MIAMI – John Elway last night for the first time opened the door on the possibility of returning for a threepeat.
In an exclusive interview with Fox’s Ronnie Lott, Elway didn’t sound like a man sold on retirement should the Broncos beat the underdog Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII.
“No one’s ever done it three times in a row,” Elway told Lott. “It definitely, if we can get a win here, throw a little wrench in my thinking.”
Earlier, at the Broncos’ hotel, Elway had shed no new light on his thinking.
“I haven’t really started thinking about what I’m going to do next year,” Elway said. “I’ve looked in the future for a lot of years and when you play football and don’t win a championship you’re always looking to the next year.
“I’m going to enjoy this week. That’s why I came back, to play in this game and get back to where we are today, so to me it doesn’t make a lot of sense to look to next year.”
Elway was asked about going out on top with a Super Bowl XXXIII victory.
“That would always be nice,” he said. “I don’t think that dictates that, because sometimes you run out of physical ability before you run out of mental desire.
“Vice versa, if you run out of mental desire before you run out of physical attributes, then it makes it a little bit easier, so it just depends on what you want to do. I don’t want to leave too early, and I don’t want to leave too late, either.”
It had been considered a virtual lock that Elway, 38, would ride off into the sunset when he ran a victory lap and waved goodbye to Mile High fans following the Broncos’ 23-10 AFC championship triumph over the Jets.