ELWAY’S FAREWELL?

His 16-year journey got off to a bad start when he was labeled a spoiled brat for refusing to play for the team that drafted him.

The spurned team owner proclaimed, “John Elway will never be any good.”

Robert Irsay of the Colts got it all wrong, of course.

Elway went on to become one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

He will leave the game--possibly today after the AFC championship--with a decidedly different reputation than the one Irsay imagined.

Elway is respected, even revered. He is treated in his adopted home of Denver as if he were a demigod.

“John Elway is Denver’s Moses,” said Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe. “He has led Denver out of obscurity and into the land of milk and money.”

In June, after four months of pondering his future, Elway said he intended to play just one more season. But since then there has been no talk of retirement or going-away presents or goodbye tours, which is just the way Elway wants it.

On the day Michael Jordan retired, Elway was asked what it’s like to go out on top.

“No matter when he went out,” Elway said, “he was going out on top.”

The same could be said for the 38-year-old blond gunslinger with the John Wayne walk and the knack for late-game heroics.

A season after finally winning his Super Bowl ring, Elway has his Broncos back in the AFC title game, this time against the upstart New York Jets. He’s within one victory of his fifth Super Bowl appearance, and another championship would be a fitting end to his Jordanesque career.

But the game today could be his last, and most likely will be his farewell to Mile High Stadium.

“I’m not even thinking about that,” he said. “I don’t want to take the focus off what we’re doing, and that’s to win the football game. I’m not even letting that enter my mind, what I’m doing next year. This is what I came back for. So I’m going to enjoy it now and then cross that bridge when the season is over.

“The game is more important than that right now to me. I’ll get plenty of time to make that decision in the offseason.”

If Elway has already made a firm decision, he hasn’t told his teammates.

“I haven’t heard him discuss it,” running back Terrell Davis said. “If it is his last season, I don’t think we’re going to find out about it until after the season.”

By then, everyone will probably be reminiscing about Elway’s extraordinary career.

His 148 victories as a starter are the most in NFL history, and he and Dan Marino are the only quarterbacks who have thrown for more than 50,000 yards.

Many of those passes came at Mile High, of course, where Elway has created countless magic moments.

One of his favorite comebacks was the desperation drive that included two successful fourth-down plays in the closing minutes of a 26-24 divisional playoff win over Houston in January 1992. Another was the 20-19 victory over Kansas City the following season when he threw two touchdown passes in the final two minutes.

Elway also fondly recalls that in his rookie season in 1983 he threw three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter in a 21-16 victory over Baltimore, the team he rejected after it selected him with the No. 1 overall draft pick.

In fact, Elway and Mile High victories have become almost synonymous. Including postseason, his career record as a starter at home is an amazing 102-25 (.803).

Ask his teammates about their favorite Elway moments, and they quickly come to mind.

“Definitely that fourth-and-6 pass against Houston here, when he avoids a sack and throws that great pass to Vance Johnson,” said safety Tyrone Braxton, who has played with Elway for 11 seasons. “I was on the sideline thinking how unbelievable a play that was. I was like, ‘Wow.”’

Center Tom Nalen said he will always remember last season’s “helicopter play in the Super Bowl, when Elway sacrificed his body and flipped around to get that crucial first down.”

Fans will always remember The Drive, when Elway led the Broncos 98 yards to tie the Cleveland Browns with 39 seconds in the AFC title game in January 1987. Denver went on to win 23-20 in overtime.

Through it all, Elway gained admiration from foes, too.

“He may, in fact, ultimately be the greatest to have ever played this game at that position,” said Marty Schottenheimer, who was tormented by Elway as coach at Cleveland and Kansas City.

“And I steadfastly believe that it doesn’t have anything to do with his arm strength or with the people around him. The guy is the greatest competitor I have ever witnessed in sport. That, to me, is the quality I will always remember about John Elway.

“If he chooses to retire, he is going to be greatly missed by all of us.”