ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- On July 26, 2011, a bespectacled 22-year-old with an ever-present smile arrived to the Denver Broncos' suburban complex for the first time. The NFL's lockout, which had canceled any offseason work, had just ended.
Von Miller, the No. 2 overall pick in the draft that April, scanned the freshly-mowed fields around him and said:
"It's all so surreal. Just getting on that plane this morning and coming out here was so surreal. Just seeing the lockout get lifted was surreal ... Actually being on a pro team, this is all I wanted to do all my life.