How Pam Papsdorf has become Denver’s unsung front-office hero during 36-year Broncos tenure

She began working with former director of administration Sandy Waters before moving to the football side in 1991. She worked in college scouting for 12 years, while also helping administratively with the training staff. In those days, her friends away from the Broncos would ask her what her second job would be during the offseason, not understanding the year-round nature of the business.

During this stretch, the Broncos finally won their first world championship after falling in a pair of Super Bowls during the early years of Papsdorf’s tenure.

“There will never be another feeling like that one,” Papsdorf says, “because we worked so hard for so many years and could just never get there and then we finally got there and that was just the best.”

In 2003, Papsdorf changed roles, this time working as Assistant to the General Manager during Ted Sundquist’s tenure. She remained in the player personnel department and worked closely with GM Brian Xanders until John Elway assumed the role.

From 1991 to 2010, Papsdorf also held the responsibility of calling players the team selected in the draft. Each year during that span, Papsdorf was the first person to talk to the Broncos’ draft selections.

“The best part of [the job] is that we get to see them and talk to them as people, as human beings,” Papsdorf says. “Not the players that are on the field that everybody sees.”

Papsdorf, too, was one of the staff members responsible for calling players in to be released.

When Elway became general manager, Papsdorf’s role changed again. She worked with the college and pro scouting departments and assumed football administration responsibilities in 2012. That role included typing players contracts, and it quickly became a memorable part of the job.

“My very first contract that I ever typed … was Peyton Manning,” Papsdorf says. “That was pretty cool.”

Papsdorf set up Russell Wilson’s pre-draft visit with the organization in 2012 — and she said he remembered speaking with her a decade later…