It’s hard to imagine a bigger day for Flathead football than this one.

Today, two men who’ve quarterbacked the Braves within the last 12 years will take the field to play, respectively, the single biggest football games of the week in two different countries.

By the time Brock Osweiler and the Denver Broncos take the field for Sunday Night Football against the mighty New England Patriots, Mike Reilly and his Edmonton Eskimos will be in the final stages of Canada’s Super Bowl — the 103rd Grey Cup — against the Ottawa Redblacks.

Kalispell has had its days in the football spotlight before, including Glacier’s resounding state championship last winter, but rarely, if ever, has so much sports attention been focused here.

Grady Bennett, the man who led the Wolfpack to that state title and coached both Reilly and Osweiler at Flathead, has followed his former pupils closely.

“I sat on the couch watching both games back-to-back and I was so proud,” Bennett said. “It’s kind of surreal to think back and say ‘wow, I coached those guys.’ It’s special to have been a part of their lives and I hope Kalispell is proud of these young men from our community who have gone on to do great things.”

The two men’s paths to football glory may have started in the same spot but diverged quickly after high school. Osweiler was a can’t-miss athlete from a young age — a physically imposing superstar who earned NCAA Division I scholarships in basketball and football. After a successful college career at Arizona State, Osweiler was a second-round draft pick and has been Peyton Manning’s unofficial heir apparent for the last three-plus years.

Reilly, meanwhile, moved with his family to Kalispell from Kennewick, Washington before his senior year of high school and he had to fight just to get on the field at Flathead. Reilly split time in the first half of the 2002 season before taking over and leading the Braves to the state semifinals.

Bennett, once an outstanding quarterback himself at the University of Montana, pushed hard for his alma mater to take a look at Reilly only to be rebuffed. Reilly ended up walking on at Washington State and later transferring to Division II Central Washington.

“I could see it in him,” Bennett said of Reilly’s potential. “I’d (coached) some pretty good quarterbacks but I hadn’t worked with a quarterback who so devoured the game like Mike.

“He loved to study film and be on the chalkboard. He rearranged his schedule to match my schedule as a teacher so that we could just watch more film and talk coverage, schemes and pass routes.”

Reilly bounced around a few NFL training camps out of college before ultimately landing a backup job in the Canadian Football League. After two-plus years on the bench with the BC Lions — who won the Grey Cup in 2011 — Reilly got his chance late in the 2012 season.

His performance in the final few games of 2012 earned the 6-foot-3 Reilly a contract with the Edmonton Eskimos the following year, and he’s become one of the league’s best dual-threat quarterbacks the last three seasons.

While compiling big numbers, Reilly has also suffered a number of serious injuries. He led the Eskimos to the 2014 CFL semifinals despite playing on a broken bone in his foot, and he missed eight games this year after tearing ligaments in his knee in week one.

Reilly’s willingness to play through pain — and his appetite for contact — has endeared him to fans and teammates. Each of the last three years, Reilly has been voted the league’s toughest player in a poll of his peers.

“One of the things is you talk about (with quarterbacks) is your courage, your toughness and your willingness in the pocket to take shots,” Bennett said.

“Mike gave me a couple of highlights that I’ve been able to show other quarterbacks for the last 10 years. I’ve felt bad for him because he has been beaten up so much up there but I’m so proud of him because he’s a tough, tough competitor.”

As Reilly continues to grow his reputation after biding his time in Canada, Osweiler’s long-awaited NFL opportunity has arrived, and he’ll face by far his biggest test as a professional tonight.

With the drama surrounding Peyton Manning’s late-career injuries subsided a bit after the team announced he would miss at least the next two games, focus in Denver has centered on the 6-foot-7 Kalispell kid and how he’ll handle the spotlight. That, and the stern challenged presented by Bill Belichick and the undefeated Patriots.

In his first game last Sunday in Chicago, Osweiler was near perfect, going 20 for 27 for 250 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. It was a performance that was widely praised but could be all but forgotten if he and the Broncos struggle tonight.

Coverage of the Broncos and Patriots will begin at 6:30 p.m. tonight on NBC. Reilly and the Eskimos kick off the Grey Cup at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2.