ENGLEWOOD • They wanted to talk about the new quarterback. What’s his name? Oh, right. Chase. Or Case. Whatevs. The new guy, Keenum. He’s an upgrade, and they wanted to talk about him.

And they did — talk about Case Keenum, for a hot minute — but the $36 million quarterback of the Broncos wasn’t even close to the top storyline as team brass took questions from local media Friday, the day before the Broncos open their 59th training camp. The new Broncos quarterback was fifth or sixth on the topic list, and that says as much about where we are as anything else.

They wanted to talk about the brand-spankin’-new, fancy-schmancy, state-of-the-art facilities at UCHealth Training Center. Cryotherapy! Zero-gravity chairs! Forty-five million dollars in player-friendly renovations! Next time a pro athlete whines about mistreatment, shove ‘em in one of those float pods. What’s a float pod? I think it’s where Paxton Lynch plays video games. Or something.

In the end, they wanted to talk about anything other than what’s being talked about — the national anthem protests that, somehow and someway, still don’t have a resolution. Almost two years after Colin Kaepernick took a knee because “there are bodies in the street,” the NFL and its players can’t decide whether to stand, kneel, nap, sing “Kumbaya,” mow the lawn, dance with Von Miller, stay in the locker room or protest in a float pod.

2018 Broncos training camp: Paul Klee's 5 burning questions

How is it possible this anthem puzzle still hasn’t been solved? If it’s not the most incompetent display of leadership I’ve seen — from both sides, the NFL and the protesting players — it’s definitely top three.

When it comes to the anthem issue, on a scale of 1 to Jerry Jones, the Broncos are a 5. They will roll with whatever is decided by the NFL and the NFLPA, which met yet again Friday to iron out their personal matrix. GM John Elway deferred, saying CEO Joe Ellis already addressed it with the team. Ellis said he would wait and see what the NFL and NFLPA come up with and go from there. It’s a perk of opening training camp after a bunch of other teams, including Jones and the Cowboys. The Broncos get to play smart tennis and wait for the other guys to smash the ball into the net.

“I’m going to leave it at that,” Ellis said.

If you haven’t tuned out by now — the anthem issue has a ton of people tuning out the NFL — let it be known the Broncos players decided they will stand for the national anthem, per Chris Harris Jr.

“We’re going to work as a team,” said Harris, one of their NFLPA reps. “Try not to have anyone doing their own thing.”

And that’s the most anyone at Dove Valley chose to talk about the anthem issue. They treated it with the same disdain Aqib Talib treats an opponent’s neck chain. (Miss you, ‘Lib.) This exact situation is what they were trying to avoid — the billionaire NFL owners and its millionaire players, I mean. The NFL desperately wanted to avoid talking about the national anthem controversy, since it stirs animosity among huge chunks of its fandom and ultimately costs the owners money. The protesting players wanted to avoid the anthem issue, too, since it muddies the initial message of perceived social injustices.

And now we’re 23 months in with only two certainties: NFL leadership doesn’t have a backbone and the protesting players don’t have a clue. Hear that, NFL? It’s the NBA chuckling, “Guys, this isn’t hard. Our Commish told us to stand and we stood. No biggie.” In trying to appease everyone, the NFL has appeased no one. And the protesters? Friday’s meeting wasn’t their first time to get a say in the matter. Let’s get that straight. Back in November the players coalition got a meeting with NFL big-wigs and embarrassed itself. The players coalition fractured. Some guys ditched the coalition entirely. If you can’t come to an agreement among yourselves, how are the rest of us skeptics supposed to take you seriously?

On the eve of Broncos training camp — a juicy one, particularly for Elway’s street cred as an executive and Vance Joseph’s status as coach — that’s what folks are talking about.

Not the Broncos ownership saga, though it sure sounded like one of two things is destined to happen: 28-year-old Brittany Bowlen eventually will take over, or the Bowlen trust will sell the team.

Don’t count on the latter. Count on the former.

“I will tell you this: I have got no worries about what’s going on with ownership,” Elway said.

“I’ve got zero.”

And the topic du jour — what’s French for “the last two years”? — was not the Broncos’ new quarterback. Or their attempt to avoid consecutive losing seasons for the first time in four decades. Or the pronounced lowering of expectations, from parades to playoff berths.

“There’s no reason, in my opinion, we can’t come back and compete for that,” Elway said.

“Our main goal is to win championships, but we’ve got to get back to the playoffs,” Demaryius Thomas said.

Not that. That’s not what folks are talking about.

Two years later we’re still talking about the national anthem controversy, the first 0-0 score that’s going down as a loss.

(Contact Gazette sports columnist Paul Klee at paul.klee@gazettedev.gazette.com or on Twitter at @bypaulklee.)