Untold stories from Mike McDaniel's wonder years - ESPN

DONNA MCDANIEL HAD BEEF to sell and no money for daycare. So she found the perfect place to drop off her 10-year-old son, Mike, every morning in 1993: Denver Broncos preseason camp.

She was a single mom, raising Mike by herself in the Greeley, Colorado, area as she tried to sling filets and ground chuck for a local meat company. She was damn good at it, too, but she had to work six and a half days a week to make ends meet for her and her son.

Mike loved the Broncos, so running loose at Broncos preseason camp was the greatest idea he had ever heard. He had some bumpy times growing up, constantly getting picked on as one of the smallest kids his age. Broncos practices were an escape, a fun place at a time when life wasn't very fun.

Donna went to work around town, hustling from store to store, and then duck back in around midday with some McDonald's for Mike. She'd check in on him for a few minutes and then go back to work till 7. John Elway and Steve Atwater were the best babysitters in town.

As he ate his lunch, Mike always talked about the same thing: The Rope. There was an area for fans to converge just a few feet away from the lane where players came and went onto the field. The team had a rope up to keep these two groups close together but apart. For Mike, The Rope was a barricade between two worlds. There was his world, and then there was the world of professional football, behind The Rope. He wanted under The Rope so badly.

He'd chase after players and coaches with football cards to sign during practice. Sometimes they would stop. Sometimes they wouldn't. But The Rope kept him where he was, and the NFL was where it was.

Over that month, though, players began to recognize him and realize the truth that we have all