The Sports Xchange

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Just a long pass away from the practice field where the Denver Broncos completed their second week of OTAs on Thursday, a potential future owner of the Broncos was arrested on charges of domestic violence harassment and interference with a phone call.

John Bowlen, one of owner Pat Bowlen’s seven children, was released on a $1,000 bond Thursday night after charges stemming from an incident with his girlfriend at his apartment in Glendale, Colo. The 29-year-old, who serves as a corporate partnerships coordinator with the Broncos, is accused of shoving his girlfriend against a wall as she tried to make a 911 call.

The arrest comes 11 months after Pat Bowlen stepped away from day-to-day control of the Broncos because of Alzheimer’s disease. Since then, ownership of the Broncos has been controlled by the Bowlen Trust, which includes team president Joe Ellis and no members of Bowlen’s family. Part of their role was to determine which child of Bowlen’s could potentially assume ownership of the Broncos if the team can be kept within the family.

At last month’s league meetings, NFL owners voted to permit teams to be owned by trusts, and reduced the percentage of the club an owner must control to five percent, with 30 percent of the ownership in that owner’s family.

Both moves were designed to help keep teams within families and ease the tax burden of inheriting assets that are worth at least $1 billion. These moves enhance the chances of the team remaining with the Bowlen family.

“It’s his hope that one of the children will come along and run the team someday and it’s my hope that it’s sooner rather than later,” Ellis said in May. “There are some particular things that Pat wanted to see out of his children and we as trustees are watching and monitoring that.”

John Bowlen is one of three Bowlen children who work for the Broncos. Another daughter, Brittany, works in the NFL office.

–The Broncos have $9.969 million of their 2015 salary cap tied up in cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr., and the two cornerbacks will combine to make $49.5 million in guaranteed money over the length of their current contracts.

With that investment, it’s clear what the Broncos expect — the ability to leave both on an island in one-on-one coverage, allowing the safeties to help at other spots. That’s what Harris expects this year from new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

“I’d say even more man (coverage),” Harris said. “(Phillips) is really trying to see what we’re all good at as a defense. Right now, we’ve been able to be good at everything, really. It’s really what coach Wade is going to be comfortable playing.”

During the Broncos’ divisional playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts, then-defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio aligned Talib opposite Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton and had him play well off the line of scrimmage, allowing Hilton a free release underneath and room for receptions that helped the Colts control the game’s pace.

That tactic appears unlikely to be revisited with Phillips in command.

–“We’ll make them right. We’ll make the right cut. No matter who’s back there, we’ll make them right. That’s a promise.” — RB C.J. Anderson, on working behind an offensive line that could have four new starters.