Peyton Manning: "We have Von Miller's back"

After a few hellish weeks of bad offseason news and worse publicity, most of the Denver Broncos players talked about how they were simply happy to get back to work Thursday at Day One of Broncos training camp.

Peyton Manning took a minute to talk about how he hopes the Broncos will respond to this adversity - as a family.

"I'm sure you'd like to not have those problems," Manning said. "Most players would probably tell you that. But that's football, and we know how to handle it. I think the organization has addressed it. Joe Ellis has addressed it. Pat Bowlen has addressed it. John Elway has addressed it. Coach Fox has addressed it.

"And that's why you're a family," Manning continued. "You stick together. It can't always be rosy. It can't always be perfect. We have Von Miller's back. We have everybody in our organization's back.

"That's when you find a lot about people is who sticks with you when the times are tough. You find out who the rats are. Who's gonna jump ship. It's easy when you're rolling along on an 11-game winning streak and everything is good. You have some adversity that comes your way - how do you respond, how do you handle it. I think the organization has responded. They've made their statements. We'll support those that are going through some adversity. At the same time, we're going forward trying to win."

It's amazing how Peyton Manning took this question surrounding the most negative of circumstances and turned it into a positive moment. But that's among the many things that makes him a Hall of Fame-caliber leader.