Win Gives Elway That Mile-High Feeling

Such sweet sorrow, indeed.

Parting with his fans for probably the final time, heading to the Super Bowl for a fifth, John Elway bade farewell Sunday to a stadium that shook with glee and ached with sadness.

There were cheers, sighs, chants, groans.

There was a frightful start, a breathtaking middle, a perfect ending.

Finally, there was the swaggering quarterback himself, leaning over to hug his wife from the postgame awards podium.

Softly crying.

“It was surreal,” said Janet Elway. “I just wanted to embrace the moment.”

Her husband then turned to those 70,000 or so bundled-up folks who had not moved in the 15 minutes since his Denver Broncos had defeated the New York Jets, 23-10, in the AFC championship game.

These people have heard John Elway say many things in his 16 seasons as this town’s sports hero and civic landmark.

But they have never heard him say this.

“I love you!” he shouted, biting his lip, sticking his sore left arm into the air.

The gravelly voice shot through Mile High Stadium like that 47-yard, game-changing line drive he had thrown to Ed McCaffrey.

For probably the last time after a game, his people loved him back.

“El-way, El-way, El-way.”

Above, a fine coat of ticker tape twinkled through the cold air like little stars.

“A fairy-tale ending,” Janet said. “I thought last year was the fairy-tale ending. . . . but here we go again.”

Yet this is about a deeper, brighter pot of gold.

When he finally won his first Super Bowl lastyear, many thought it was destiny.

If he can win it again this year, it’s Elway.

After last year’s Super Bowl, many thought he should retire. He was 37, he was battered, he was insane to mess with a splendid sunset.

He thought about it, then disagreed. He said that he was simply having too much fun to quit.

He decided to return for what he said was “one more year,” despite the risk that he would turn a Michael Jordan farewell into one more reminiscent of Willie Mays.

Around mid-afternoon here Sunday, that risk became a reality.

In what he would not deny was his last home game, he completed only four of his first 18 passes.

In the third quarter of his going-away party, it was the Broncos who were getting run out of town, losing, 10-0, to the Jets.

“It was so ugly,” said Elway. “There was talk about a lot of things other than the football game this week, and I think we started slow because of it.”

Janet, watching with her family from Box 240, was slowly wringing her hands.

“I was so worried,” she said. “I told friends the other night, I was just praying that John didn’t have a bad game.

“It just wouldn’t be right if he went out with a loss.”

Then it happened, just the thing to steer the greatest comeback quarterback in football history toward another comeback.

More disaster.

On the Broncos’ first play after Curtis Martin had scored on a one-yard run to give the Jets a 10-0 lead, Elway’s receivers ran to the wrong spots.

Rod Smith ran to wide right. McCaffrey ran to wide left.

“We have some bright guys, but they just went to the wrong side,” Elway said.

Standing on his 36-yard line, the quarterback took a deep breath, backed away from center, and did the only reasonable thing.

He screamed.

He hollered to the receivers that he was changing the play. Instead of Smith going deep, McCaffrey would go deep.

“John called me in and yelled, ‘Post,’ ” McCaffrey said. “I think their linemen may have even heard him.”

Considering the route he ran, and the pass Elway threw, it didn’t matter.

McCaffrey sprinted past two confused Jet defensive backs, caught a bullet from Elway that moved the ball to the 17-yard line.

Two plays later, Elway connected with Howard Griffith across the middle for an 11-yard touchdown. Even though the Broncos still trailed, 10-7, everything had changed.

“We could not send John Elway out a loser,” Shannon Sharpe said.

Nor, it appeared, would Elway allow it.

He completed nine of his final 16 passes. His Broncos, after taking the lead with two quick Jason Elam field goals, turned the rest of the game into the celebration it should have been from the start.

They dominated such that, shoot, Elway barely had time to go to the bathroom. He sprinted into the locker room midway through the fourth quarter, but Darrien Gordon immediately picked off a pass from Vinny Testaverde.

Elway was a few noticeable moments late sprinting back to the field, lacing up his pants as he went.

“What can I say?” Elway said with a smile.

He also showed his delightfully human side on the final Bronco possession when, despite holding a 13-point lead with 1:15 remaining, he threw a pass to McCaffrey in the end zone.

Unfortunately for Bronco history, McCaffrey had the ball bounce off his hands.

But what the heck. In his final play in his final game at home, it was worth a shot.

“I would have loved to have caught that ball,” McCaffrey said.

The rest of the early evening was dominated by dizzying flashbulbs popping in the stands and steady chants of “El-way, El-way” and “One more year, one more year.”

Oh, and one more incompletion.

As the clock ticked to all zeros, Elway ran toward the north end zone and waved up to his family in Box 240.

His family wasn’t there, having already left for the field.

“At least he waved this time,” said Janet. “Last year, he forgot.”

Also this year, after a postgame awards ceremony during which his wife cried after he stopped, Elway finally took a victory lap.

It was Coach Mike Shanahan’s idea. Elway said he was too self-conscious to think of it on his own.

But he acted like an old pro, smiling and waving and blowing kisses to people he had only seen from afar.

“It was great to be able to look them in the eye, get a little closer to them, to finally focus on the fans,” he said.

Those same fans responded with outstretched arms, something they have been doing for years, hugging him without touching him.

“John is one of the few elite athletes in any sport who has done this much for the welfare of an entire community.” McCaffrey said.

“You’ve given me something to think about,” Elway said, and roared into the night.

And to think, he ran that lap while lugging the heavy AFC Championship trophy, the ponderous symbol of excellence.

“Do you know how heavy that thing is?” Elway said.

No idea. But he carried it Sunday as he has carried on for years, strongly, unflinchingly, a hearty goodbye wave if there ever was one.