Every year, people flood the airwaves and twitterverses with nonsense on April 1st. It’s exhausting and, at this point, not even fun anymore. I just check out on 4/1 every year and don’t care about any of it. It used to be fun and I’ll share a few really good April Fools jobs done over a decade ago, but today in 2026 it just seems everyone just tries too hard. I think its time to give it a rest for a few years.
Broncos daily recap
There is a line between silly fun and just dumb. Dumb isn’t funny, I’m sorry. Reports like
this from Mike Florio on April Fools Day with the caveat that the report is NOT related to the joke holiday is just dumb. It makes me not like 4/1 every year as someone who covers news events. Today, though, it was fun to dunk on Florio so I’ll take that as a win.
Broncos ARE NOT bringing in QB Aaron Rodgers for a visit
File this one under “rumor squashed.” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported that there was “talk” of the Broncos hosting Aaron Rodgers for a visit, floating the idea that Denver might want insurance while Bo Nix recovers from his ankle injury. 9NEWS’ Mike Klis shot it down immediately, citing a source who put the chances at “zero percent.” The timing — April 1st — didn’t help Florio’s credibility either, though he insisted it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. Rodgers remains linked primarily to the Steelers and Mike McCarthy. Denver’s message is clear: Bo Nix is their guy, he’ll be ready for OTAs on May 4th, and there’s no quarterback controversy to manufacture here.
Potent quotables
Earlier this week, Broncos’ owner, Greg Penner, did talk about the new stadium at the league meeting. Some good information came from it. There is also some insight into the Jaylen Waddle trade.
On an update for the Burnham Yard preferred stadium site and development
“First of all, [there is] a lot of work. [Owner] Carrie [Walton Penner], [President] Damani [Leech], [General Counsel] Tim [Aragon] and a lot of folks from our team are spending a lot of time meeting with community leaders and city council members. It’s an ambitious timeline that we have, and we won’t be able to accomplish our goals in terms of timing and getting in there just by ourselves. So it’s not just something that the Broncos are driving. We have to have a lot of support from partners and others that are involved with the site.”
On the support the preferred stadium site has received and if the timeline is on track
“The support has been good, and everybody wants to do the right thing. There are a lot of different parties with different interests. As of right now, we are on track. It is ambitious to get to the 2031 goal that we have.”
On when they anticipate shedding the ‘preferred site’ label on Burnham Yard
“We are getting closer. Some important steps have been taken, but when we change that from, ‘preferred site,’ to, ‘this is the site,’ we will have all of our ducks lined up and be prepared to say that we are formally moving forward with that site. I’m not sure exactly when that is going to be, but hopefully sometime in the coming months.”
On seeing the new Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit being built and the benefit of having more employees in one location
“It’s been a terrific process. It’s fun to watch it getting built right before our eyes. [Senior Vice President of Construction] Amy Dee, who has been managing that process for us, has done a terrific job, so we are on time and on budget. We will be moving in there in June. Really the biggest advantage is I’d say two things: No. 1, it is bringing the whole organization together—so folks from different buildings and sites, including the stadium. Then it will be a huge benefit for the players. The whole design of the building is oriented around enabling the players to have that one floor where they can do everything. So a larger locker room, training room, connected to the weight room, meetings rooms and cafeteria. The player path of travel is going to be really well set up.”
On if the trade for WR Jaylen Waddle was what he meant when discussing being ‘opportunistically aggressive’
“Yes, that is exactly right. We went into this and we were prepared to be aggressive if we thought that there was an opportunity. At the same time, we weren’t going to be aggressive just to be aggressive. We love the guys that we have in our locker room and on our team. It’s a strong core and a really good fit. The bar was high if we were going to go get someone in free agency that we thought could be a better addition. The opportunistic part was when we saw something to take a big swing [on], we were going to be willing to take a big swing. That is what we did with the Waddle trade. All of our interactions with him so far have been terrific. We think that he has all the aspects that are important to us. Obviously, he is a tremendous playmaker but also a great locker room guy. He has grit, professionalism and a high level of intellectual-ness around football and his performance.”
On if the trade for WR Jaylen Waddle is enough for this team
“I don’t know if we are ever going to say we’ve taken all the steps that are enough. We are always looking for what more can we do. We are starting over and have a lot of hard work to do. We still have the draft coming up and we have training camp. We are always going to be looking at opportunities to make this team better and I don’t think we’ll ever say that we’ve done enough.”
On the timeline for the preferred stadium site to become the actual site and who they need help from
“It’s help from and input from the community; it’s from City Council and the mayor. Denver Water is going to be an important part of the process. Obviously it’s a utility that provides tremendous assets to the community, and we need to make sure that as we move forward that their service isn’t interrupted in any way. We’re cognizant of that, but also coming up with a plan that allows us to get in there on the timeline that we have in mind.”
On if there are provisions in place to extend the lease at Empower Field at Mile High if necessary
“The fallback would be—and there’s nothing in place right now—but the fallback would be to extend our agreement with the current stadium.”
On if the site will be around 150 acres and the importance of the SRM Concrete property
“I think that roughly 150 acres is about what the site will be. That gives us obviously plenty of land to build a stadium and do a development around it. There are a number of private transactions that we’re still working on, the concrete company being one of those. We’re going to try to get that done.”
On if they have decided on the mechanism with the preferred site land
“Without getting into all the specifics, we’ve bought the land privately. We’ll do that with the other parcels, and we’re going to pay for the stadium to be built. There will be some infrastructure support around it from the city and the state.”
Under the radar
Because of the dumb April Fools report, the team is likely out there pushing the Bo Nix timeline. I think we all knew he’d be good to go next season and if there was a single fan who would love to see 93 yr old Aaron Rodgers put Bo Nix on the bench I’d be shocked.
The FEED happenings
See? This is an example of a perfectly fine April Fools report. It’s completely absurd and impossible to believe. Well done, KoloradoKaos1. At least you understood the point of the holiday. Silly and fun.
Post your own thoughts on MHR’s Feed.
Is April Fools dumb?
Not always!
While today’s Mike Florio thing was definitely dumb, there are some examples of silly and fun April Fools jokes. While I’ve been with Mile High Report almost continuously since 2007, there was a year when I was banned and fired from the site (long story lol). For that year, I blogged for an old site called BroncoTalk.net and it was fun to blog there. The site owner ended up taking over MHR the next year and that’s how I made my return here.
Anyway, that one year on April Fools Day the site owner, Kyle Montgomery, created a skin for the website to convert it to “Raider Talk” and we all wrote semi-serious, but obviously false commentary as if we were covering the Raiders franchise. It gave us a chance to dunk on the hated rival in a max-fun way for our readers. It might be the greatest day of blogging I’ve ever had anywhere.
The other event that makes the list was Scotty Payne changing his name in our chat to my name and profile image, then making grandiose claims and demands of the staff. I was on Pacific time, so obviously I came in late and barely waking up. I thought I had been hacked for a solid 2 minutes and panic reset passwords and all that only to find I had been April Fooled. I must say, he got me dang good that morning…
Then there was this afternoon when I went to the gas station and my wife asked for a diet coke. Knowing she doesn’t care for diet Pepsi and knowing I often get the wrong thing cause I am like that, I came home and told her to enjoy her diet Pepsi. I watched he react and the disappointment flare then as she accepted the drink anyway I said, “April Fools.”
Now THAT, was satisfying. She even laughed. So it was a win-win.
I shared these stories because I think the April Fools thing can be fun and silly, but here in recent years its just become kind of an annoyance in the world of blogging and news coverage. No one is even trying to be funny anymore. Anyway… end rant!
So what is your April Fools take? Is it lame now? Do you have any funny stories? Share below!
