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Can John Elway return Denver to their days of glory?

By ArtieFufkin

Elway spoke to the Denver media on Wednesday (Photo: Denver Post)

There was some fairly big news in Denver this week that seems to be flying under the radar of the national media, what with all the other coaching changes in the league and the build-up to the playoffs. On Wendesday, the Broncos introduced John Elway as their new executive vice president of football operations, in hopes that the Hall of Fame QB can restore his former team to greatness.

As we all know, Elway led the Broncos to 5 Super Bowl appearances including back-to-back championships during his 16-year career in Denver. All week, Denver sports radio has been atwitter from the announcement, with people who believe he can return the Broncos to their days of glory. On the heels of the Josh McDaniels era, which left the franchise as something of a laughing stock, the Broncos fanbase is ready to latch onto anything that might bring a glimmer of hope in turning things around. And there’s no question that with Elway, you’re getting a guy who has no agenda other than winning football games for the city of Denver. The guy has been an icon around Colorado for almost 30 years, from football to car dealerships to steak houses. And he has already injected an air of excitement around the Broncos not seen in ages. Well, in at least 12 years, when Elway went out on top after winning the Super Bowl in January of 1999.

And Elway is clearly a proven winner, having won as both a player and a football excecutive, albeit for the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush, who he built up from nothing as its co-owner and CEO to win a championship in 2005. During his press conference, perhaps one of the best things Elway said was “I know what I don’t know”, and that he’d work to overcome that inexperience as fast as possible. Although, with a Stanford education (despite the clunky sentence structure in the quote below … I’ll chalk that up to nervousness) and a father who was a career head coach, you have to like his chances at success:

“I do not know everything about this job, but I cannot wait to learn as much as I can about the job,” he said. “I am thrilled to be back with the Broncos, I am thrilled to be back in football. I get on the football field and it makes my heart pump.”

“Why am I here? I love the Broncos,” Elway said. “I understand what the Broncos are all about. They are about the integrity, about the winning and about the things that you do and how you handle yourself.”

Elway has said that his first priorities will be to improve the defense by bringing in (and sticking with) a strong coordinator, and to restore the home field advantage at Mile High. Owner Pat Bowlen has given him final say on all personnel decisions, with the power to overrule anybody else within the organization. But along with the Elway hiring, the Broncos retained GM Brian Xanders, who was on watch during the McDaniels fiasco, and has to be held partially responsible for the mess that is the Denver roster. So it will be interesting to see how he and Elway work together, and whether Xanders will be anything more than a figurehead.

Already, the Broncos have whiffed on their first two choices for head coach in Jim Harbaugh and Mike Mularkey, who both declined to even interview with the team. Now that may have nothing to do with Elway, but it has everything to do with the current state of the team, and the fact that whoever takes the job will be faced with a major rebuilding project … and a huge question mark at QB with Tim Tebow. So no matter who gets the head coaching gig, it’s going to take some time to get the Broncos back on track, and we’ll see if Elway – and the Denver fanbase – has the patience to stick with his first hire when (not if) they encounter rough seas.

Did you remember that Marino was Senior VP of the Dolphins once? Me neither. (Photo: Palm Beach Post)

Elway won’t be the first person to attempt the move from the playing field to the front office. And a lot of people have made the immediate comparison between Elway and Dan Marino, whose stint as Senior VP of the Dolphins lasted just 3 weeks in 2004. Well, that comparison doesn’t hold up … Marino was just a failed PR stunt by then-owner Wayne Huizenga, while I genuinely believe both Bolen and Elway are deadly serious about this. And based on stories from former teammates about his innately competitive & hard-working nature, this is a position Elway could realistically hold for a very, very long time — winning a few more rings, and furthering his legend along the way.

Perhaps the most interesting quote on the Elway hiring came from former Lions General Manager Matt Millen, whose transition from player to executive infamously didn’t go so well. Millen won 3 Super Bowls during his 12-year career as an NFL linebacker, but that talent clearly didn’t translate upstairs, with Millen’s Lions going 31-84 during his 8-year tenure as GM. From the Detroit Free Press:

“I hope John does better than I did, because I stunk at it”

See, now isn’t that refreshing? I mean, let’s face it, the guy single-handedly set the Lions franchise back decades. Now if we could just get him out of the broadcast booth, we’d be getting somewhere.