PRO FOOTBALL ’85 : JOHN ELWAY : He’s Had Rocky Start in Denver, Due to Media and Bronco Fans

Sometimes it’s hard not to think of John Elway as just another reason to hate California, like pet health clubs and personalized license plates.

Start at the top with his hair, which is blond, move south to his face, which is tan, and then inland to his teeth, which are straight.

Then focus on his right arm, the one that broke five NCAA passing records at Stanford.

It’s enough to make anyone from Toledo ill.

Elway was the NFL’s No. 1 pick three years ago and was a millionaire at age 23. Gush, gush, gush.

You come to expect a lot from someone who might have been created in a Disney studio.

So was it any wonder that the hype surrounding Elway’s arrival in Denver in 1983 nearly rivaled MacArthur’s return to the Philippines?

All the people of Denver wanted Elway to do was spread a little of his good California fortune on their city.

Winning a Super Bowl for the Broncos would be a cinch for Elway, they figured. Naw, he didn’t need time to be a rookie. Mistakes? What mistakes? Elway?

So how did it come to this? How could Elway fail them?

“No matter what I do, it will never be enough,” Elway said. “It’s just because of all the money I make. You’re never going to please everyone. There will always be people who won’t like you, whether they know you or not. That’s been a tough adjustment.”

He has had his moments in two seasons at Denver, and one magazine even went so far as to proclaim him “an effective NFL quarterback.” But he also has been booed and benched. Pardon Elway while he cringes, but he’s no Dan Marino.

Of course, Denver has hardly given Elway a chance.

From the day he stepped off the plane at Stapleton Airport, the Denver newspapers have been on him like flypaper, reporting every breath he takes.

Welcome to life in a fish bowl.

“After all the stuff I’ve gone through the last two years, I don’t really care anymore,” Elway said. “They’re going to write what they want, and I’m not going to change it. It’s never going to end. It gets to the point where I say, ‘Who cares?’ ”

So here’s to starting over, and to second and third chances.

On Sunday, Chapter 3 of the John Elway Story will begin when the Broncos face the Rams at Anaheim Stadium.

Elway, 25, looks much the same as he did two years ago. His skin is just a little thicker, that’s all.

But deep inside, no one prays more than John Elway himself that this will be the season he lives up to his broken-record billing of stardom.

“He’s got a chance to be the best who ever played the game,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said again this year. “I wouldn’t swap him for anybody.”

There was a time, though, when some people in Denver would have swapped him for Bobby Douglass.

Had Elway been born in some tough coal-mining suburb of Pittsburgh and knew his only way out was to throw a football better than any other kid in the neighborhood, maybe then he’d get a break.

If he was a shot-and-beer-guy with a paunch and a dad who wore a hard hat to work six days a week, maybe people wouldn’t expect so much so soon.

But John Elway, being of sound mind and clean fingernails, came to Denver by way of Stanford--the University of Intellect and Argyle.

His daddy’s the coach there now.

You think John Elway’s going to get a break?

And what’s the saying about getting only one chance to make a first impression?

We remember John Elway as the college flash who said he would take his ball and go home before ever playing for the Baltimore Colts, who drafted him first in 1983, against his will.

Every time Elway opened his mouth back then, it seemed someone wanted to stuff it with a pacifier.

Try shaking a bad image in the NFL.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people who draw conclusions about me have never even met me,” Elway said. “You’re really in the hands of the sportswriter. If he doesn’t like you, it has negative feedback to the public, who reads him.”

“For the past few days, Elway has been wearing a pair of flowered shorts and a yellow T-shirt.” --From the Denver Post’s “Elway Watch,” training camp, 1983.

Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, who threw for 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns last season, made life miserable for the quarterback crop of 1983, setting standards few may exceed.

Which brings us back to Elway. Comparing it to anyone’s but Marino’s, Elway’s 1984 season doesn’t look half bad.

Rebounding from a traumatic rookie season, Elway took the Broncos to the AFC Western Division title.

Denver finished with a 13-3 record and was 12-2 in games Elway started. He missed two with injuries.

So much for the theory that Elway isn’t a winner.

Elway completed 56% of his passes and threw for 2,598 yards and 18 touchdowns.

But still the critics muttered, noting that Elway had only one 300-yard game in 1984. And wasn’t that our boy John who threw four interceptions against Seattle in the game that clinched the division title for Denver?

As he said, Elway isn’t out to please critics.

But he took a giant step forward in winning over his teammates in the Broncos’ playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.

When we last saw Elway, he was dragging a gimpy leg up to the line of scrimmage to face the Steeler defense. Elway’s body was bloodied and battered, but he refused to leave.

Don’t think his teammates, not all of whom had been won over by Pretty Boy John, weren’t taking notes.

“If anybody had any doubts about his courage under fire, he answered everybody’s questions,” linebacker Tom Jackson said of Elway’s performance against the Steelers. “He wasn’t forced to stay in the game, he wanted to play.”

Coming from Jackson, a 13-year-veteran, three-time all-pro and four-time most-inspirational Bronco, that means something.

Said Elway: “It’s good for them to know that I’m going to do everything I can to win the football game, even if it means sacrificing my body. Anytime someone plays hurt, and they know he’s hurt, you’re going to gain more respect.”

Respect is something Elway is longing for.

Bronco owner Pat Bowlen went public last week and admitted that everyone concerned had been too hard on Elway.

“I sort of feel sorry for him, quite frankly, because I think he’s getting the short end of the stick,” Bowlen told the Denver Post. “I think John’s a fantastic quarterback, but there’s a lot of pressure put on him to perform like other people who are in entirely different situations.”

Did anyone say Dan Marino?

Naturally, everyone’s going to compare them, simply because they came into the league the same year.

But is it fair? So much more was expected from Elway because he was the first pick in the draft. Marino, the 27th pick in the first round and the sixth quarterback selected, was an underdog from the start.

Elway abhors comparisons with Marino, but did offer this: “It’s only human nature. It’s something you can’t control. But if we win a Super Bowl, all that won’t matter.”

Denver coaches say to compare the two is absurd.

It’s the old story about Marino’s walking into an an ideal situation.

“You have to remember that John didn’t come to the strongest team in the world,” Reeves said. “We were 2-7 (strike season) the year before. And he didn’t have the support that Marino had. And he didn’t have a coach like Shula, who was a lot more experienced with young quarterbacks than I was.”

The Broncos say they are also more of a run-oriented team, which doesn’t allow for Marino-type statistics.

Mike Shanahan, Denver’s offensive coordinator, said he’ll take his guy any day.

“You put Dan Marino at Buffalo and a lot of people would be saying he wasn’t that great,” Shanahan said. “I don’t think the Broncos will win 12 or 13 games this season without John, but I think the Dolphins could win 12 games without Marino.”

But there was another thing that separated Elway from Marino--a media barrage that would have made Col. Tom Parker proud.

“John had the toughest first year of any football player in the history of the game,” wide receiver Steve Watson said. “It was ridiculous to subject a guy to that.”

“Another Tattoo: This one’s a raspberry on Elway’s knee. Someone kicked him breaking a huddle.” --Update from the “Elway Watch,” July 16, 1983.

There’s a Hollywood adage that says there’s no such thing as bad publicity, only too little.

In just two seasons, Elway has accumulated eight volumes of press clippings. To put it in perspective, consider that former linebacker Randy Gradishar, one of the Broncos’ all-time stars, had just three volumes in nine seasons.

In a never-ending battle to out-Elway the other, the city’s competing papers, the Post and the Rocky Mountain News, started their daily chronicling of what Elway did, their motto apparently being, “Nothing’s too trivial to print.”

“The Elway Watch was the craziest,” Elway said. “It’s a lot easier to look back on it than it was going through it. You tend to giggle about it now because it was so bad.”

“Early in morning practice, Elway dropped back to pass and lost his footing, landing almost flat on his face. But he scrambled up and completed a short pass anyway.” --More from the Elway Watch, July 28, 1983.

John Elway can only hope that the worst is over. These days, he can’t wait for tomorrow. Steve DeBerg is gone, having been traded to Tampa Bay. And Elway’s got a 13-3 season tucked under his belt and can’t wait to start another.

He’s even drawing raves from Reeves, who has had communication problems with Elway in the past.

“It’s not that we weren’t talking,” Reeves said of Elway’s rookie season. “We were just two young people. I was young at my job and he was young at is. We were both extremely competitive and both tremendously impatient. And when things don’t go as you want, there’s friction. We haven’t had a problem since.”

All Elway wanted, once in a while, was a pat on the back. But Reeves isn’t one to heap praise on anybody.

“He’s got his flaws, I’ve got mine,” Elway said. “There are certain things he doesn’t like about me. I wish I knew. But the work atmosphere is a lot easier than it was the first year. Me playing well helps, too.”

Elway seems more relaxed, now that he’s gotten the monkey and the press off his back. The media crunch has subsided and Elway seems more committed than ever.

He and wife Janet live in Colorado year round now.

“It’s still hard to go anywhere, so we stay home quite a bit,” Elway said. “I don’t like to go out and have people staring at me.”

Elway trained heavily with weights in the off-season and added 10 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot 3-inch frame.

“I feel like I can go out and compete and have fun again,” Elway said.