Takes One To Know One

In an NFL driven by scouting reports, Trevor Siemian wasn’t supposed to happen, and he almost didn’t. Lucky for him, Gary Kubiak went channel-surfing.

- Elizabeth Merrill

The scene is high in the Colorado mountains, about three hours and 20 years from where Trevor Siemian's crazy dream would play out. ¶  A 9-year old boy crashes his face into a tree. Todd Siemian has been snowboarding and trying to keep up with his 4-year-old brother, Trevor, when, bam, the impact cracks his goggles and breaks his nose. Young Trevor has never seen so much blood. ¶ The good news is that the Siemian family is well-prepared. Dad Walter is a plastic surgeon, and mom Colleen is a nurse who’s seen far worse in the ICU.

“He’ll be OK. You’ll see,” Dad assures. He grabs a butter knife, slides it up Todd’s nostril and resets his nose. Trevor just stands there, eyes fixed, like he’s watching a Teletubbies video.

A few hours later, Trevor enters his first and only downhill ski race. And wins.

“He’s pretty unique,” Todd says today. “I can’t recall a time in which he’s really had any freak-out sessions.”

FLASH FORWARD TWO decades, to the morning of Aug. 29, as preseason is winding down for the Denver Broncos. Man, it is a sight. Head coach Gary Kubiak announces in a team meeting that Trevor Siemian is the new starting quarterback of the defending Super Bowl champs, igniting the room into an eruption of spirited applause. When the noise calms and the meeting ends, Siemian calls his dad back home in Florida.

Typically, he undersells the moment. “I got the job,” he says. But his dad quickly clips the conversation short, saying he’ll have to call back. He is just about to perform surgery. Anyway, by his son’s tone he thinks “the job” means something less significant, maybe a sponsorship deal or something.