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The friends and family that shaped young Mike McDaniel

Related Topics: Mike McDaniel, Steve Atwater

DONNA MCDANIEL HAD BEEF to sell and no money for daycare. So she found the perfect place to drop off her 10-year-old son, Mike, every morning in 1993: Denver Broncos preseason camp.

She was a single mom, raising Mike by herself in the Greeley, Colorado, area as she tried to sling filets and ground chuck for a local meat company. She was damn good at it, too, but she had to work six and a half days a week to make ends meet for her and her son.

Mike loved the Broncos, so running loose at Broncos preseason camp was the greatest idea he had ever heard.