The Broncos give their blood, sweat and tears 365 days a year to win the Super Bowl.

The Rockies are a cool party deck with a lousy baseball team attached.

The local NFL franchise strives to do Denver proud.

The local major-league baseball franchise is a joke.

When Alzheimer’s disease forced Broncos owner Pat Bowlen to step down last week, the city wept tears of compassion.

When Rockies owner Dick Monfort tells customers tired of bad baseball to stay away from the ballpark, Colorado fans feel taken for granted.

After only five losing seasons in 30 years of Bowlen’s reign, the Broncos know exactly what they must do to honor the legacy of an owner who directed the franchise to six Super Bowl appearances.

“You can’t fill Mr. Bowlen’s chair, but you must do what he did very well. You have to hold people accountable for the team’s success, on behalf on his family, on behalf on the organization and on behalf of everybody in this community who loves this team and shares in emotional or financial equity of the Broncos. If you lose sight of that, you’re done,” team president Joe Ellis told me.

“I think there’s been the impression over the years that this is a Broncos town, and all this team has to do is open the ticket window for the stadium to get sold out. But (Bowlen) and I would have regular conversations with one thing in mind: We’d better never get complacent. This world changes fast. And anybody who starts believing that all we have to do is open the gates will be quickly left behind. You never take success for granted. You strive to improve all the time. We went to the Super Bowl last year. But we didn’t win it. So there’s room for improvement.”

Here’s a little free advice for Monfort: Steal a page from the Broncos’ playbook. There’s no shame in taking a peek on how Bowlen conducted business.

Altitude is not the No. 1 hindrance to building a winning baseball franchise in Colorado. The real problem is the management culture of the Rockies. It settles for mediocrity. It makes excuses. It stinks.

Monfort is reluctant to fire anybody. He regards that attitude as compassionate. But it’s also a cop-out. A winning organization demands accountability and places respect for fans’ hard-earned dollars ahead of friendships within team headquarters.

Twenty years ago, Wade Phillips was fired after two short seasons as coach of the Broncos. When the Broncos announced Bowlen’s resignation Wednesday, this is what Phillips wrote on Twitter: “Pat Bowlen has great compassion for people. He hugged me and cried when he let me go in Denver. I have a hug and a tear for him right now.”

The way the Rockies do business is disrespectful of paying customers.

Monfort honestly believes he’s operating his baseball business with compassion for his front-office executives.

Many of us see a far different truth: Rather than dealing with the problem, Monfort is avoiding it.