Former Broncos WR Brandon Stokley embracing his second act: Talk radio host. “You’ve got to ask the tough questions.”

Remember that scene in the movie “Moneyball”? The one in which Brad Pitt, playing Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, works the phones like a master pianist and lands reliever Ricardo Rincon?

Armen Williams had that face once. Back in 2016. He’d just signed former Broncos wideout and two-time Super Bowl champ Brandon Stokley, one of the hottest radio free agents along the Front Range, to a contract as a host with 104.3 The Fan.

Williams, then The Fan’s program director, had spent months in pursuit of Stokley, twisting more arms than “WrestleMania XII,” even getting Stokley’s wife, Lana, on board.

Dude was fist-pumping to himself, high-fiving the universe. At least until another former Bronco, Al “Big Al” Williams, walked into his office and kicked his mojo in the teeth.

“How long,” Williams, the CU Buff turned Denver radio icon, asked the program director, “does Stokley’s contract go?”

“A year,” Armen replied.

A pause.

“He’ll be done by August,” Big Al countered.

“He’s going to realize that he’s missing too much golf. He wants to play golf every day. He won’t be here for more than a few months.”

Seven years later, Stokley loves his golf. But you know what else he loves? His show. Heck, talk radio in general.

And one of the most notable second acts for a former pro athlete in Denver, in a town full of pro athletes with second acts, keeps adding pages to its script.

“I never would’ve thought I’d be doing this for this long,” said Stokley, who co-hosts The Fan’s popular midday “Stokley and Zach” show with Zach Bye.

“(But) I really do enjoy it and it’s kind of fun, it’s kind of keeping you involved in the sports world, especially because 90% of our stuff is local stuff, which is a lot of fun. So you kind of stay connected to the sports community here. It’s been great, but no, I never would’ve thought I would’ve lasted this long talking sports for three hours a day.”

“I want to be good at what I do”

During Broncos training camp, the former receiver keeps a small notebook with him, writing down observations — what he liked, and what he didn’t. Stokley takes the prep side, the homework side, seriously.

“I like to go back to my notes to (talk) about the things I saw in practice, good or bad,” he explained.

“I like to be prepared. If I’m going to spend three hours watching practice, (it’s) so I don’t forget anything that’s relevant.

“Same thing for games … I take notes throughout the game, just so I can have my reference points the next day to go back and look back at them. During (football) season, we’re talking Broncos 99% of the time. That’s what we’re going to be talking about for a few days during the week, until we transition to the next game.

“I want to be good at what I do. I want to be prepared. I want to have a good show. I want it to be entertaining, but (you’ve) also got to give your opinion and give your observations on what I see and what’s going on out there. I feel this way, if I’m writing it down, and taking notes, I can do a better job. That’s what I want to do. I want to try to be good at it. I don’t want to half-(expletive) it.”

Stokley, 47, had dipped his toes in radio after his 15th and final NFL season in 2013, taking part in the league’s “Broadcast Bootcamp” and filling in on The Fan while plotting his next professional chapter.

“I did do a little bit of it, but not a lot of it — not enough to know, like, ‘OK, this is what I love to do,” Stokley recalled. “When you’ve done it, and then you do it for three hours, I was just exhausted. I would come home and just feel like I had finished with a football practice, mentally and physically, my voice, everything. I was probably just too fired up about everything. It just had to take some time, like anything else, to figure out how to do it.

“As a player, you’re used to being interviewed. And now, all of a sudden, you’re the interviewer. I remember, early on, our producer, I would have him write out our questions for the day. That was very hard for me (initially): ‘What am I going to ask?’ … That took some getting used to for me. And for most athletes, they’re not used to being in that spot.”

Stokley warmed to the role, and to the interviewing process. After being paired on The Fan with Denver radio veteran Sandy Clough and then Charles “C.J.” Johnson, things hit a new gear when Armen Williams brought Bye in from upstate New York. The two clicked like old friends off the air and playfully argued and teased like an old married couple on it.

“We’re both very competitive and we like the same stuff,” Stokley said of Bye, who played basketball at the College of Saint Rose, a Division II program in Albany, N.Y. “He was a college athlete, so we both like to compete.

“And that’s the thing with radio: It’s hard when you don’t get along with your partner and you don’t have that chemistry. You’re talking for three hours, every day. I’ve been fortunate to have great partners for as long as I have. That’s what makes it fun.”

Von Miller? “We’re good.”

And like any successful, long-running show, it’s rarely boring.

In September 2018, The Fan surprised Stokley by bringing his old coach and friend, Gerald Broussard, into the studio along with Lana and their two boys in order to announce — and celebrate — Stokely’s induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

“It was just really overwhelming and just really cool how I was able to find out,” Stokley recalled.

At the other extreme? The Von Miller interview.

Actually, it wasn’t so much an interview as a series of questions with some awkward silences tacked on late.

The iconic Broncos pass rusher — and former Stokley teammate — appeared on the show in October 2020, and stuff got … well, weird.

When the discussion turned to his contract and his future with the Broncos, Miller’s signal went quiet, then apparently cut out.

When they got him back on air, the Denver defensive legend sounded terse, forcing both Stokely and Bye to pivot on the fly.

Stokely said he’s spoken to Miller, now with the Bills, since that exchange and “I believe that we’re good. … I hope that’s the situation.

“That’s always a challenge when you’re interviewing players, especially guys that you played with, and try to be professional. But sometimes, you’ve got to ask the tough questions. And it’s never anything personal. … It didn’t go the way we had planned.

“We all look back on it just kind of laugh. No harm, no foul.”

Armen Williams laughs, too. It’s August 2023. Brandon Stokley’s still here.

And still giving Broncos Country a piece of his mind.

“I give Big Al (crud) about it to this day,” Williams said. “And I remind him every single time: “Hey, remember when you told me (Stokley) was gonna quit after a few months?’ Luckily, this was one time that Alfred Williams was incorrect.”

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