Two weeks ago, 33-year-old Luis Barajas was sitting in a Broncos community-partnership meeting when a surprise fell out of the sky.
Allie Engelken, the organization’s VP of community impact, told the room she had an announcement. Barajas’ wife Caroline and their children came strolling through the door of their conference room. Barajas, a partnership marketing coordinator for the Broncos, sat there in confusion.
“What is going on right now?” he said he thought at the time.
That day, Engelken told Barajas that Broncos owner Carrie Walton Penner had selected him as the club’s 2025 Salute to Service nominee — the NFL’s effort to recognize members of the military across all 32 teams — in a twist he never saw coming.