INDIANAPOLIS — After more than four decades as a Broncos scout, Senior Midwest Area Scout Scott DiStefano was honored Wednesday with the fifth annual Inside the League C.O. Brocato Memorial Award for lifetime service in NFL scouting.
Inside the League presents the award to a distinguished pro football evaluator who has long been dedicated to the scouting community.
Nearly 20 members of the Broncos' front office — including General Manager George Paton — attended the event to support DiStefano and Western National Scout Sae Woon Jo, who earned AFC honors for being the best at running Pro Days.
"That was pretty high for me," DiStefano said. "I got really emotional. Those are my guys. I've worked with them all these years and it's a great group. It's a neat group. Our draft meetings are really the best. If you don't believe that, sit in one of them. It's an elite group, believe me."
DiStefano, who is slated to work his 43rd NFL Draft in April, also serves as a senior college consultant for the Broncos.
"It's really cool," Paton said of DiStefano's receiving the award. "The scouting profession doesn't get a lot of credit. Kind of the unsung heroes. They're underpaid, overworked — and Scotty's been doing it for 43 years. What he's meant to the scouting community, all the people he's worked with, all the colleges that he goes into [is impressive]. … All scouts are on the road all fall, so they're going into colleges representing the Broncos and the NFL. Really, no one does it better than Scott."
Paton also shared his appreciation for Jo, who has spent the last three seasons with the Broncos and has 20 years of scouting and coaching experience.
"No one runs a Pro Day like Sae Woon," Paton said. "He takes total control of the drills, of the players. It's fun when you go to a Pro Day, because everything's set up, organized. Sae Woon's one of the best out there. We have a great scouting group, and the Broncos are really fortunate."
DiStefano began his career with the Broncos in 1982, and he fulfilled scouting responsibilities while also braking down film cutups for assistant head coach Joe Collier.
The Ohio native initially scouted the Rocky Mountain and Southwest regions before working as a Midwest area scout from 1990-2019.
During his career in Denver, DiStefano has been part of an organization that has posted seven Super Bowl appearances and three world championship wins.
"The Broncos have always been a class organization," DiStefano said. "They've always hired class people. Great owners."
C.O. Brocato was a longtime Titans scout who spent more than 40 years with the organization. He passed away in 2015.
"I knew C.O.," DiStefano said. "He was a personal friend of mine. The scouts, we don't get a lot of awards in this profession, but just my name connected to his name really means so much to me. He was the epitome of what an NFL scout is, and I try to emulate [him] every way I can [and] be close to him."
