DENVER — John Elway might as well be named John Denver, because Elway is Denver.
He is the city’s big man on campus in perpetuity.
He led the Broncos to their most recent Super Bowl title, 15 years ago, which happened to be the Broncos’ second consecutive championship. Afterward, he retired a champion.
He’s a multi-millionaire dozens of times over thanks to a highly successful post-football career. He has capitalized off a fleet of auto dealerships around Denver bearing his name, which he owned before selling them for a massive profit (though they still carry his name to boost sales, for which he is paid handsomely), along with three high-end restaurants that are named after him and country club memberships wherever in the country he wants to play golf.
So, what would a two-time Super Bowl champion who is wealthy beyond most dreamers’ wildest imaginations need with the stress of an NFL front-office job?
Elway, Denver’s executive vice president of football operations for the last three years, spoke on Thursday about how “miserable’’ he was watching the Broncos beat the Chargers in last week’s AFC divisional playoff game that advanced them to Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Patriots at Mile High.
“It took me four hours to get the pit out of my stomach after the game was over,’’ Elway said during a round-table interview at the Broncos training facility.
You wouldn’t think Elway needs this, because he kind of has everything.
Except that he does.
“I had the dealerships and restaurants, but those don’t have scoreboards on Sundays,’’ Elway said. “When you’re used to seeing a scoreboard — even when you are 4, 5, 6, 7 years old — on Saturday and Sunday every weekend in the fall, I don’t think you ever break that.
“When I first retired I wanted to kind of get away and see if there was something else out there other than football. It took me two years to figure out there wasn’t, three years to really figure out that I’m built to be involved with football somehow. That’s really what I know the best because that’s what I’ve spent all my time on. My adult life has been in football. So I really got back to what I felt like I did the best even though there was success.’’
Elway played the first 14 years of his career without tasting the fruit of a Super Bowl title, losing three along the way, and he seemed destined to be the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings of NFL quarterbacks — those who kept getting to the big game but could not close.
Then, in his 15th and 16th seasons, Elway delivered, changing the narrative of his legacy dramatically.
Now, from the front-office ivory tower, pushing the decision buttons on coaches, personnel and all other football matters, he is trying to deliver a first title to the city since he spoiled Denver with two in a row 15 years ago.
Asked how he would compare winning it all as a player to doing it as an executive, Elway said: “It’s not nearly as much fun upstairs as it is down on the field, especially these championship games or playoffs.
“But I also am proud of being a part of it and being able to help put the team together, put the coaches together, put the personnel side and everything that comes together. There is a lot of pride in that, [but] there’s more of a quiet pride than there is being the quarterback, where everyone is patting you on the back.”
Much of Elway’s stress on game days as an executive is he has no control, the way he did on the field. Some of the greatest athletes and competitors are control freaks.
“You’re sitting there hoping and cheering just like any other fan,’’ Elway said. “I know how hard this team has worked … and I hope that it pans out for them so that they can get that feeling, because it is something that is not comparable to anything else that there is.’’
Fifteen years after he delivered on the field, maybe Elway delivers for Denver from upstairs now. Imagine how high Elway’s legacy will skyrocket from its already lofty perch should the Broncos win the Super Bowl this year under his watch.