The beginning of the end came in the summer of 2014, when her father said he was stepping away from the club. “There was some insecurity, but my dad was there, and as long as my dad was there, I was secure, because that’s what he wanted,” she said.

The next year, the trustees sent emails to all seven siblings with the criteria they would need to meet to become the controlling owner. (The Broncos also brief the siblings each year on the state of the team.) Sensing that an advanced degree would be on the list, Bowlen Wallace had re-enrolled in law school to complete her degree. When she contacted the trustees to let them know, she was asked to visit the office the next morning.

“It took them two minutes to say that my position had no value to the organization and it was being eliminated,” she said.

This has left Bowlen Wallace on the outside, looking for a chance to get back in. She said she had asked the trustees at least four times if there were any openings at the Broncos and had been told each time that nothing was available, even though positions at the team were created for some of her siblings.

Frustrated that the trustees have not shared with them the details of the trust, Bowlen Wallace and her older sister, Amie Bowlen Klemmer, submitted a proposal in April that Bowlen Wallace take over as controlling owner, and eventually hand over the team to her younger siblings. “There doesn’t have to be the ‘Hunger Games’” between the siblings, she said.

When the proposal was received coolly, Bowlen Wallace’s biggest ally, her uncle Bill Bowlen, went to court in October to demand that the trustees have an independent overseer. Bill Bowlen, who sold his shares in the team years ago, argues that trustees answer only to themselves and have an interest in taking as long as possible to choose a new controlling owner because they could lose their jobs in the process.

“They are their own boss, and they can’t be fired,” Bill Bowlen said in a phone interview. “They have no skin in the game, and yet they’re telling one of the beneficiaries to pound sand even though she is fully capable and qualified.”