Did a dispute over his Halloween party end the Von Miller era?

When news broke yesterday that the Broncos were trading Von Miller to the Rams, it was seen as a sign that the franchise had finally undergone a reality check. The conventional wisdom was simple: The Broncos realized that they weren’t a contender in 2021, so they were trying to parlay veteran players into future draft picks.

Not so fast.

According to a report by Adam Beasley, an NFL insider for Pro Football Network, there may have been another motivation behind the trade. He wrote yesterday that a dispute within the Broncos locker room over Miller’s Halloween party could’ve been a factor in the trade:

“A source with direct knowledge of the situation tells PFN that Miller became upset when teammates declined to kick in for his annual Halloween party. It’s a massive affair with a six-figure price tag. This year, it featured Quavo from the hip-hop act Migos.”

In the past, the Super Bowl 50 MVP had paid for the celebration. It had become the stuff of legend. This time around, he was looking for some help in covering the cost.

“Miller’s request for financial help came as a surprise to his teammates. They had assumed they were invited guests to the party, not co-hosts. Miller even wanted rookies to contribute several thousand dollars for an event that they had no role in planning.”

This don’t go over well. The Broncos highest-paid player looking for assistance in covering the cost of his party was met with resistance.

“Miller, who has earned over $90 million in his career, threatened to disrupt the Broncos’ locker room chemistry over what in his mind was an unpaid debt, the source tells PFN. We’re also told coach Vic Fangio and general manager George Paton became aware of the rift. That may have factored into the team’s decision to move on from the eight-time Pro Bowler despite the Broncos sitting just a half-game out of the AFC’s seventh seed.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Noah Fant joined “Stokley and Zach” for his weekly radio appearance. Denver’s tight end confirmed that there was substance to the story.

Noah Fant just essentially confirmed this report with us in the air. Said Von wanted to cancel the party because of losing streak. Other guys didn’t. Money became an issue between guys. Fant added he was sad that what should have stayed in house got out to the media. Wow… https://t.co/dIOIATs9n9

— Zach Bye (@byesline) November 2, 2021

“It’s kind of sad that that got out of our locker room. I feel like that’s something that stays in the locker room,” Fant said. “But I guess I’ll clarify. It was a situation where we were planning on having this Halloween party. Then, we had dropped a couple games. Von contacted everybody in the group chat saying, ‘I’m thinking about canceling the party. We got to focus on winning games.’ That was his biggest thing, being improvement-driven, focus on winning games and things like that. So he did try to cancel it, but guys still wanted to have it.”

The dispute didn’t end there.

“It kind of went south from there,” Fant continued. “I’m not gonna go into details. Here, we ended up having the party. I did not attend, but I had a conversation with Von afterwards. I still paid. If I knew I wasn’t going to go, I should have spoken up and said something. I try to hold on to my morals and values. But every guy has different different thoughts about that.”

Ultimately, the disagreement becoming public seems like the biggest issue. That’s what bothers Fant.

“The fact that that it got out into the media is kind of sad,” the tight end continued. “We all look at ourselves as like a group of brothers and things like that. So you’re gonna fight with your brother, sometimes you’re gonna get into disagreements, but they should never leave the locker room or leave the team setting.”

This adds context to Miller’s comments last week when he met the media.

“As I mature and I spend another year in the National Football League, you can’t really get caught up on what’s the right thing to say or saying the right thing or saying the wrong thing,” the linebacker said. “We know what great teams look like. We know what bad teams look like. With me, especially this year, I don’t really get caught up on saying the right thing. I’m going to say what I feel needs to be said. I know what it looks like. I know what it feels like. I’ve won before. These guys haven’t won before. Nobody’s going to silence me on saying the right thing. Nobody’s going to silence me or try to increase the sense of urgency when we’re out here. It’s 2021. You can say anything, and somebody might take offense to it. Here in a locker room with all of these grown-ass men, you can’t really get caught up on the right thing to say or the wrong thing to say. You’ve just got to say it and you’ve got to keep it going. If it’s coming from your heart and if it’s true, it’s real, and its reality, (then) you’ve just got to say it and you’ve got to keep on moving. That’s the only thing that’s going to get us out of the hole that we’re in.”

As the clock ticks toward the trade deadline and no other Broncos veterans have been moved, it does beg the question: Was Von Miller traded as part of a rebuild or to defuse a brewing problem in the locker room.

Follow @jamesmerilatt