In the aftermath of Super Bowl 50, platitudes will be thrown around about who exactly deserves the credit for the dominant performance of the underdog Denver Broncos.
Von Miller’s MVP performance obviously deserves a lot of credit, as too does the work of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
The mastermind behind the whole thing, however, is the man who brought them together – none other than that old Broncos quarterback, John Elway.
Rewind to February 2, 2014. The Broncos, with the best offence in the league (one of the best in history) are being destroyed by Seattle’s historic defence, 48-8.
For Elway – now the general manager, once the quarterback – it is a familiar sight. Drafted by the Baltimore Colts and traded to the Broncos in controversial circumstances, Elway took over under centre in Denver in 1983.
By 1986, Elway had the Broncos in their second Super Bowl in franchise history where they were blown out by the New York Giants, 39-20. In 1987, they’d return to the Super Bowl to experience another blowout, this time at the hands of Washington, who won 42-10.
They’d finish the 1988 season with a record of 8-8, yet Elway would manage to navigate his team back to the Super Bowl in 1989 where Joe Montana’s 49ers awaited. If the previous two experiences were bad, this one was terrible, as they suffered their biggest loss yet, 55-10.
With that third defeat, the narrative would start to form that Elway, a great talent, just couldn’t win the big one. It was a stigma that would follow him for years to come.
It would be another seven seasons before Elway would get a chance to exercise his Super Bowl demons, but in 1997 Elway and Broncos did just that. In a game that mirrored this past Broncos’ season, Denver took the focus away from their ageing quarterback and leant on their running game.
Running back Terrell Davis (who was just snubbed from the Hall of Fame on Saturday) rushed for 157 yards and three touchdowns in a dominant performance over the Packers to finally bring the Super Bowl to Denver.
Elway would return to the Super Bowl one last time the following season where he was victorious again. That game would prove to be his last, as he’d announce his retirement later that May – a move that might prove eerily similar to Peyton Manning should he announce his retirement as most expect, before next season.
Elway was named executive vice-president of football operations of the Broncos in 2011, and inherited a team that had gone 4-12 the previous season.
With final say in all football related matters, Elway used Denver’s second overall pick of the 2011 NFL draft to select a linebacker from Texas A&M, Von Miller. (The first overall pick was held by Carolina, who took Cam Newton.)
The 2011 team, lead by quarterback Tim Tebow, would win the AFC West with a record of 8-8 and would go on to defeat the Steelers in the AFC Wild Card round. They followed up that unlikely victory with an unceremonious defeat at the hands of Tom Brady’s New England Patriots and it became clear to Elway that they needed an answer to their quarterback problems.
Somewhat ironically, the answer came from the Indianapolis Colts, the same franchise Elway had snubbed decades earlier.
The Colts had earned the first overall pick of the 2012 draft after Manning was sidelined with injury and the team fell to 2-14. Deciding to move on from the ageing Manning, the Colts selected Andrew Luck (a quarterback from Elway’s Alma Mata, Stanford) opening Manning’s move from Indianapolis to Denver.
Elway had found his quarterback.
Elway then set about piecing a team together to complement Manning. In two years the Broncos were back in the Super Bowl and their offence was firing on all cylinders having put together a record-breaking season. So when Elway watched the Seahawks’ bruising defence man-handle his quarterback in Super Bowl 48 he knew he had to do something different.
John Elway the GM had learnt from the career of John Elway the quarterback. In Manning, he must have seen something incredibly similar to his own career.
Manning, like Elway, was one of football’s all-time greats, but he too had developed a reputation for failing in the post season. So much like the Broncos of the late Nineties, Elway knew that the team needed to be about more than the quarterback.
Following the humiliating loss to the Seahawks, Elway decided to follow their blueprint and went into free agency with defence squarely on his mind. In 2014, he brought in defensive backs Aqib Talib and TJ Ward and veteran defensive end DeMarcus Ware to complement the all-pro Von Miller. His defensive monster started to take shape.
They’d lose to the Colts in the divisional round of the playoffs that year and Elway would move to make more changes to the Broncos. Citing differences in opinion on what it would take to get the next level, Elway fired then head coach John Fox and brought in former teammate Gary Kubiak, as well as veteran defensive mind Wade Phillips as a coordinator.
Kubiak’s appointment signaled a shift in Denver’s approach to offence and spelled an end to their pass-happy scheme. Instead, Kubiak would focus on the run, and compliment his ground attack with play action, a move that seemed incompatible with Manning’s skill set, but also mirrored Denver’s 1997 season and their reliance on Terrell Davis over Elway.
Throughout this five-season process, Elway received plenty of criticism and many doubted that they’d manage to win the big one before the window closed on an ageing team.
Elway, used to doubters dating right back to his playing days, was steadfast in his resolve and drew from his wealth of experience as a player (even when it came to jersey selection).
Yesterday that resolve was rewarded and while Miller received the applause for a stellar performance, and Manning for a stellar career, Elway – Denver’s great quarterback – capped off another one of his famous drives.
This one took him just five seasons, and was three decades in the making.
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