What the fax!!! This was the sentiment echoing in the Denver HQ in 2013 as the clock ticked down on the league-wide deadline for submitting restructured contracts. Coming into the 2013 season, the Broncos desperately wanted their “Gloom and Doom” pass rush duo of Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil to stay in Denver, but they needed to restructure Dumervil’s contract. The edge rusher was slated to make $12M fully guaranteed (for one season), but the Broncos were in no mood to pay that much, despite him having 84 sacks to his name with over 200 combined tackles at that time. The player’s agent, Marty Magid, negotiated for weeks before finally coming to a middle ground. Dumervil’s base salary would be cut from $12 million to $8 million. Dumervil reportedly agreed to the deal about 35 minutes before the negotiating deadline, but things got complicated.

With the 4 p.m. ET deadline looming, the situation was unraveling for the Broncos and Dumervil. Apparently, the Broncos gave Dumervil and his agent, Marty Magid, a 3 p.m. deadline to accept the deal. But as per then-NFL.com’s analyst Albert Breer, Denver didn’t hear from Dumervil’s agent until 3:25 p.m. However, despite the verbal agreement, Magid failed to send the final contract to the Broncos’ office on time, with a fax only arriving six minutes after the deadline.

Thus, in the era of scanners, electronic signatures, a fax machine was the reason behind Dumervil’s divorce from the Broncos. Meanwhile, a minute before the deadline, the Broncos had filed paperwork with the league, formally releasing Dumervil and voiding the rest of his contract. Creator Brett Kollmann recalled this Dumervil fiasco that shocked the league, on X writing, “Remember when the Broncos had to waive Elvis Dumervil because of a faulty fax machine in the literal final 30 minutes of the league year, and then he got 27 sacks over the following two seasons in Baltimore.”

In the aftermath, Dumervil fired Magid and soon the NFL Players Association also took action against him for this mishap. The NFLPA  suspended Magid’s certification for six months and fined him $25,000. Magid had stated that the Broncos initially informed him they would reduce Dumervil’s 2013 base salary by $4 million in exchange for adding $500,000 to his 2014 base salary of $10 million while also fully guaranteeing $3.5 million of that amount.

But according to Magid, the new deal had been changed to only guarantee the $3.5 million for injury on deadline day. When he informed Dumervil of this, it took some time to come to a decision.

“That stopped all the negotiations. We had to restart,” Magid said at that time. “I had to explain it to him what this meant for him. He took some time to think about it and, in the end, he said, ‘I’ll take it. I’ll go back and play for it and show them what a great player I am.'” What followed was a chaotic 20-30 minutes, and with Dumervil in Miami and Magid in Philadelphia, things got a little messy.

It was left to Dumveril to find a Miami Kinkos to fax his signed contract to Denver, which ultimately failed to arrive on time. As a result, the Broncos were forced to release Dumervil and they avoided a $13 million-plus cap charge for the season. They also avoided paying him his fully guaranteed $12 million.

But they were left $4.869 million in dead money against the salary cap, and moreover, they ended up losing one of their potent weapons to their AFC rivals. Not only that, but Dumervil hit the ground running from the get-go. Spoiler alert: He got an even better deal, and the Broncos were left regretting.

Broncos’ loss was Ravens’ gain

As soon as Dumervil hit free agency, the Ravens didn’t waste any time in snapping him up. He agreed to a 5-year deal worth $35M, making him $8.5M in his first year. You see, that’s cheeky from the Ravens. Dumervil was only slated to make $8M if that fax did go through.

But because it didn’t, he ended up getting a raise elsewhere. So, without wasting any time, the 5-time Pro Bowler hit the ground running. In his first season with the Ravens, Dumervil racked up 31 combined tackles and 9.5 sacks. Then, the following season was even more monstrous. Dumervil was simply a nightmare to offensive lines and QBs. Matching his 2019 career high sacks, 17, Elvis was unstoppable, setting a Ravens franchise sack record.

And once his 12-year career was over, with 105 1/2 sacks. He even ranked 6th in the Ravens’ all-time sack leaderboard. Judging by the impact Dumervil had in Baltimore. The Broncos were probably cursing themselves, asking why they didn’t pay him while there was still a window. But at least Dumervil got the respect and money he deserved in Baltimore, something he found lacking even after giving his seven years to Mile High City.