Media Can’t Keep Elway in the Grasp : Broncos: Quarterback has been under scrutiny this season. Rumors of a drinking problem are finally making him strike back.

You guys are like Attila the Hun of the media. --Howie Long, Raider defensive lineman, to Denver reporters.

In this Mile High City, the sky is often cobalt blue and the air is thin--so thin that Bronco quarterback John Elway can sometimes hardly breathe.

From the moment he arrived, Broncomaniacs have been fascinated by Elway. Their hunger for news has been insatiable. Nothing was too trivial when it came to the media’s pursuit of Denver’s All-Pro quarterback. So intense was the scrutiny that Elway felt as if he were under a microscope.

Where does Elway get his hair cut? Inquiring minds want to know.

Who fills Elway’s teeth? Inquiring minds want to know.

What does Elway eat for lunch and how much did he tip the waiter? Inquiring minds want to know.

How much did Elway pay for his house? Inquiring minds want to know.

And the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, locked in fierce competition, have dutifully presided over the Elway Watch.

Although his eloquence doesn’t match his extraordinary arm, Elway had always accommodated the media, answering the same questions over and over again with the same cliches.

But this season, he snapped.

Elway went to war with the media over its intrusions into his personal life and unsubstantiated allegations that a drinking problem was supposedly affecting his play.

He began avoiding reporters as if he were eluding pass rushers. When the media tried to get a comment from Elway after former Raider coach Mike Shanahan was rehired as a Bronco assistant, the quarterback hid and left through a back door, where he was met by a teammate driving Elway’s truck.

Elway saved his comments on Shanahan for his TV show, which nets him a reported $200,000. Make no mistake, Elway is well compensated, earning $12.7 million over six years in salary and millions more from off-the-field business deals. Yet, he wondered if the price of fame was too high.

Why did he avoid the media?

“I wanted to be a quarterback here, but it came down to if they painted the building, the media wanted to know what I thought about it,” Elway said. “I was avoiding questions instead of saying no. I just didn’t want to answer them. I held a lot of animosity toward (the media) and I didn’t want to give them any time. I had been very open with them.”

Elway opened up to Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated.

“I’m about to suffocate,” Elway told Reilly. “They talk about my hair, they talk about my teeth, they talk about how much I tip, how much I drink, how I’m playing, when I’ll talk to the media. I’m sick of it.”

An example of what Elway meant: After visiting the houses of Denver luminaries on Halloween, the Rocky Mountain News reported that Elway handed out Reese’s Cups and miniature Kit-Kat bars.

Another example: After Elway was seen drinking beer and playing backgammon at a local night spot, it was dutifully reported in a gossip column.

And yet another example: After Elway was late to his own charity foundation’s dinner because he had to have a neighbor help him with his bow tie, an item about this failing made the newspapers.

But all has not been light-hearted.

Amid rumors that Elway has a drinking problem, sportscaster Jim Gray of ESPN confronted him during an interview. Elway denied it. He has never been arrested for driving under the influence or for public intoxication.

“It (the drinking allegation) bothered me because I look at myself as a role model for young kids, and when they say things like that that are totally untrue, there’s going to be people that believe it whether it’s true or not,” Elway said.

“If the (media) don’t think I’m playing well, they’ve got to find a reason, therefore they were following me and checking my background.”

Denver Post columnist Jay Mariotti, then with the Rocky Mountain News, called Elway “a greedy and scared punk” and advised him: “Go ahead John, leave. Get out of Denver, baby. Go. You’ll be crawling back here after a week.”

But more people apparently thought Mariotti should leave than Elway.

Mariotti was doing his radio show at a local restaurant when four police officers appeared and surrounded him. When Mariotti asked why they were there, the officers told him that two death threats had been phoned in against him. This, of course, is the town where talk-show host Alan Berg was shot to death.

Told that Mariotti’s life had been threatened, Elway said with a laugh: “He deserves it. No, that’s off the record. He called me a greedy young punk. The guy’s never around here. He’s one of these guys that like to take potshots. I don’t worry too much about Jay Mariotti.”

Mariotti said: “My contention in my column was that he’s smothering himself. He does so much on the side that the media isn’t smothering him, he’s smothering himself with his profit-making ventures.

“It turned into a big furor in town. It almost became me vs. Elway in this, and I didn’t want it to be that way. I was just so infuriated with what he was doing.

“I became infuriated with a smear job on the media because, all in all, if you compare it to Philadelphia and New York, we’ve pretty much laid off him. We don’t smother him.”

But Bronco fans sided overwhelmingly with Elway. Of 363 telephone calls the Broncos received, 350 supported Elway. Several callers said they planned to cancel their newspaper subscriptions in support of Elway. Even Denver Mayor Federico Pena called Elway to offer support.

Since making his comments to Sports Illustrated, Elway said he feels as if a burden had been removed. Now, at peace with himself since declaring a truce with the media, Elway has begun to play like the quarterback who led the Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl seasons in 1986 and ’87.

“He got what was bothering him off his chest,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said. “He has always done a good job handling the press. He has always been available and talked to them in good times and bad times.”

These are good times for the Broncos, who have already clinched the AFC West championship with a 10-2 record going into Sunday’s game against the Raiders at the Coliseum.

Yet, Elway has been sub-par, passing for 2,268 yards and 14 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He is ninth in the AFC with a 73.3 quarterback ranking. There are signs, however, that he is about to break out of his slump.

After missing the Broncos’ 14-10 victory over the Redskins in Washington because of a stomach virus, Elway returned last Sunday to pass for 217 yards and four touchdowns in the first half of Denver’s 41-14 win over Seattle. He sat out the second half.

The emergence of Elway happens to coincide with the return of Shanahan, who coached him before leaving to become coach of the Raiders.

How much has this helped Elway?

“I think that’s kind of hard to say,” Shanahan said. “What I have been able to do is spend a little more time with John than Dan (Reeves) did.”

Elway said Shanahan is determined to beat the Raiders and has been all business in meetings.

“He’s said more in 45 minutes than he usually says in three hours this week in meetings,” Elway said of Shanahan. “There’s definitely a little animosity there as far as Mike is concerned. He told me Monday that 38 points in the first half would not be enough.”