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View Full Version : Bordow: ASU's Elway out to make name for himself



Magnificent Seven
08-29-2008, 10:44 PM
So you’re the son of John Elway, which has to be pretty cool — “hey girls, want to meet my dad?” — but now you’re 19 and you want people to see you for who you are.

So you come to Arizona State because it’s not Stanford and your father isn’t a deity here like he is in Colorado. Then you get your uniform, and guess what?

No. 7.

Just like dear ol’ dad.

“I was actually looking to change my number but as a freshman I’m going to take what they give me,” Jack Elway said. “Eventually, though, I do want to change it. I don’t want to be viewed as No. 7. I want people to see a number and think of Jack Elway, not John Elway’s son.”

That’s not an easy knot to untie.

Maybe if Elway was a swimmer. Or a baseball player. Even a safety.

But he’s a quarterback. Has been since the second grade, when his Pop Warner coach in Inglewood, Colo., thought it might be a pretty good idea to put an Elway behind center.

Jack Elway could have done something else. He thought about it, too. Become a civil engineer, and no one will care if you can’t rope a spiral 80 yards like your father.

But when football is in your blood, it’s in your blood.

“Even if my dad wasn’t John Elway, I’m pretty sure I’d be playing,” Jack said. “It’s something I love to do.”

Besides, who better to have as a teacher than one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. It’s like being taught to paint by Michelangelo.

John Elway was his son’s position coach last year at Cherry Creek High School in Denver, and the two had long talks about how to read defenses and recognize coverages. Jack soaked up every word, appreciative of the free education he was getting.

The best advice John gave him: “Don’t aim it. Just let it go and trust yourself.”

On the other hand, there are a few drawbacks to being John Elway’s son.

For one thing, you can’t have a relaxing game of catch in the backyard. John still has the fastball that broke many a finger of Denver Broncos receivers.

“A couple of times I’ll be throwing with him and he’ll be acting like his arm is hurting and then he’ll pull out a bullet,” Jack said. “That’s when I just move. I don’t even try to catch it. It’s ridiculous. It’s like an explosion.”

That’s the other problem. Because Jack swims in the same gene pool as his dad, he’s expected to be the second coming. He’s the same size — 6-foot-3, 200 pounds — that John was when he went to Stanford. He has the same unruly hair that’s combed straight down and stops just short of his eyes.

But he’s not John Elway.

He’s a three-star recruit who was ranked 51st among quarterbacks by Scout.com and 59th by ESPN Scouts, Inc. There’s no guarantee he’ll ever start a game for ASU, much less become a No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

Try selling yourself short, though, when your last name is Elway. It’s not easy.

“I do worry about that,” John Elway said. “I’ve done the best I can to diffuse it, but there’s always going to be pressure on him. I’ve told him, if he has higher expectations for himself than anyone else, then he shouldn’t worry about what people expect of him.”

Jack Elway doesn’t seem to mind that he’s recognized more for his last name than anything he’s done on the football field. It’s a fact of life he’d eventually like to change, but fighting it now would be like trying to turn back the tide.

“There are people who come up to me asking for my autograph, and I’m thinking they just want John Elway’s son’s autograph,” he said. “They don’t want Jack Elway’s autograph.”

That’s why Jack is here, to forge his own identity. He’ll redshirt this season, learn the offense, hit the weight room and hope to contend for playing time in 2009.

Meanwhile, he can go about his business without the world watching.

“I think it was good for him to get out of Denver,” John Elway said. “Everybody knows his last name, but it’s not like being back here in Colorado.”

If Jack will forgive us, there’s one final story we have to tell about his father, only because it involves ASU coach Dennis Erickson.

In 1981, John Elway was a junior at Stanford. His father, Jack, was the head coach at San Jose State, and Erickson was Jack Elway’s assistant.

The Spartans played the Cardinal in September, and Jack Elway sent waves of blitzers after his son, who was sacked seven times in Stanford’s 28-6 loss.

John Elway took such a beating that by the third quarter his father was yelling across the field at Stanford coach Paul Wiggins, imploring him to get his son out of the game.

Afterwards, Jack asked John to come home with him.

“I don’t want to go home with you,” said John, still peeved at the beating he had taken.

“You have to,” Jack said. “If you don’t, your mother isn’t going to let me in the house.”

The long-standing relationship between Erickson and the Elways was instrumental in Jack coming to ASU. John Elway told his son Erickson would make him a better quarterback and that ASU’s offense suited his skills.

Now, Jack Elway has an opportunity to write his own story.

He doesn’t know what will happen or how it will end.

But he’s certain of one thing.

He’ll skip Chapter 7.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/123121

Magnificent Seven
08-29-2008, 10:45 PM
http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/elway_jack00.html

Den21vsBal19
08-30-2008, 12:09 AM
For one thing, you can’t have a relaxing game of catch in the backyard. John still has the fastball that broke many a finger of Denver Broncos receivers.

“A couple of times I’ll be throwing with him and he’ll be acting like his arm is hurting and then he’ll pull out a bullet,” Jack said. “That’s when I just move. I don’t even try to catch it. It’s ridiculous. It’s like an explosion.”

LMAO :lol:

Thanks for the read :salute: