successful. I do feel like we understand the process of putting together a good football team and would like to team up a with a coach who has a vision and hopefully I can help get the people to get that vision in place and go forward to win a championship."

As far as regrets about parting company with the team, he does have a few. "Things did happen so quickly I didn't really have a chance to thank a number of players, both past and present, for what they brought to the club ... how exciting it was for me to be a part of their careers."

"And then certainly the fans, the city of Denver, they love the Broncos and that's what made it such a treat every day to go to work."

"It made it exciting for me each and every Sunday when I walked into Invesco and to hear the fans and see the faces. The people call your name out and to go over and talk to them."

"The discussion about Bronco football throughout the week after that and I know it means a lot to the town. We're almost a college town when it comes to the pro football team."

"I just can't thank the fans enough for what they've done for Amy and me over the years."

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