Roche: Checking In From Denver
DENVER (CBS) - The Patriots won't arrive in Denver until Friday or Saturday, but I'll be here all week as we gear up for Sunday's monumental Broncos-Patriots AFC Championship showdown.
3:40 p.m.: The Broncos are outside on their practice field on what is considered a nice day here in the Denver area. The Broncos practice facility is about 35-45 minutes outside of downtown Denver in Englewood, Colorado.
The media was allowed to watch a stretching portion of the practice and after leaving for 5 minutes or so, we returned to watch some drills where the groups were broken down into quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, linemen, linebackers, and d-backs.
I saw Marquice Cole doing drills with the defensive backs. He was signed yesterday after being let go by New England on December 26th. The Broncos needed the help when cornerback Chris Harris was knocked out for the season Sunday against San Diego with a knee injury.
As I saw here when the Broncos had Tim Tebow and were prepping for a playoff game two years ago, head coach John Fox likes to chat it up with the local reporters while the media is viewing practice. Fox was talking about the movie "Lone Survivor" today.
If you remember, Bill Belichick took his team to see the Mark Wahkberg flick on the Friday before the Baltimore game.
11:08 a.m.: Peyton Manning and others will meet the media today, and we'll be giving you LIVE reports starting at 5pm on WBZ-TV.
The games already began between these two teams on Tuesday when the Broncos signed former Patriots CB Marquice Cole. But unlike Deion Branch signing with the Colts last week, Cole will likely see playing time come Sunday, trying to fill the void left after star corner Chris Harris was knocked out for the season with a knee injury in the Broncos win over San Diego on Sunday.
As for the weather, it is pretty nice out here and Sunday is expected to be near 60 degrees with winds 10-20 mph. Not the cold-weather we're used to seeing in the playoffs.
Also, Frontier Airlines is jumping on the Manning and Broncos bandwagon out here, or, as they call it, "United in Orange." In honor of Manning's calls at the line of scrimmage, the airline is offering an 18-percent (Manning's number) discount on domestic fares through March 12th. The promo code is "hurryhurry," making light of all those random words ("Omaha was the popular one against the Chargers on Sunday) Manning yells at the line of scrimmage.
And to wrap things up, take a look at today's Denver Post:
Follow WBZ-TV's Dan Roche on Twitter @RochieWBZ.
