Tony Boselli recalls playing for Sam Pagano at Fairview after Hall of Fame nod

The thing about making the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the phone never shuts up. Not enough pings to keep up with the text messages. A quickly-filling-up voicemail box. And a screen full of missed calls.

It was a good problem to have for Tony Boselli, the Boulder native who was elected to the Class of 2022 on Thursday night.

But late Friday morning, Boselli knew of at least one key person he was going to call.

“Hundreds and hundreds of text messages,” he said. “There are certainly people I want to talk to (Friday) and one of those is Sam Pagano.”

The 84-year old Pagano, a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, was Boselli’s coach at Fairview High.

“When I was a kid, I didn’t dream of playing in the NFL — I would watching ‘Monday Night Football,’ and go to Broncos games and thought how cool it would be, but my first initial dream was to play at Fairview for Sam Pagano,” Boselli said during a video conference organized by the Jacksonville Jaguars. “I wasn’t even in their district. I had to get special permission to go to school there and was a water boy from an early age. He was who I wanted to play football for.”

Boselli was a quarterback on the Fairview freshman team, but that ended on the first day of practice the following year.

“I show up and Sam, in all his beauty and glory, before I could get to the first drill, said, ‘We’re going to move you,’” he said. “He only moved me to tight end, not right to the offensive line because he was afraid I would quit.”

Boselli had no intention of quitting, though.

“I just wanted to play football,” he said. “I wanted to play for Sam Pagano.”

The rest is Colorado prep football and Jacksonville football history.

Boselli graduated from Fairview in 1991 and is believed to be only the third Colorado high school player to reach Canton, joining Dutch Clark (Pueblo, Class of 1963) and Jack Christiansen (Canon City, Class of ’70).

Boselli was a three-time first-team All-America at USC (he was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014) and the Jaguars’ first-ever pick in 1995.

Boselli, who was expecteding to be measured for his Hall of Fame jacket, ring and bust on Saturday, will be recognized with the other inductees during Sunday’s Super Bowl. He played for Larry Smith and John Robinson at USC and Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville. But it was Pagano who helped set the foundation.

“He’s one of the people that had a big influence on my life and one of the reasons I’m sitting here talking about (the Hall),” Boselli said. “Not making me an offensive lineman, but just how he coached me. I’m super thankful. I’m glad he made me play offensive line.”

Veteran additions. The Broncos are set up with three first-time coordinators (Justin Outten offense, Ejiro Evero defense and possibly Dwayne Stukes special teams) and coach Nathaniel Hackett has engaged with at least two veteran assistants.

Dom Capers, 71, is expected to be a senior defensive assistant. Twice an NFL head coach (expansion Carolina and Houston) and a four-time coordinator (Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Miami and Green Bay), he has filled the senior role for Jacksonville, Minnesota and Detroit the past three years.

“Dom is very meticulous, very detailed and very prepared,” former Broncos coach Vic Fangio said in December. “I think anybody that’s been around Dom would tell you the same thing. He has a love for the game that is infectious.”

Mike Mallory, 59, is already working at the Broncos’ facility as the assistant special teams coach. Mallory, whose father, Bill, was CU’s head coach from 1974-78, has coached since 1986 and has 13 years of NFL experience, including four as Jacksonville’s special teams coordinator.

Combine locals. The full list of 324 players invited to next month’s Scouting Combine in Indianapolis was revealed Wednesday and there is a Colorado flavor.

High school alumni are Washington State running back Max Borghi (Arvada/Pomona High), Idaho defensive tackle Noah Elliss (Highlands Ranch/Valor), Colorado State tight end Trey McBride (Fort Morgan) and Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma (Lone Tree/Legend). Among the state colleges, CU linebacker Nate Landman and Air Force defensive lineman Jordan Jackson are headed to Indianapolis.

Rodgers talk. Until quarterback Aaron Rodgers decides to stay in Green Bay or retire, it makes sense to keep fueling speculation he will end up with the Broncos.

This question: Would general manager George Paton put any player off-limits in a Rodgers trade?

Our list would begin and end with cornerback Pat Surtain II. Quality cover players are difficult to find and when you have one, you keep them. Surtain checks that box.

Traveling aboard. The NFL announced this past week it will play three 2022 regular-season games in London and one apiece in Mexico and Germany (Munich).

The Jaguars will play a “home” game in London and four teams — Carolina, Kansas City, New England and Tampa Bay — have access to Germany as an international market and thus, first pick to host a game.

The Broncos have Jacksonville, Carolina and Kansas City on their road schedule this year. In 2020, the Broncos were scheduled to play Atlanta in London, but that was nixed because of the pandemic.

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