tomjonesrocks
07-16-2014, 12:39 PM
This posted anywhere? I didn't find it. Decent offseason read IMO.
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/07/15/john-elway-building-denver-broncos/
Three years ago, John Elway's hiring brought questions of Denver's intent. Would the former face of the franchise just be a figurehead? Three straight playoff appearances and a Super Bowl berth later, the answer is clear: Nope
Ernie Accorsi wanted encouragement. It was January 1988, and the Cleveland Browns general manager was preparing his team to face the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game for the second straight season. Just a year had passed since “The Drive,” when John Elway led his Broncos 98 yards for a game-tying touchdown in the final minute of regulation, and the Browns ached for revenge.
Before the game, longtime sportswriter Art Spander, who had covered Elway since the quarterback’s high school days, struck up a conversation with Accorsi. The subject naturally turned to Elway, and Spander offered his wisdom on the player he’d followed for more than a decade. “There’s no sense in being nervous, Ernie,” he told Accorsi. “You can’t beat him.”
The Browns lost that day—and again the next year—to Elway and company, a fact that stung just a bit sharper for Accorsi. As Baltimore’s GM, he was the man who’d drafted Elway in 1983 despite the quarterback’s assurances he would never play for the Colts. Elway kept his word, forced a trade to Denver, and he and Accorsi parted ways after meeting just once, with a brief handshake at the East-West Shrine Game.
In 2009, 20 years after that final Denver-Cleveland AFC championship matchup, two men met at the Yale Club in midtown Manhattan. One was Accorsi, the other Broncos president Joe Ellis, who was seeking counsel after firing Mike Shanahan. Ellis valued the advice he got that day, so much so that two years later he suggested his new vice president of football operations call Accorsi for similar counsel.
That vice president was, of course, Elway, who laughed at the suggestion. Ellis didn’t know the history, and Elway wondered if Accorsi would even take his call.
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/07/15/john-elway-building-denver-broncos/
Three years ago, John Elway's hiring brought questions of Denver's intent. Would the former face of the franchise just be a figurehead? Three straight playoff appearances and a Super Bowl berth later, the answer is clear: Nope
Ernie Accorsi wanted encouragement. It was January 1988, and the Cleveland Browns general manager was preparing his team to face the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game for the second straight season. Just a year had passed since “The Drive,” when John Elway led his Broncos 98 yards for a game-tying touchdown in the final minute of regulation, and the Browns ached for revenge.
Before the game, longtime sportswriter Art Spander, who had covered Elway since the quarterback’s high school days, struck up a conversation with Accorsi. The subject naturally turned to Elway, and Spander offered his wisdom on the player he’d followed for more than a decade. “There’s no sense in being nervous, Ernie,” he told Accorsi. “You can’t beat him.”
The Browns lost that day—and again the next year—to Elway and company, a fact that stung just a bit sharper for Accorsi. As Baltimore’s GM, he was the man who’d drafted Elway in 1983 despite the quarterback’s assurances he would never play for the Colts. Elway kept his word, forced a trade to Denver, and he and Accorsi parted ways after meeting just once, with a brief handshake at the East-West Shrine Game.
In 2009, 20 years after that final Denver-Cleveland AFC championship matchup, two men met at the Yale Club in midtown Manhattan. One was Accorsi, the other Broncos president Joe Ellis, who was seeking counsel after firing Mike Shanahan. Ellis valued the advice he got that day, so much so that two years later he suggested his new vice president of football operations call Accorsi for similar counsel.
That vice president was, of course, Elway, who laughed at the suggestion. Ellis didn’t know the history, and Elway wondered if Accorsi would even take his call.