Background and career
John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback and executive who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons with the Denver Broncos. Following his playing career, he then spent 11 years with the Broncos in various front office positions, eventually being promoted to general manager. Elway and former backup quarterback and head coach Gary Kubiak are the only individuals to be associated with all three of the Broncos' Super Bowl wins. Elway is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the sport. At the time of his retirement in early 1999, Elway had the most victories by a starting quarterback and was statistically the second most prolific passer in NFL history. He was also a prolific rusher of the ball, being one of only two players to score a rushing touchdown in four different Super Bowls (the other being Thurman Thomas) and the only quarterback to do so. While playing college football at Stanford, Elway set several career records for passing attempts and completions and also received unanimous All-American honors. He was the first selection in the 1983 NFL draft, famously known as the "quarterback class of 1983", where he was taken by the Baltimore Colts before being traded to the Denver Broncos. In January 1987, Elway embarked on one of the most notable performances in sports and in NFL history, helping engineer a 98-yard, game-tying touchdown drive in the AFC Championship Game against the Cleveland Browns, a moment later dubbed "The Drive". Following that game in Cleveland, Elway and the Broncos lost in Super Bowl XXI to the New York Giants. After two more Super Bowl losses, the Broncos entered a period of decline; however, that ended during the 1997 season, as Elway and Denver won their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos repeated as champions the following season in Super Bowl XXXIII. Elway was named MVP of that Super Bowl, which was the last game of his career, and in doing so Elway set a then-record five Super Bowl starts which was broken in February 2015 when Tom Brady of the New England Patriots started Super Bowl XLIX. After his retirement as a player, Elway served as general manager and executive vice president of football operations of the Broncos, which won four division titles, two AFC Championships, and Super Bowl 50 during his tenure, making Elway a three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Broncos–two as a player and one as an executive. Elway was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Elway and his twin sister Jana were born on June 28, 1960 in Port Angeles, Washington, to Janet (née Jordan) and Jack Elway, then the head coach at Port Angeles High School. Their sister Lee Ann, is a year older than the twins. They moved in 1961 to southwestern Washington, where Jack was the junior college head football coach at Grays Harbor Community College in Aberdeen for five seasons. As a youth, John lived in Missoula, Montana and Pullman, Washington, when his father was an assistant coach at Montana and Washington State, respectively.
In February 1976, Jack Elway joined the staff at Idaho, a Palouse neighbor, but a month later became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge, a Division II program in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The family moved after John's freshman year at Pullman High School, and he then played his final three years of football at Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills, under head coaches Jack Neumeier and Tom Richards. Despite missing five games with a knee injury as a senior, he ended his high school career with 5,711 passing yards and 49 passing touchdowns, and was named to the Parade All America High School Football Team, along with future NFL stars, quarterback Dan Marino and running back Eric Dickerson. Known as a dual-threat quarterback, meaning he was accomplished at running and escaping pressure with an impressive passing ability, he was amongst the top recruited high school players in the country, receiving numerous scholarships. One of those offers was from his father, who became the head coach at San Jose State following the 1978 season. Also an accomplished baseball player, Elway was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 18th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft. The Royals also selected Marino in the fourth round of the same draft.
In 1979, Elway enrolled at Stanford University, playing for both the football and baseball teams. Rod Gilmore recalls that the football team expected Elway to be a backup quarterback for three years before starting, like Turk Schonert and Steve Dils. After seeing the new player in preseason practice, Babe Laufenberg and another backup transferred, knowing that Elway would be above them on the depth chart. Stanford was where the legend of the "Elway cross" began; after the freshman broke two players' fingers on the first day of practice, receivers began catching Elway's passes with their bodies instead of hands, leaving a cross on their chests from the ball's seams. Elway spent his freshman season in 1979 as backup to future NFL quarterback Schonert, playing in nine games as the team went 5–5–1. After Schonert graduated, Elway became the starting quarterback as a sophomore in 1980, threw 27 touchdown passes (2nd in the Division I-A), and led the team to a 6–4 record heading into the final week of the season. In the Big Game at 2–8 California, Stanford was upset 28–23, dropping them to 6–5 and costing them a chance to play in a bowl game. In 1981, Elway had another fine season, ranking seventh in Division I-A with twenty touchdown passes, but Stanford had a dismal season; the upset of UCLA was their only win through October, but they won all three games in November to climb to 4–7. In his senior season in 1982, Stanford was 5–5 and needed to win its final game, The Big Game at 6–4 Cal, to secure an invitation to the Hall of Fame Classic bowl game. With two minutes remaining in the game, Stanford was down 19–17 and had 4th-and-17 on their own 13-yard line. Elway completed a 29-yard pass and drove the ball downfield to the 35-yard line, where Mark Harmon kicked what appeared to be the winning field goal. However, the clock had four seconds remaining, so Stanford had to kick off. What followed is now simply known as "The Play", in which Cal players lateraled the ball, rugby-style, five times – two of them controversial – and scored a touchdown to win the game, 25–20. Elway was bitter about the game afterward, stating that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player." Stanford athletics director Andy Geiger said the loss cost Elway the Heisman Trophy. Twenty years later, Elway came to terms with The Play, saying that "each year it gets a little funnier." Although Elway never led his team to a bowl game, he had an accomplished college career. In his four seasons (1979–1982) at Stanford, he completed 774 passes for 9,349 yards, 77 touchdowns, and 39 interceptions, while also scoring 5 touchdowns rushing the ball. Stanford had a 20–23 record during his tenure. Elway's 24 touchdown passes in 1982 led the nation, and at the conclusion of his career, he held nearly every Pacific-10 record for passing and total offense. He won the Pac-10 Player of the Year honors in 1980 and 1982, was a unanimous All-American, and finished second in Heisman balloting as a senior. In 2000, Elway was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2007, Elway was ranked #15 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list. He passed for over 200 yards in 30 of his 42 collegiate games. Elway also excelled as a baseball player. He was selected by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft (52nd overall, six spots ahead of future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn), and received $150,000 for playing for the Yankees' short season affiliate Oneonta Yankees in the New York–Penn League in the summer of 1982. Many scouts saw Elway as a good baseball player, but not as likely a star as in football. Yankees scout Gary Hughes believed, however, that if Elway concentrated on baseball "the sky was the limit … he would've been off the charts". Yankees owner George Steinbrenner—who aggressively sought Elway's services—reportedly planned to make him the Yankees' starting right fielder by 1985, which Elway—aware of Steinbrenner's opinion—later described as "a tremendous [and] exciting thought". Elway graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics, and is a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Already age 19 when he entered as a freshman, Elway did not use a redshirt year at Stanford.
The Baltimore Colts had the first overall pick in the 1983 NFL draft, nicknamed the "Quarterback class of 1983". Elway was the first of six quarterbacks selected in the first round. Elway was wary of playing for the Colts, among the worst teams in the league at the time, and his father advised him against playing for head coach Frank Kush, who had a reputation as a harsh taskmaster. While Elway preferred football, his agent Marvin Demoff later stated that baseball was "a true option" for him at the time. The possibility gave Elway leverage in negotiations with the Colts. Elway told the Colts in December 1982 that he did not want to play for the team, and later told the Colts that he wanted to play on the West Coast or for the Dallas Cowboys or Miami Dolphins. After unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate a private agreement with the Colts in which Elway would cite his alleged desire to remain on the West Coast to explain the team trading him, Elway publicly threatened to join the Yankees full-time if the Colts did not trade him; Demoff wrote in his journal, published three decades later, that "he would be a garbage collector before he'd play for Baltimore." Elway's refusal to join the Colts was controversial – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw denounced him, stating "you should play baseball … he's not the kind of guy you win championships with" – but many other NFL teams began negotiations with the Colts for the quarterback. One possibility was trading Elway for the San Francisco 49ers' Joe Montana, whose team had a poor season in 1982. Another was a trade with the San Diego Chargers, who were negotiating a new contract with starting quarterback Dan Fouts. The New England Patriots were interested, but the Colts did not wish to trade Elway to a team in the same division. The Los Angeles Raiders almost traded for Elway the day before the draft, but the Raiders could not complete a required trade with the Chicago Bears; they ultimately drafted one spot ahead of the Dolphins and were the last team to pass on Marino. The Cowboys, who were Elway's favorite team as a child, came the closest to completing a deal and had an ace in the hole by offering existing starting quarterback Danny White (who had played under Kush at Arizona State) in exchange for Elway, as Kush and Tom Landry had been friends. However, Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm was unable to get through to Colts owner Robert Irsay, with Gil Brandt adding years later that they would have likely been able to complete the deal if not for Irsay. With no successful trade before the draft, the Colts had to draft Elway and possibly trade him later. Team general manager Ernie Accorsi wanted Elway as, Accorsi later said, he did not foresee the 1984 draft as producing any first-round quarterbacks. Accorsi announced Elway as the team's choice as soon as possible during the 15-minute window on draft day, surprising observers, but Kush already told Elway's family by phone that the Colts would pick him regardless of baseball. Elway that day reiterated his wish to not play for the Colts at a press conference, saying "As I stand here right now, I'm playing baseball". When a reporter pointed out that the Yankees were not based on the West Coast, Elway replied "They play baseball during the summertime". Jack Elway said that John "will never play for Irsay or Coach Kush". Worried that the Colts would waste their pick, Irsay began negotiating with the Denver Broncos before the draft. The Colts were interested in offensive lineman Chris Hinton, whom the Broncos chose as the fourth pick in the first round. On May 2, Irsay and Accorsi agreed to trade Elway for Hinton, backup quarterback Mark Herrmann, and a first-round pick in the 1984 draft, which turned into offensive lineman Ron Solt. The Colts' controversial relocation to Indianapolis the following year would later prove to somewhat vindicate Jack Elway's concerns, and the team would largely struggle until the arrival of Peyton Manning during Elway's last season as a player.
As one of the best quarterbacks drafted, Elway joined Denver as one of the most highly anticipated athletes in the history of the NFL. The local newspapers ran a section that was called "The Elway Watch". After Craig Morton retired after the 1982 season and Herrmann was traded, the press expected that Elway might become the starting quarterback during the 1983 season. He debuted for the Broncos in the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium, and was sacked for the first time in his NFL career at the hands of linebacker and fellow Hall of Famer Jack Lambert. In his first game, Elway was relieved by veteran quarterback Steve DeBerg, who led the Broncos to a victory. Elway's second game was also on the road at Baltimore, and was spirited by his rejection of the franchise. In what would turn out to be Elway's only professional game in Baltimore, Elway was again relieved in a close game by DeBerg, who led the Broncos to another win. In early October, DeBerg was named the starter by third-year head coach Dan Reeves for the remainder of the season, but a shoulder injury brought Elway back a month later. In the 1986 season, Elway led the Broncos to Super Bowl XXI, after defeating the Cleveland Browns on a famous possession at the end of the fourth quarter that became known as "The Drive". In a span of 5 minutes and 2 seconds, Elway led his team 98 yards to tie the game with 37 seconds left in regulation. The Broncos won the game in overtime. Elway and the Broncos started out the Super Bowl against the New York Giants very well, building a 10–7 lead and then driving to the Giants 1-yard line in the second quarter. However, the Broncos lost five yards on their next three plays and came up empty after kicker Rich Karlis missed the field goal attempt. From that point on, the rest of the game went downhill for the Broncos. Elway was sacked in the end zone for a safety on the Broncos ensuing possession, cutting their lead to 10–9. Then in the second half, the Giants scored 30 points and ended up winning the game 39–20. Still, Elway had an impressive performance, throwing 304 yards, a touchdown, and an interception, while also leading Denver in rushing with 27 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
