ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Hop in the car and cover the distance between Pittsburgh and Denver and the trip meter will likely read something on the order of 1,450 miles.
But lean back, close your eyes and consider the two cities as what Broncos coach Gary Kubiak would call “football towns," and they’re a lot closer than that. I worked in Pittsburgh when I was a young beat writer, still in the early steps of a career as the 1990s were just kicking up. And I’ve worked in Denver for the past 12 football seasons, a more experienced -- I prefer "seasoned" over "older" -- beat writer these days.