The Lead
It's election day!
If you haven't voted yet, there may still be time, depending on when you're reading this. And it doesn't matter if you've never voted before. There's never a bad time to start participating in elections.
Just ask Von Miller.
In an Instagram Live conversation between Miller and former Stanford tight end (and current U.S. senator) Cory Booker on Monday, Miller revealed that when he submitted his ballot early a few weeks ago, he voted for the first time.
"I just wanted to let my voice be heard," Miller said. "We've been fighting for the right to vote for years and years and years. And one of my coaches, [Running Backs] Coach [Curtis] Modkins, he sat down with us and we had a team meeting and talked about how important it is to vote, no matter who's on the ballot. Our people have been fighting for years and years and years for this right. We owe it to them to go out there and vote. And that really just struck me, and that was really the wave that pushed me over the top to just go out there and exercise my voice."
Miller's excitement around the election translated into a push for his teammates and friends to do the same, he said.
"I've been on the guys," Miller said. "If anybody knows me, whenever I adopt any new mindset or way of thinking, I always put that on my friends, man. When I voted — to be honest, this was my first time voting. I was excited about it and I was trying to get all my friends and my teammates to jump on the train."
One of Miller's driving missions this year has been the issue of racial justice and police brutality. In June, he took part in a rally and march in downtown Denver with many of his teammates, and he also penned a column for TIME on the cause.
In August, a Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, multiple times in the back at point-blank range. The Broncos canceled their practice days later and instead held an hours-long meeting.
"Melvin Gordon, he's from Kenosha, Wisconsin," Miller said. "And he talked about his experience and he talked about what happened there, [how] it struck him. … We talked for six hours as a team. Nobody else was in there, none of the media or anybody. We just talked. Anybody that had anything on their chest, anything that they felt. I've been in the league 10 years and I've never experienced that, like an open flow for everybody to talk about what's going on, how they feel. And everybody went up there and they talked, man. It was so moving. … We spent six hours talking, and then we spent another three hours coming up with plans for a change, for immediate change. … It was just moving for me, man, to just experience that and see my teammates of all different colors, all different backgrounds, to really speak on their experience. It was incredible."
After an inspirational offseason demanding change, Miller clearly couldn't sit this election out.
"Our quickest way to create change is to vote," Miller said.
Below the Fold
Did you know Peyton Manning has played in Kenny Chesney's band? Well, maybe not really playing. Here, listen to Manning retell the story as part of takeover of Chesney's No Shoes Radio channel on SiriusXM.
How 'bout those rookies, folks? The team's youngest receivers came up huge on Sunday, as Pro Football Focus’s Holden Perrelli writes. "The Broncos relied on a number of rookie pass-catchers to help Lock lead a successful second-half comeback," he writes. "Albert Okwuegbunam and [KJ] Hamler caught touchdown passes, and Jerry Jeudy flashed on a 43-yard catch and run."
