Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey will honor his late cousin on Sunday

Mike McGlinchey will wear special cleats on Sunday to honor his cousin Dan, "I will honor my cousin Dan. He was my best friend. He passed away this summer due to multi-organ failure and things along those lines," says McGlinchey.

Dan was born with a heart and lung defect.  Oxygen would leak from his lungs due to holes, and even though he had a heart defect, it didn't affect his love for his family and football,

"Dan was my biggest fan. He was my best friend. He was my best friend and my biggest supporter since I was since I was in high school. He rarely missed my games, he lived through me," says McGlinchey.

McGlinchey says his football life gave Dan purpose, "Everything about our family was how to, you know, keep Dan around and keep Dan involved in football. It gave Dan life and it gave him a purpose to follow us and to follow my team," says McGlinchey.

He also believes that Dan is watching over him every day and perhaps it's one of the reasons why the Broncos have had success of late, "It's pretty cool that, you know, you carry a little weight with you every day in losing him but I know that he's there watching over us and you know certainly might have a little bit of an influence upstairs and how the Broncos are doing right now," says McGlinchey.

McGlinchey says Dan wasn't supposed to live past the age of five and that his spirit is still alive and well, "He was a special, special dude and I miss him every day, special week for me and my family and to get to have him, you know, represented on the field, this week's pretty cool.  He's always with us and I get to have a little concrete evidence of that this weekend," says McGlinchey.