Keith Bishop

Keith Bishop chooses his words wisely: when he speaks, people listen. That came in handy during his decade career with the Broncos as an offensive lineman, especially when the Broncos were on the 2-yard line in Cleveland needing a 98 drive to tie the Browns in the AFC Championship game in 1987. Keith noticed the Browns defense snickering, so he got ticked and told his huddle “We got those mother f-ers right where we want them.” His teammates started laughing, the Browns were confused and Denver got the last laugh in The Drive.  

After his 10-year career in Denver, the 7-time captain got into law enforcement. He became a DEA Special Agent with stops in Dallas, Washington DC, Houston and Afghanistan. He chased, and helped catch the baddest of the bad guys for 20 years.    

He was set to retire from the DEA and settle in Thailand with his wife. But a hernia he developed in Afghanistan brought him back to the states so he could consult with doctors he trusted. He called John Elway, who was the GM at the time, and asked if he could talk to the Broncos doctors. John said sure, but he also wanted to talk to Keith about something. That something was the VP of Security for the Broncos. A job Keith accepted and is still doing in 2025.  

Listen to Keith’s story and conversation with Susie Wargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're in the huddle, and then there's a time out.
John was over on the sidelines, and we're all just
in the huddle waiting, and I look over and we're
looking over and all the browns, and I knew quite
a few of the browns. They're all looking at us,
and they all have these shitting and grins on their faces,
you know, like of course nat Jenet's and anybody would
recognize that condescending smart eleg And I go, you know what,

(00:24):
we got these motherfuckers right where we want that.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome to cut, traded, fired, retired. The title is a mouthful,
but it covers nearly everything that can happen to a
professional athlete or coach. And my goal is to talk
to as many as I can. By the way, this
is episode number one hundred and twenty, I can't believe it.
My hope is that all of us can gain some
new or different perspectives, learn from challenges, and maybe find

(00:48):
some inspiration for our own lives. I'm your host, Susie Wargen.
This episode's guest has been an employee of the Denver
Broncos twice with two very different roles, and what he
did for the twenty years in between both of those
jobs was pretty intense. Keith Bishop grew up in Midland, Texas.
He started his college football career in Nebraska and finished
it at Baylor. The Broncos saw promise in the offensive

(01:10):
lineman and took him in the sixth round of the
nineteen eighty draft. Keith went on to have a ten
year career in Denver, was a seven time captain, two
time Pro bowler, and played in three Super Bowls. Unfortunately,
all three were losses. When he retired, Keith finished his
degree and pursued a passion he had started to follow
and playing with the Broncos law enforcement. But instead of

(01:31):
just being friends and talking to kids at schools about
not doing drugs with law enforcement, he became one of them.
Keith spent twenty years with the DEA as a special
agent in Dallas, Washington, d C, Houston, and Afghanistan. After
his twenty years, he was set to retire and do
some contract military work, but then his former quarterback John
Elway coaxed him into being the VP of Security for

(01:54):
the Broncos, a job he is still doing today and loves.
He's got a lot of stories I tell many. He
can Ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Keith Bishop cut Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargin.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Hello, Keith Bishop, I am good good. We have talked
for a very long time about doing this, and I'm
very excited that I finally got you. I roped you
in because you're not one to talk about yourself. Appreciate
your interests always. Well, I see you on all the
Broncos trips you are currently in. Have been for how
many years? I think, oh fourteen?

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, I think it's fourteen, all right, started in twelve.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Oh okay, there you go, all right, VP of Security
for the Broncos. But we're going to go through the
whole rest of your life before we talk about what
you do now. So I want to go way back
in the time machine with you, Keith to You're born
in La Jolla, California, right, yeah, but you don't stay there.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
No. I was adopted my parents who adopted me. I
was like six weeks.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Old, okay, and it was an arranged adoption.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah. Sure. My birth mother, who I didn't meet until
I was playing with the Broncos. Oh wow, she was
executive with IBM, So she went through everybody and then
my parents got me, and then they soon after moved
from there. My dad's family all lived in southern California.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So when do you leave La Jolla then? And you
guys end up going to Midland, Texas.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, I was nine months old.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Okay, so you were little little So Texas is pretty
much your home.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes. I grew up in Midland all the way through
high school.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
And you go to Midland High School, Midland Lee, Midland Lee.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
We were the Robert E. Lee Rebels, and because of
all the political correctness stuff, they changed the name of
my high school a few years back.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
I have not returned since, so okay.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
But anyway, you watched Landman, because Midland comes up a
lot in Land.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Growing up, I was roused about Roughneck, Okay, I did
all that. A bunch of my friends' dads.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Were land I bet.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Okay, doing the leasing and all that and drilling, you know,
in the drilling industry, and that's.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
A crazy business. Have you watched that series?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
No, I had.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You should watch it. I'd be curious to see like
reality of you knowing what happened in Texas and what
it's like. I mean, Taylor Sheridan's great at that stuff.
I'm assuming it's fairly real. Really, Bob, he's fantastic. Oh
my gosh, it's so good, so good. Okay, So back
to sports. What drew you into sports? What did you
start with? Was it always football or did you play

(04:29):
other sports?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I love football and I loved baseball, and I was,
in my opinion, I was very good in both.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
But I bet you were.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
No, it's just yeah, I'm being smart. But when I
was little, I think I was in fourth grade and
which I didn't know would affect me till later on.
But we're out and there there was some street work
being done and there's a bunch of digging and the kids.
We were out and we're having a cloud fight. I

(04:58):
raised up to throw a and I got hit in
the left eye with a cloud, and uh man it
I mean, but anyway, it wound up it later, as
I kept growing up and everything, it developed into stigmatism.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Then I had eye doctors say what did you do
to your eye? I don't know, A dirt cloud when
I was you.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Know, d and fourth grade ten yeah, nine ten yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
So later on my death perception because I just love baseball, baseball, Yeah,
and my death perception.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
So then I was a pitcher in high school and
stuff like that, and uh could always I used to
be able to my death perception. And then I was
too vain to wear glasses at of course, so I
trains it, and then it was just football, okay. Had
two great coaches. Ernie Johnson was our baseball coach at

(05:53):
Middland Lee and Jim Akrey, who was a legend in
Texas football high school football, was my coach at Midland.
I'd get in trouble during the week whatever at school,
and coach, You're going to have breakfast at the house
on Saturday, and so I have to gound Jesus. He
said I needed to focus on football.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
He saw the talent in you. I guess it takes
those special coaches sometimes. Were you always on the offensive line?
Did you play defense as well?

Speaker 1 (06:19):
In big I was predominantly a defensive.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Lineman, were you okay?

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And then I played both ways, but predominantly defensive line.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Then I played guard on offense when emergency situation, so
I got hurt whatever.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Interesting okay, So college wise, you go to Nebraska first?
Did you get offered by other schools? Did you make visit.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I was recruited all over the country. I didn't know
that because my coach akery he kept all the mail
and everything. He didn't no, I didn't see it till
after our season was over.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Didn't want to go to your head.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, I mean, he's smart. So I took a lot
of visits. There's some schools that I was interested in
that I got letters from. Then when it kind of
got down to it, you know, I went to the
Texas schools, and I went to Oklahoma and Nebraska in
my senior year, were at practice and I got kicked
in the side of the foot and I broke my

(07:19):
little toe. They took me the doctors. Then you don't
need to have you know, surgery or anything. Just stay
off two weeks and then you should be good. So
I missed two games. All the schools quit talking to
me as far as calling, and except for Nebraska. Jerry Moore,
who was the coach, and when he left Nebraska, he
was at Appalachia State but set all kinds of records

(07:40):
and just another great coach. And he played for coach
Acre at Bottom High School in Bottom.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Texas An there.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, so Jerry, he knew what was going on. He
always kept recruiting. And then John O'Hara, who was my
line coach at Middland Lee my sophomore and junior years,
he left and went to Baylor and was the offensive
line coach at Baylor. So all schools quit talking except
for like Nebraska and Oklahoma. So when it came down

(08:13):
to where am I going to go, I just remembered
who stuck with me and Jerry Moore being the coach there.
So I signed with Nebraska. And so I go to Nebraska.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Did you go there as an offensive lineman?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
No, it's a defensive line okay, And Monte Kiffin was
a defensive line coach.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
He was a great coach. But then they tried me
on offense as well, So I was kind of back
and forth. And I was on the varsity my freshman
year for a couple of games, and they pushed me
back down to the freshman team where I could play
a lot. And then we went into let's see the
spring game and Tom Davis, who was one of my

(08:52):
teammates here at Denver, he was the Nebraska kid and
I was the out of state kid, and we were
buying for starting center and it was whoever graded the
best in the spring game would be the starter going
into the next season. And I had an outstanding spring

(09:13):
game I thought was much better than Tom did. Obviously
you would think that. And uh, we went in for
the meeting afterwards and just said, you know that Tom
had won the starting position. And I stood up and
walked down. Everybody was I mean, all the old players,
They're all like, you're getting screwed, you know. And my

(09:36):
mom was sick with cancer, so it was like, I'm
I'm done with this.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
So you walked out the door, and you walked out,
didn't you. I left and uh went home.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, got home, and then my parents were like, you know,
Mom's okay, if you can get a free education, don't
be stupid.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
You know it's Did you kind of think you were
just going to go home and be home?

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, Well my dad was an architect and had a
construction company.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Okay, you were just going to go work.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And I was a bonded contractor under him.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Oh okay, And so you could have had a job
and just been said and not have to go back
to school.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
That's what I was thinking I was going to do.
And then they had their sit down with me, and
so I called Baylor and uh, they yeah, come on.
And so I went to Baylor and uh, they were
going to put me on full scholarship right away. And
then Osborne wouldn't release me. And he said first semester
and then after that, I'll release I should have. I'm

(10:32):
glad I didn't. But there was all this holier than
now coming out of Osborn. I know there's a lot
of Osburn fans, but fans all this, all this pointing
at this team doing this, cheating, this team doing that, cheating,
this team doing that cheat. Well, you'd get your tickets
at Nebraska and as soon as you turned around, the

(10:52):
supporter was standing right there with all the money to
buy your tickets, right, and it would supplement because you
couldn't work.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
You were, oh yeah, they all got It's no horrible thing.
It's everybody was doing it.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, but just the holier than now. Yes, I could have,
but I didn't, and I kept with my shut and
my parents paid for my first semester at Baylor. Then
I went on full scholarships.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
So he wouldn't release you for that football season, for
that first semester. Really, oh man, Okay, so then you
are able to get on with Baylor then the following year,
and are you able to start playing or do you
have to sit out at all?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
No, you play your practice squad, scout team, or red shirt.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
You're a red shirt, yes, okay. Are you on the
offensive line then at this point that's your Okay, so
you're done with defense and a Baylor just on offense.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
And I'm playing center. Then I play a junior year,
and then going into my senior year, our first game,
I don't know because I never saw the film. Either
one of our offensive linemen cut me or I'm thinking
that's what happened. By accident. I was in contact and
I blew my knee out. So I missed the uh

(12:00):
my whole senior year. So I played one year of
college football Taylor and then through rehab. Because Baylor had
outstanding trainers, I got to play in our Peach Bowl,
our last game.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
So you missed your whole senior year. You play in
the Peach Bowl, and you still get drafted by the Broncos.
Did you have an idea that you might be getting drafted?
Did they was anybody calling you?

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Well? Yeah, I mean you're hoping the different scouts were
coming through and there.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Was had a chance.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, okay, I was going to be drafted. Where who knew?
When the phone rang?

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And yeah, tell me your draft story.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
It was just sitting in the house or in the apartment.
I was married. Then, you know, it was like it's
the Broncos. You know it was Red that told me.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
And Red Miller calls you and tells you.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Then you know, come up to Denver. How things have changed?
You flew into the airport and I remember I didn't
have a walk, and so we scraped our money together
and I got me a TIMEX wristwatch. I think it
costs twelve dollars. So I had a watch and I
fly up to Denver. They paid for my plane flight,

(13:14):
but then I had to get from Stapleton to the
I can't remember what it's called, is there?

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Well, your facility was yeah, right? Were the mini mart
or for the merchandise mart? Yeah, associate and I k so.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
We had to get from the airport to there. Pay
Then it was your start in your mini camp, right?

Speaker 2 (13:34):
And what was that?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Like?

Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's nineteen eighty. You get drafted in the sixth round
in nineteen eighty, Who do you meet? Like, who's who?
Are some of the first guys that you come in contact.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
With, mostly all the draft choices, and okay, Steve Annapolis
was one of the trader and Alan Allen was the
head trainer, Steve was the assistant trainer.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Okay, then and then I.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Think Steve was in his fourth year. Then Steve and
I hit it off, and so he take my ankles
my entire career.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Were you superstitious? Was he the only one that could
do it?

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, I bet I could see you.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
It was. If I wasn't early enough, then I'd wait
till he was free.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Okay, So you come in here, and did you have
a feeling, ever Keith, that you may not make the
team or did you feel pretty good when you were
in training camp and mini camps?

Speaker 1 (14:23):
I felt good. But I was always humble and kept
my mouth shut, and I was confident in my abilities
in the way I was picking up what I was
being coached.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Confident but not cocky.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
But yeah, and you because.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
You never know, oh yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I've had enough of things going opposite of what you
to keep that humility. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
So Craig Morton was your quarterback.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
When you came in, I called my parents. The first
day that I snapped the ball to Craig Morton because
I watched you when I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Oh yeah, that's a big thing for Texas too.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, you never guess who after football to the day.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
So you start as a center then with the Broncos,
and then when'd you get moved to guard.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
My rookie year? Oh okay, Whitey moved me.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
It was like, you know, you're going to be back up.
And I played a ton when I was a rookie.
I mean you started to have people get hurt and stuff,
and I played a ton and then at the end
of the year, Whitey, you know, we're having our exit whatever,
and he always he called me kid all the time,
and he goes, kid, I should have started you, but

(15:29):
I've never started a rookie. And then they fire Red
and sell the team.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, you went through all of that.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
And then Whitey being loyal to Red, made Dan fire him.
So then I didn't have Whitey anymore. Dan came in
Kaiser took.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Over right pre Pat Bowling.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
That was was eighty.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
One, yeah, two, and then John comes in.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
In eighty three, yeah, and then Pat comes in in
eighty four.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
So over the ten years span that you're with the Broncos,
so many changes, yeah, quarterbacks and ownership. You saw such
an evolution of the Broncos. What was your time like
as you look back on it, and I know there
were Super Bowl losses in there, and the way you left,
you just kind of left and people have different stories
with Dan and how things ended up at the end.
But what a cool decade but a big learning curve

(16:22):
for I think the team, the franchise in general.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, because we went to three Super Bowls and didn't
score enough points and all three of them to win
one of them. So that's how bad we're getting. But
first too, against the Giants and the Red Reds, we
were as good as them. The game is such a
momentum game, the Super Bowl, you know, it was like

(16:45):
they did it and we didn't. Now, the forty nine
ers were a lot better team than we were physically
and everything. That's my opinion, but yeah, it was. It
was so neat to go. Then it's such a downer.
Oh yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
When you lose, Yeah, absolutely, it teaches you a lot
about life though too, right, Oh yeah, at a very
young age.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
And it's so different now being associated with the team
and the money that the players might now and I'm
not grapping about it.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
I mean it's just it's way different.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
It's so much different. Yeah, because we got whipped right,
and it's like, what's going to happen in this offseason
coaching change or new position codes. And you didn't have
that financial.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
Oh no, you didn't have huge signing bonuses that were guaranteed. Yeah,
you were going paycheck to paycheck and hoping you played
the game so you could get a paycheck.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, it was a different game.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Absolutely. You were a two time Pro Bowl or you
were the first offensive lineman for the Broncos to make
the Pro Bowl, which I think is very cool. What
is that something that and let's see seven time captain,
I think seven year captain. What are you most proud
of as you look back on those two ten years
as far as I mean, you were a huge leader obviously,
and that has continued after football and what you're doing now.

(18:06):
But what makes you proud as you look back on
your tenure career with them?

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Being the captain that was such an honor And there
were people in Upper Eschelan I'm not going to name
who that tried to pick who they wanted to be.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
Captain as opposed to the players picking up right.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
That didn't happen, you know, and the people that were
the ones that would announce who the captains were the
ones that told me you were the unanimous, overwhelming and
they tried to be changed but it didn't.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Oh my gosh. So somebody in the front office was
trying to change what was in a unanimous vote by
the players.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, basically, dang and that which I never said to
anyone or spread it because all it does is tear
the team up, right, So being the captain was enormous.
And then going to the Pro Bowl, there was no
support from the Broncos. Everybody in the building was like,
you're the starter at left guard and we're surprised. And

(19:11):
it was like, well, I beat everybody that lined up
in front of me, I mean the last two three years. Yeah,
and I got beat. I'm not saying.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
That you are perfect.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, I beat everybody lined up front of me. I
mean they wouldn't they wouldn't run stunts on my site.
They'd run the stunts on the other side because I
picked them up to my own horn. As the second year,
I was the highest vote getter in the AFC.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
You were, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
And it was you know, the different coaches that came
up telling me that, I think with Saunders was at
San Diego and uh, Dick vermil both told me, and.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Your own coaches didn't tell you that.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
So it was team captain.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
It's a huge honor.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, and just repeated, and from being young and then
missing my entire second year because I was projected starter
all that kind of stuff, and then I'm up at
training camp but Greeley, I blow my tending out.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
And oh that's where you got probably even closer to Greek. Yeah,
that's where a lot of guys get close.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
To Greek Chilli's. I mean, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
The long rehabit.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah. And then the Pro Bowls that was huge. And
then my second to last year, our offensive line coach
told our defensive guys to fire off on us, to
piss us off. And oh and we were in shorts
and helmets. We weren't in any pads. So anyway, the

(20:40):
kid does it, and he is a big kid, like
six six pounds and he fires off into me and
I'm just and it hits the end of my thumb
and just destroys my thumb. Really yeah, I had four pins,
oh my, and I can't remember how I think I
had four surgeries during the season sheeese because we didn't

(21:04):
have a deep snapper, and so if i'd have worn
a cast, full cast, I could have played, but Reeves
wanted me to long snap, so I had just a
partial cast with my thumb exposed. It kept getting hit
all the time, and so then they'd have to go
back in and doctor Hamlin, what a brilliant man he was.
He was our hands specialist and he would put the

(21:26):
pins back in. So that was coming off my second
Pro Bowl and I was the first.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Alternate oh wow.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, and only played like half the.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Games, Holy cow.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
And then the next season I was which was my
last year. I hurt my back in the off season
lifting weights and I wound up getting viral meningis because
oh I was playing in UH one evening, I remember
calling Greek I think my wife called him because I
had tunnel vision. They thought I was having an annuurary them,

(22:00):
oh my gosh. And so we went to the Saint
Luke's old hospital and they get me in there and everything,
and it's not an aneurysm. It's swelling on the brain
from injury because I pinched a nerve playing. But I
also had the back injury, which I just got fixed
three months ago for sure, and uh yeah, a lot better. Anyway,

(22:21):
I'm in the hospital and it's just like I'm in
so much pain. I mean, it was like excruciating. I
was dry heaving blood and all that kind of stuff,
just wretching, and they came in to do a spinal
tap check the pressure, and you know, it's like a
rocketed no, it blew out. I mean and uh the

(22:42):
doctor looked over at my ex wife and goes, I
can't believe he's conscious. But as soon as he did that,
as soon as he stuck that needle and with the pressure,
everything got better. It relieved that pressure.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Wow, how much do you end up playing that last
season with all that going on?

Speaker 1 (23:02):
That much? I mean, I was, I was well. I
remember we went to the Super Bowl that year. I
was doing the deep snapping.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
That was the forty nine ers Super Bowl. Right, Okay, you.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Know you couldn't lose your job for injury if you
came back from me, you know, and Reeves, and you
know I wasn't one of his guys. And I love Dan, but.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
You always knew that, didn't you, that you were his guys?
He was not one of.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
And then he made you aware of yees, you weren't.
So anyway, we're going into Super Bowl and uh, they're
doing all the press and all that kind of stuff.
And guy that was the producer for the Super Bowl,
his name's Alan Stone. He was one of my fraternity
brothers at Baylor. I had no idea he was doing
that kind of work. He was coming up to me,

(23:46):
he goes kee, he goes talk to me. All the
forty nine ers say they know you're going to be playing,
and you're telling me that you're not playing. What's the story?
This is good? And I was like, Allen, I can't
all that. It just teared the team up and I'm
the captain. I'm not gonna hurt. Absolutely, Yeah, these guys

(24:09):
cause all this disruption and yeah, a lot of the
players that were not in the game in the stands
were coming up to my ex wife saying, you know,
Keiths getting great and this is you.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Know, did you play in that Super Bowl? Just just
long snapping okay. And then it was after that then
that your but I read a story that you were
going to go meet with Dan and he postponed it,
and you said fine.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And I was gonna do what you're supposed.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
To do, and your little exit interview.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
And remember I was in the training room and it
was light. Huggins was one of the scouts. He's one
of Dan's buds. He comes in, he said, Keithy goes.
Dan's busy, so you're gonna have to postpone your your
talk with him. I got I'm gone, and and he

(25:01):
gets in my face. And Live was this little guy
that thought he was really tough. Oh, yeah, you're going
to this meeting. And I got into Lyde's face and
I said, Olive, and I don't want to cuss on
your show.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
It's a podcast. You can if you want to.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Oh, I just said, what in the hell are you
going to do? Little man? You know, but I didn't
say hell. I used the F bomb and he turned.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
And walked away after he beat his pants.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
So then you know, then I was going, and you
were gone, and you know, and I gotten a hold of.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Baylor because you hadn't finished your degree at Baylor. You
had some credits left.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, and both my parents in nineteen eighty six died
of cancer two months apart.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh my goodness, Keith, Oh wow, they're.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
My adoptive parents. And I think it's eighty eight. My
birth mother reached out to me. We were playing the
forty nine ers in a preseason game. I think it
was a preseason game, it could have been regular. She
lived in Lafayette, California. I flew out a couple of
days early. Dan let me and got to meet her.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
For the first time.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah. Wow, So that that was neat. But anyway, both
of my parents had passed away, and one of the
things my dad made me promise him was that I
would get my college degree.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
So once you're out of here, you went to finish that.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah. So I got hold of Baylor. They went back
and pulled up everything I'd done. It's ten years later,
so I think when I was drafted, I honestly believe
I had like eleven to fourteen hours left to graduate
with a BS in education. Ten years later, I had
like twenty seven hours because I didn't care for the degree.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
So I got hold of Baylor and I got down
there by the time the spring semester started, and I
did I graduated after the first session of summer school.
So I did twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Oh my gosh in summer school.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, first one session of summer school. And uh and
it was all the hardest courses. Wow, you know, because
I pushed all of them off.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yes, of course. Yeah, take all your general electives first.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
And I made basically straight a's because I would sit
in the front of the class and I went to
every class. I can't remember what it was. If you
missed three classes, you failed to class, oh wow, unless
it was like a legitimate emergency.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Sure, yeah, you're.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Sick in the infirmary. Wow, you know, sick, or you
had you had a legit, you know. So it was
it was very strict. If you got caught cheating, you're
out school.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
And I don't know what it is now, but back
then it was in Vader's it's it is neat, it's
beautiful campus.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
When we finished and got your degree, yeah that's awesome.
So all right, but before we get into what you
do in the real world, I want to go back
to like two stories broncos wise you and Lyle Alzado,
What are your your memories with and rest his soul
with Lyle, because you guys had some you guys had
some battles.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, I think probably some of it was that Denver
was Lyle's old team.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, they hated him when he went to the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, and we had obviously the big Bronco Raiders rivalry.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Then the one game here in Denver, we got in
a big fight, I mean the head right well, either
one or two weeks before, Lyle had yanked the helmet
off of player offensive lineman and threw the helmet at
the player and he got like a ten thousand dollars fight,

(28:40):
which was a big Yeah. So anyway, we're in this game.
It's that happened like a week or two before Lyle.
Now we get in this fight. We went from like
the forty yard line to the opposite thirty yard line,
back across to the thirty yard line, then right back
is almost like dead center fifty yard life and I

(29:02):
threw him down on the ground. He's looking up at me,
and I yank his helmet off with his face mask,
and I'm standing over him with his helmet, and all
I can think of is ten thousand dollars. It's a
lot of money, and I just I just dropped his helmet.
So then that was over. And a fight like that,
you're tired because you've been playing the game and all,

(29:25):
and then.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
You know he was not a small man.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
No, and then he goes out if I remember right,
and gets rest, but I got to stay in. So
it's like that wasn't real smart. After the game, it
was old my High Stadium, and you'd go out on
the south end and both teams would fill, you know,
into that common area underneath the stands. I'm standing there.
Then Lyle came up and we were good friends from

(29:49):
then on.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Were you really yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Wow? What I didn't know? Then I started learning stories
about Lyle when he was in Denver, on all the
charity stuff he did, going out in the middle of
downtown and stopping traffic and then going up and beating
on people, you know in front, Yeah, with the fireman's
boot and getting donations.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
And that's cool. The other story I want to I
want to ask you about is the drive and your
famous quote when the Broncos are on the two yard
line and have ninety eight yards to go. Yeah, everybody
loves bringing that one up.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I was just being a smart ass. But we're in
the huddle, and then there's a time out. John was
over on the sidelines and we're all just in the
huddle waiting, and I look over and we're looking over
and all the browns, and I knew quite a few
of the Browns, they're all looking at us, and they
all have these shitting and grins on their faces, you know,
like of course Janet's and anybody would recognize that. I mean,

(30:43):
it's condescending, smart eleg we're kind of you know, look
at it. And I go, you know what, we got these
motherfuckers right where we want. That's never been kind of
put in there. That's that's but that's what actually was said.
And everybody in our huddles just started dying laughing. And
about that time John comes back in the huddle. Everybody's

(31:04):
laughing their asses off, and it's pissing the Browns off
because you can see we're all laughing at them, and
they know we're laughing at them. They don't know why,
and they're looking at us like, you know, they went
from smiling to.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
What are they laughing about?

Speaker 1 (31:18):
And so that's that's that story, And it was true,
you did, yeah, but I mean, you know, John had
to do what he did. Yeah, and the receivers and
the running backs and the other lineman and never and.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Rich had to kick what he had to kick. And yeah,
I mean it all had to come together. But still
it was. That was the beginning of it. And everybody
remembers that standing on the two. Yeah, that's so funny,
that's awesome. Okay, So now let's go forward to you
getting done with your degree, and to back up a
little bit, when you were with the Broncos, and you
and I talked about this last year when you were
the Salute to Service nominee for the Broncos, you did

(31:48):
a lot of ride alongs. You've always been fascinated by
law enforcements. So when you get out of Baylor, you
go into I don't know how quickly it is, but
you go in and start working eventually with the DEA
in Dallas, which takes you Dallas to Washington, to Houston
to Afghanistan. I mean, you have this twenty year career
with them. What propelled you to get into that and

(32:10):
become what you were with them? Because you got some
great awards and were very highly respected with everything that
you did. You got a lot of bad guys yeap.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
My parents were very pro law enforcement. I don't think
there was anybody in our family that was law enforcement.
But my dad was one of General MacArthur's sergeants, staff sergeant.
He worked in his GHQ and my dad drew all
the bobarment plans for Philippines, Japan, all that kind of
stuff him and others. But I mean, his office was
next to General MacArthur's was these big slide and wooden doors,

(32:42):
and whenever the General would have people in for me,
him and the other guys would go and look through
the crap try to figure out who it was and stuff.
But I mean, when MacArthur passed, my dad got a
letter from the family and all that kind of stuff. Wow,
but my dad was very patriotic.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
That got passed on to you.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well that's the way you're brought up, it is, and
so they always had just great respect for law enforcement.
And one of the other things that my dad told
me besides promised to get your degree college degree, he
told me he goes get your wisdom teeth pulled, which
I did. I didn't need to get them pulled, but

(33:23):
I went and the dentist was like, where are you
doing this? And I go, because I promised my dad
is after he passed, you know, I go, I promised
my dad I wouldn't. He goes, Okay. The other thing
was he goes, don't do dope. And I tried marijuana
and all that kind of stuff like that when I
was a kid. But you know, he's like, don't do dope.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
And so that was the drug thing that got you thinking.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
So then I get up here and I'm playing, and
I think it was when Pat took over. That's when
I think we had the SWAT guys come on and
start being our security. And so I got to be
good friends with five Swats guys Denver Metro that were
our security. It was Dave Abrams and Bruce Towell and

(34:06):
Kenny Overman and Bob Snyder and Mark Lewis, And they like, yeah,
why don't you come ride with it sometime? And I
did that. I do it on Monday nights because Tuesday
was their normal day off, right, and so I'd go
right with it and just watch them work and all
the different stuff they did. And they're interaction with people
and their interaction with firemen and their interaction with other cops.

(34:27):
And I remember they took me to one briefing over
in District three. They were saying, Okay, we're going to
hit this basically a I don't think it was a
crack house back then, but it was a dope house.
And the guy that was doing the briefing, he goes, Keith,
there's a chance that a couple of your teammates might
be at this location. Oh no, and he goes, we'll

(34:52):
handle that if they are. Anyway, after he gets through
the brief and stuff, I ask, I go, if there
isn't anybody of my teammates, you know at this thing,
am I permitted to at a team meeting? Say hey,
Fellas this address, don't go there, don't go there, And
he goes absolutely. So anyway, they do their thing and

(35:14):
I'm not in when they're doing the entry and all
that kind of stuff. I go in afterwards when everything's
secure and there's none of my teammates.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Oh, thank goodness.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
So then the next team meeting the next week, I
asked Dan if I could have time to and I
just I went up to the front of the room
and wrote the address down on the chuck board and
I said, Fellas, this address, if you're going there, don't
go there anymore because I go, They're on to you,

(35:43):
They're on to everybody. So and it was like there
was several of the guys that were going there. Yeah wow,
you know, and it just that kind of camaraderie and
that it just it stuck on me.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Very appealing to you, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah. I did that almost mineire season. And then I
had other teammates that started going on rides as well,
but I don't think they were as religious with it
as I was, because I just really enjoyed it. So
then I'm a Baylor and I'm helping Baylor coach, you know,
so I'm kind of thinking that, and then it's like,
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
I don't want to be a football coach right now.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah. So I had started doing speaking for back in
the old days the Broncos, you had to do three
charity appearances a year, but if you didn't have time
to do it, you could get one of your teammates
to do your appearances, and it counted like if one
player did six appearances, the other whoever the other one

(36:40):
had nice Yeah, And so anyway, I like talking to kids,
and so I would go talk with kids and I'd
do that. And then players started a bit were you
do community, and it was like you bet, and it
was supposed to be charity, but then you go to
some of these small town schools in Colorado and that

(37:01):
we went to, and they're like, no, we want to
give you some money. And it's like no, no, no,
if you're because I take one of the Dinverer cops
with me and so I talk about football and that
kind of stuff, and then I have them talk about
the drugs. Drugs, yeah, and staying at trouble and you
know how to react and act and what they recommended.
And so then the cop would get the money and

(37:23):
then I do the appearance. And so we just going
just all over the place, and then DEA got one
of it. The guy that was to demand reduction, the
recruiter for the Denver area, Ron Holling, said he and
I became friends, and then they had me go to
a couple of places for DEA, and they flew me

(37:43):
out to Aspen and I spoke at the Aspen High
School or whatever their graduation or into school. It was something.
And I did my talk and then afterwards I'm autographing
for whatever, and this just striking high school girl. She
comes up because mister Bishop, you should have been talking
to our parents instead of us. And I was just like,

(38:07):
it's just and she was like, what a sweetheart. I
wish I could see her now and find out how
she you.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Know, how she turned out.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, because just somebody's saying that to you as a kid, you.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Know, absolutely that's resonating.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
And I'll never forget that.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
That's cool. Yeah, So then how did you eventually get
on with dea after?

Speaker 1 (38:27):
So then I'm in back at Baylor. I'm in my classes,
and I had a bunch of psychology classes, and Baylor's
one of the top psychology schools. One of my instructors
was the dean of the psychology department, and so I
took Juvenile Delinquency and then the other was Death and
Dying because my parents, because I'd gone through that. These

(38:47):
were not easy classes, I'm sure. But in the juvenile
delinquency class, they had a thing on, like they had
a whole section on the Klan. You know, Waco's down
close to High and so there's a lot of or
was clan activity, and so a bunch of classmates, not
a bunch a few of us there were some football players.

(39:08):
We went to clan rally and then we had to
report at class and then going to clan rally, there
was a bunch of state troopers were there and playing
clothes and I had met some of them because the
Baylor and everything there. What the hell are you doing here?
You know? And I don't know. I'm here for a class,
you know, I'm here observing and stuff. And there they go, Okay, okay,

(39:33):
you know they're laughing.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
But I bet that was eye opening.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, it really was. Yeah, wow, it really Yeah. So
then the drug part of it, I thought, you know,
I did those speaking for DEA. I bet you I
can get one of them to come down to speak
to the class. So I checked my professor. Absolutely, Yeah.
So I get hold of Ron hollingshead up in Denver,

(39:57):
because before I left my last year, we'd go over
to the Emerald Isle over a Parker Road, and uh
Ron comes in one night and we're at the Emerald
Isle and it's just me and I think another guy,
and then Ron comes up and sits there at table
and he pulls his badge out. I mean, that's a

(40:18):
cool badge.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
That's a sweet badge. That's a special agent on it.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah, that's my old badge that and he slams that
down on the table and goes, this is what you
need to do when you get through playing. So I
forgot that part of the story. Wow. So I get
ahold of Ron and he gets me in touch with
Mike Drumgoule in Dallas, who was the demand reduction recruiter
in Dallas at that time. And then Mike comes down

(40:44):
and speaks to my class, really good presentation. Then I
take him over to I Hop and we sit and
talk for like four hours before he goes back up
to Dallas. He was a Keith. He goes, if you're
really thinking about you ought to let me know. I'm
still helping coach and stuff, and I'm kind of pulling
away from doing that. It was like, okay, I'm I'm

(41:07):
gonna pursue this. Because I was thirty three years old
and the cutoff was thirty.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Five to be a special agent.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, because you have to start it. Yeah, because you
have to have ability to have twenty years and the
retirement age then was fifty five. Okay, I've got two years.
So it's like, get this thing going. So I get
hold drum, Google, get on my paperwork. Everything's submitted, so
it starts going. Then Mike gets promoted to be a
RAQ or Resident Agent in charge in Laredo, so he

(41:36):
leaves and another guy takes his position. So everything's kind
of going fast. But this new recruiter not so much,
you know. And it's not that he didn't like me
or he just didn't care. It's like they've done everything.
I've done my physical of you know, the medical physical
and all that kind of stuff, and I've done my

(41:57):
PT test and my background. They've completed my background, gone
to all my neighbors and you know.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Oh yeah, the security thing. We did that with our
son too, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
And DA back then. I don't know now, but it
was the hardest background because.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Of drugs, I'm sure, yeah, because of drugs and money.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Then me being in Denver for ten years and then now,
so they had a lot of area to cover, but
they got it all. It's all done. And so when
you do the PT test, it's a pre PT test.
Usually that means you're going to school in the next
two weeks because all that stuff is dated. So I'm

(42:36):
two weeks, three weeks, four week, a month, two months,
so I'm not a bugger. You know. It's like I
call up and I never get the recruiter. I get
his assistant and no, everything's fine. It's just and so
this goes on for like I think it was seven six,

(42:56):
seven months, and then i'm I'm angry. Now. It's like,
oh yeah, I could care less. And so I call
up and I get the sack and I'm you know,
I'm going around the recruiter. I'm going around everybody. I'm
just calling the sack mister Jordan. I get his secretary,
very nice lady and everything. It's okay, how you doing.

(43:17):
I go, I need, you know, have a meeting with Jordan.
She goes, oh absolutely, and I you know, so we
arrange when I'm going and I drive up from Waitco
to Dallas. When you go in the hall, I walked
right past the recruiter's office and he sees me and
he's like, what are you doing here? And I go,
I've got a meeting with mister Jordan. He goes, what
about man.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
The fact that he won't call me back?

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah, about the job, you know. He goes, well you
have to do that, and I goes, are you done?
And I just kept walking and I walked in with
the secretary and she goes, he's down at the Denny's
waiting on you. So I go, thank you. Boom. I
go and I drive and the recruiter he jumps in
his car and he follows me down there, but I
beat him there and I walk up and mister Jordan's

(43:59):
sitting in the corner of the restaurant. Odee, how you doing.
I go, mister Jordan, I'm not doing good. And he goes,
what I wanna find out? I'm gonna get a fucking
job or not. And he goes, what are you talking about?
And I go, am I going to get a job?
I'm gonna be hired? What about that time the recruiter's
coming up and he goes, I thought you were already
on the job. No, yeah, and uh. And then the

(44:24):
recruiter comes up and he goes, what is going on.
Get back to the office and you do a teletype
for me two headquarters supporting Keith one hundred percent for
a job. We go back to the office and I'm
sitting in his office. He goes, I'm so sorry. He goes,
I thought you were are young. They get the memo
done and then the sack in Denver gets win because

(44:45):
obviously a sack in Dallas sends it to the headquarters
and the people at recruiting and at the school academy
and all they immediately called Denvers. You know, what's the
deal in this bishop guys? He yeah, Jordan's saying he's great,
but you lived with him up there. And then Phil Perry,
who is the sack in Denver one hundred percent, you know,

(45:10):
So I've got two sacks. So it was like ten
days later I was in Quantico.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
But I turned thirty five in Quantico. But right when that,
that is, right before that is they changed the retirement
age to fifty seven, so I was okay. You were
still okay, but it was just by the hair mutch,
you know. So wow, And I would not trade that,
SUSI that experience, life experience, twenty years for anything in

(45:40):
the world.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Oh, I'm sure you were considered one of the nation's
top officers. You got the Dea Administration Award three times.
You obviously did some great, great things while you were there,
and I'm sure it's hard to look back on twenty years.
But between Dallas, Washington, Houston Afghanistan. Do you have some
a favorite time or something that you when you look back, go, wow,

(46:03):
that's where you know. I really felt like I made
a difference. I mean, I know in Afghanistan you really
kind of embraced everything that you were doing there and
became part of that culture. Even almost.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, I still do Ramadan to you just out of respect.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
The DEA, it was the best times. I mean, great
times in Dallas. The thing I got to say about
Dallas is I was blessed because my first supervisor with
DEA was Marty Prock. He was an old Philadelphia and

(46:39):
DC cop. He was a homicide investigator, but then he
segued into narcotics. Just loved the narcotics part of it.
And then he did a bunch of the old state
federal wiretaps on the East Coast, like Pize's Connection, all
these different and he had that as his background. For

(47:03):
a knucklehead like me going in to DEA, I mean,
the academy is great. They teach you a lot of stuff,
and it's I've always been a really good shot and
I was a farm's destructor later on the e all
that stuff, but having Marty as my first boss There
couldn't have been a better blessing for me for having

(47:25):
somebody that has that kind of knowledge, that is that
good of a teacher, that is that good of a person.
I mean just you're attracted to.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Them, connect with absolutely, and they.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Want you to connect with and because they want to
feed you though. Yes, So for my first I think
it was six years in Dea, I was in Dallas.
From there, I went to headquarters and that Special Operations,
which coordinated the international investigations with the konus US investigations,

(47:59):
and that was great. I was always around the top people.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
You're around some of the smartest and the best in
the world.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
And you watch him and it's like, that's smart, you know.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
And when did you go back to Houston?

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Then?

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Were you in Washington for nine to eleven?

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Yeah, okay, DC Sniper nine to eleven. In fact, I
was home with one of my daughters, Rachel. She had
asthma growing up. She was home and then I had
a tooth that I still haven't filled. Because this was
the night before nine to eleven. I go home and
on my way home, I called the twenty four hour

(48:36):
Mercy Dentist and he meets me out in Culpepper, Virginia
at a shell station on side of the road, and
we're underneath the lights and the bugs and all that
kind of stuff, and he's looking at me and he goes,
he goes, you were so close because my throat was swollen.
I had their streaks, you know from Oh, he goes

(48:57):
much longer if you hadn't. You know, you get to
suffocate it. But you know the swelling and you know.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
So does he fix you at a shell station?

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (49:07):
He gives me. He gives me a swear to goodness.
He gives me a baggy full of pills. He goes,
you take these for the next couple of days, and
then you come in. We got to get the swelling
down before we get the tooth out of there.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
And that's September tenth.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah, and so I'm home. My daughter's home sick, and
I'm home with the bat too. We're down in our
basement laying on the couch and she wakes me up
because she's watching TV. I was like Holy Cow. Our
off site that we had for our Special Operations Division
was uh, it was on Fort Belleviere, So it was
kind of like an alternate headquarters because DEA headquarters.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Is is it in the Pentagon.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
It's right across the street, right across the highway, and
they watched you know, there's all this talk about you know,
there wasn't a plane that went into the Pentagon, and
you know, there's nothing. They were having on the twelfth
floor I think it's the twelfth floor of DEA headquarters
is where the administrator's office is, and they were having
a meeting and they watched that plane because it was

(50:09):
lower than them. Oh wow, when it is okay, you
know that kind of dispels.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
The Yeah, the conspiracy theory.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
No plane, yes, you know, so nine to eleven and
then the DC sniper.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, incidents like that, Keith, I would think would not
that you're not motivated already, But it just motivates you
even that much more to get after the evil in
this world.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yeah, and that's the reason I went to Afghanistan. Yeah,
it was because I was in d C on nine
to eleven.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
So do twenty years with the DEA. What made you retire?
Was it just because it had been the twenty and
you could.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
No, Uh, I was fifty two fifty three when I retire.
To go past fifty seven you have to get an
extension from the administrator.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Oh okay.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
The administrator was a friend. Administrator called me in Afghanistan
at my desk when I was retiring, so I could
have got an extension, and I was planning on working
because I'd gotten remarried in twenty eleven. Found out it
didn't count because it was a Buddhist ceremony. Basically we
were boyfriend and girlfriend, and so then I had to

(51:19):
go to an umpar in Thailand, which is a justice
of the peace, and get our marriage certified. And I
did it all through the embasy.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
But anyway, so you're more than boyfriend girlfriend?

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Yeah, okay, So I get married. And then one of
the companies that worked with us in Afghanistan was a
contractor that there were some really good contracting companies over there.
And then there's the stuff you're hearing about now right.
The one company I worked with, the guy that ran

(51:51):
the company founded a company. It was an intelligence supported company.
He and I became good friends. He was a former
colonel with the Knightstalkers, the one hundred and sixtieth Airwing.
His name was Ron Howard. We became good friends and
I helped him on stuff, and he says to me,

(52:11):
he said, he goes, Keith, he goes, You've got a
job for life with me. Once you're you have to retire.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
From the EA tempting.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
My whole thing was I was gonna work till Dea
kicked me out, and then I'd go to work with
Ron's company. Then when I got remarried, I told my
wife's parents, who were tired, he obviously she's tied. When
I get finished with Dea, we will live in Thailand

(52:42):
where I won't take your daughter away, and then I'll
go travel around the world doing this stuff and then.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Come back to time back to Thailand. So I feel
like Parker is not Thailand.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
No, so wow. Yeah. Some of the things we were
doing in Afghanistan, I was in like three or four
different tics, which is troops in contact, and they lasted
like ten hours, thirteen hours. It was like for a
long time. On one of them, one of the Special
Forces soldiers drove one of our vehicles off the side

(53:14):
of the road into a creek and it had equipment
in it that I had to carry a phosphorus grenade
because if we had to abandon the vehicle, I had
to destroy the equipment and the rescue military entity had
ran their armored personnel carrier off the road, so we
were stuck there, and so we were going to be

(53:35):
there for a long time. So we were picking up rocks,
big rocks, stacking them up so we'd have something to
be behind some shelter. Yeah, and I got a really
bad lower abdomen hernia because you have, you know, ballistic.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Oh yeah, you got a lot of weight on you.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Yeah, all your AMMO radio you got and then you're
picking up the and I had this bad hernia. So
it like, well, doctors here, and I go, I'm going
to get a Bronco doctor if they'll let me get it.
Because I was having to go back for that parade
magazine thing, so I knew I was going back. So
I called John and asked permission for the Broncos doctors.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
John Elway, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
My insurance nothing, The Broncos are gonna pay for it's right.
I wanted a good doctor. He was like, oh yeah, absolutely,
he goes, but he goes bit when you come back,
he goes, you got to come by the house before
you go back, because you know, there's something we'll talk
to you about. And I go okay. So I come
over and then I go and I have the surgery,
and the doctor did the surgery. He goes, you got

(54:42):
to stay here a couple of weeks. He goes, you
can't go back into country because Afghanistan it's filth as
far as infection and women.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
And stuff like you've kind of been down the infection
road before. That's not fun.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
So it's like, yeah, I'll stay. So I go over
to John's house well and yelling I thank you for it.
We go into the den and sit down and we
always drink John Walker Blue if we hadn't seen each
other for a while. So he pulls out the blue
and we get a couple of glasses and we do
our toast each other, and he goes, here's what I

(55:14):
want to talk to you about. I want you to
come back and take over security for me for the Bronco.
He knew I had my twenty years in because I
wouldn't leave him before twenty. So I'm sitting on the
couch with him, and you know, it's going through my head.
I just told my wife's parents that I'm going to
keep their daughter at home, and I'll yeah, and I

(55:36):
kind of tell him and I was like, yeah, this
is a huge honor. Can I think about it? He
goes sure, yeah, yeah, And so we have a couple
more SIPs and he goes fish and to look at
him and what did you decide? And so it's that,
you know, it's that the window opens in the window shuts,
and so it was I had my twenty end. Yeah, okay,

(55:59):
so that's the reason actually because I had. I was
in Afghanistan for thirty eight months, and the longest you
could be out of country with the EA six years,
so I had a couple more years. So anyway, and
so I went back and well, first I went back
to Thailand. We got to go talk to your father

(56:19):
and so, and he spoke no English. So we're in
their house, little house. My wife she's on her knees
at his feet and I don't understand any of right,
I tell him, and she goes, yeah. He looks at her,
and he looks at me, and he turns back. And

(56:40):
what did he say? She turns that she goes, wife
goes with the husband. Okay. I started laughing, And it's
just it kills me because my wife's twenty years younger
than her father. He was I think he was two
years younger than he was. I mean, just rock solid,

(57:03):
and he drove long distance buses in Thailand and he
came down with cancer and it was in his spine.
They said, you know, we cannot operate and you're not
going to live that long, or we can operate and
there's a significant chance that you'll be paralyzed. He wanted
to live, so he got operated on and he was

(57:24):
paralyzed from the waist down. So after we got married,
that whole time he was paralyzed. Oh wow, because I
was just so looking forward to go and haveing bears
with him.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Oh yeah, And okay, So John gets you to become
the head of security with the Broncos, and now you've
been doing that since twenty twelve and you have a
great I mean, I've gotten to know a lot of
your guys just because we travel with you and I
see him at the hotels and have a good time.
They're all either current or former law enforcement. How much

(57:58):
fun do you have with that group. I know it's
a very serious job. There's so much that goes into
it with planning, and you have to be so much
more aware in our crazy world with six traveling buses
and motorcades and all that kind of stuff. But I
feel like and I feel like these guys a lot
of them have just been around for a long time,
Like you are a very close knit security group.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah, and it's relationships. But all those guys because I've
got current and former state troopers, I've got current and
former Rapho County sheriffs deputies. I've got current Douglas County
Sheriff's deputies. I got current Aurora PD officer. So it's
a good mix that have relationships and productive law enforcement

(58:45):
is based.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
On relationship, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Professionalism and relationships right anything else. I mean, you know, realistically,
it's having that immediate ability to interact, to get assistance,
to get it, to get heads up.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
You're all very connected and you can keep then all
the employees aware of things that are going on, and
you're in a spotlight like that, and I don't think
people think about it sometimes like oh, it's the Broncos,
But you also can have that bullseye of you know,
who knows what's going to happen, and you just have
to always be aware. And I'm just always amazed at
how well you guys seem to work like nobody knows

(59:24):
you're there. I mean, I know you're there because I
know who you guys are. But and I think that's
that's half the battle, too, is making sure that people
don't know where there's I mean, there's somebody everywhere all
the time, with all the important people, with all the players.
With us, I always feel very safe. And I'm like,
I'm just you know, the radio sideline reporter. But I'm
with the group that's traveling and I feel very safe.
And I think you guys do such a such a
great job, so I appreciate everything that you guys do.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Yeah, it's very nice, and the guys are professional. And
I've got two ladies.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Oh that's new.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Yep. They just came on the last couple of months. Oh,
nice and outstanding.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Okay, good, you're going to love them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Oh that's fun, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
And they're great additions to our team.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Okay, can't wait to meet them. Great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
They work kind of there on weekends right now because
both of them are full time with the shorts department.
But what a blessing because you're always you're bringing people
in and there's such a good long term and the
cops are ruthless on each other, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
God, which is that's the fun part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
It is. But our two additions are it's not a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Bout of oh good, Okay, they're just as bad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Yeh good. From what I understand. They can issue out
there on their p's and q's right now, just because
they're new. Yeah, but it's just yeah, yeah, you're gonna
you're really and I think they'll hopefully they can because
I'm working on the travel schedule right now. We've got

(01:00:58):
like fourteen people now that are part time, but they're
all it's almost it's full time, right because the hours
they work.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Yeah, the travel makes it almost a full time thing.
And that is a part of your job as well.
Right of of there's a group that will travel out
ahead of time to do kind of scope things out,
get things, you know, ready for when the team does arrive,
and you do a lot of that coordinating.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Well yeah, but most of that is done by operations.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Okay, so that's Chip and that brooch.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Okay, Adam and Josh and but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
You still have some of your guys on these trips.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Now we're with the local police, the hotel.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
And so much coordinating.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
We got to know where the closest hospitals are, local
law enforcement points of contact, you know, if something.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Goes exactly Yeah, all right, So I'm gonna wrap this up. Keith,
this has been phenomenal. You have such a cool story
that just is so varied throughout all, Like you have
these these sections of your life that are just really
cool and different yet also very intertwined. But what I
ask all my guests when I wrap this up is
you've had ups and downs the time you're waiting to

(01:02:04):
be the DEA agent or you know, the last year
of your contract or whatever, when you're injured, what do
you tell people, and especially now in the role that
you're in, when they are down or trying to figure
out how to get through a tough time. How do
you kind of counsel people? I mean, you're rough and gruff,
but you always kind of have a positive outlook, I think,
and you always look at the better parts of life.

(01:02:25):
So how do you get people on that same kind
of road if they're not there?

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
The first thing comes to mind is what I tell
all my people in Afghanistan because it was such a
there were people in our group that never left our
compound because you couldn't make them, you know, and we
had free drive. So we'd joke about the FBI that
were there that their headlights didn't work because they never

(01:02:51):
went out at night, you know, and we were out
and we saved a lot of kids. If you ever
seen the movie Man on Fire, well I've been at
that headquarters, and that's based on a true story. They
had the same thing going on in Afghanistan. We're wealthy
Afghan family children being kidnapped, and the MOI, which is

(01:03:14):
a Ministry of Interior, which is their department of justice,
would call me. We'd go out and we'd find those people.
Wow with technology. So what I'd say to my guys
over the girls, because I'd mixed, just do the right thing,
because you can go to sleep at night and when
you wake up in the morning, you're good to go.

(01:03:34):
Just do the right thing. Yeah, just somehow do the
right thing. Always do the right thing, and you know
what the right thing is. Yes, if you do that,
we can all go to bed and we can all
get up. And I think for a catch all.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
That's a simple thing. And everybody knows you know what's
right and wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Yeah, and just do what's right. Yeah, and then you
get up with a clean conscience and you can go
you know exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
This was awesome. Thank you, Thank you. I appreciate it.
I I've always I mean, I'm you know, I mean,
I'm a lifelong Broncos fan. So I hate to say
I watched you play when I was growing up, but
it's true. But now it's such a thrill to be
able to see all the time and work with you,
and I just I love hearing your stories. It's great.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Well, and there's people that you like to be around
and you're one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Oh well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Everybody feels that about you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Oh well, I really And.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
I'm saying the right thing. I'm doing the right thing.
I'm not making something up. Yeah, that's honest.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I love your group and it's and it's fun. We
have a lot of we have a lot of fun together.
So it's good, all right, Bish, Thank you appreciate it.
Thanks Bish. New episodes Have, Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired are
released on Tuesdays. Please follow and download this podcast wherever
you listen to podcasts, and keep up on new releases
by following on Twitter and Instagram at ctf our podcast

(01:04:53):
and also on the website ctfurpodcast dot com. If you
like this episode, share it with someone, or just share
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I'm your host, Susie Wargen. To learn more about me,
visit susiewargin dot com. Thank you for listening, and until
next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind.
Take care