Elway, Sanders Receive Hall Passes

John Elway’s Super Bowl record was 0-3 when he finally won one. Then he led the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl championships and retired, prematurely, some said.

But there was an Elway postscript here Saturday when the former Stanford quarterback was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with three others -- Barry Sanders, Carl Eller and former Los Angeles Ram Bob Brown.

“That first Super Bowl win legitimized my career,” Elway said. “You keep hearing you can’t win the big one.”

Elway and Sanders were elected in their first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, five years after leaving football. And Sanders’ first thought Saturday was for the people who made his career possible.

The former Detroit Lion, who during his 10 NFL seasons was one of the most difficult running backs to bring down, said: “I was lucky to have two good parents who would do anything for their 11 children.”

If Hall of Fame recognition came effortlessly to Elway and Sanders, the story was decidedly different for former defensive end Eller, who played 15 seasons for the Minnesota Vikings and one for the Seattle Seahawks. Rejected annually by the selection committee for 20 years, Eller said: “This is a great moment for me. Waiting so long, you develop patience and humility.”

Brown, who played the 1969 and ’70 seasons in Los Angeles as a Ram in the midst of a 10-year NFL career, had been passed over by the election committee even longer, 26 years. “It’s worth waiting for,” he said. “This is the most exciting thing that ever happened to me.”

For Saturday’s other Hall of Fame finalists, it never happened at all. The two who came closest, reaching the round of six players before their ultimate rejection, were two former Dallas Cowboys, tackle Rayfield Wright and late receiver Bob Hayes.

Of the finalists, four couldn’t survive the first cut: Raider cornerback Lester Hayes, Washington wide receiver Art Monk, Denver tackle Gary Zimmerman and late New York Giant General Manager George Young.

Lasting into the round of 10 but not thereafter were Dallas safety Cliff Harris, Miami guard Bob Kuechenberg, Giant linebacker Harry Carson and Chicago defensive end Richard Dent.

On the voting panel were all 39 members of the selection committee, most of them veteran sportswriters. For election, 80% aye votes were required.

The four winners will be enshrined Aug. 8 at Hall of Fame headquarters in Canton, Ohio.

Elway, Sanders and Eller appeared personally after their election at the Convention Center, where Elway said: “My father [Jack] is the reason I’m standing here.”

In recent years, Jack Elway, a former college coach in California, had worked for the Broncos. He died in 2001.

His son John said he’d been a Bronco quarterback for 14 years, with no Super Bowl rings , when his father advised him to keep hanging in there.

“And the thing I’m most proud of is that I hung in long enough to win [the Super Bowl],” Elway said. “It happened when they hired Mike Shanahan [as coach]. He came in and did it.”

After the hard-driving quarterback led the Broncos to the 1998 and ’99 titles, his teammates and coaches, along with most Denver fans, rooted for him to come back and make it three in a row.

“Mentally I wanted to do it,” he said. “Mentally I’ll still want to play at 65. But I knew physically I couldn’t play anymore.”

Twenty-one years ago as a rookie prospect from Stanford, Elway became the first player to tell the coaches who drafted him that he wouldn’t play for them, ostensibly because the team wasn’t good enough for him. At the time, the Baltimore Colts, who earned the right to pick him by losing so often during the regular season, were on a downswing.

So Elway was traded to Denver, setting a disturbing precedent, most NFL club owners said.

Elway didn’t and doesn’t worry about precedents. “I’d played a year of minor league baseball,” he said, adding, “I used that as leverage.”

In other words, he threatened to play baseball if he had to join a losing football club.

“I wanted to put myself in the best situation to win,” he said, meaning football games, not baseball games.

Then the Broncos began losing in the Super Bowl. “The first time [in 1987 against the Giants] we were in it for a half,” said Elway, who now runs the Arena Football League team in Denver. “Then Phil Simms took over.

“The second time [in 1988 against Washington] we were in it for a quarter. Then Doug Williams threw four touchdowns. The third time [in 1990 against San Francisco] we weren’t in it at all.” (Final score, 49ers 55, Broncos 10.)

The fourth and fifth times, for Elway, were the charms.

Sanders, who never reached the Super Bowl when he was a Pro Bowl regular at Detroit, said: “Yes, I feel like I missed out. But I did all in my power to get there. You need help to get to the Super Bowl, no matter how good you are.”

Like Elway, Sanders retired on a day of his own choosing. Unhappily for Detroit, he retired in his prime, long before he needed to.

“I miss the game,” Sanders said. “You always miss it. There’s nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning anticipating a football game. You miss the smell of the pads, putting on the cleats, the butterflies. Most [old pros] feel that.”

Asked to name his favorite running backs today, Sanders, who said he watched football “every Sunday”, named Jamal Lewis, then LaDainian Tomlinson, then Priest Holmes, “and,” he said, “Michael Vick would make a good running back.”

Sanders and Eller thanked the members of the board of selectors for putting them in the Hall of Fame, violating convention, which is to thank family, friends, coaches and teammates. Eller said he didn’t regret retiring before Minnesota could win a Super Bowl.

“I’ve been there four times,” he said, mentioning the Vikings’ 0-4 Super Bowl record. “That was the highlight of my career.”

Eller was the Viking who, in the view of old Rams, did the most to keep the Rams out of the Super Bowl. In that era, the Ram-Viking winner often progressed in the playoffs and the loser went home.

Answering a question about teammate Alan Page, the first of the Vikings’ front four to make the Hall of Fame, Eller, never burdened by false modesty, said: “He was a great player, but I was as valuable as Alan. I think I contributed as much.”

Eller made a similar comment about Bob Brown, one of his most publicized opponents in the old days and now a fellow member of the Hall of Fame.

“Bob was probably my fiercest competitor,” Eller said. “His intent was always to do bodily harm. But I always felt I did a good job against Bob.”

Said Brown, before hearing Eller’s critique, “You usually had a headache after you played Carl.”

Asked to describe his own style, Brown said, “As either pass blocker or run blocker, I was a sledgehammer.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

FOUR FOR CANTON

2004 inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

JOHN ELWAY

Quarterback, 6-3, 215

NFL career: 1983-1998 Denver Broncos.

* Selected by Baltimore Colts in first round (first player overall) of 1983 draft. Was immediately traded to Broncos for two veteran players and 1984 first-round pick.... Played 16 seasons, 234 games.... From 1983 through 1998, led his team to five victories in six AFC championship games and two Super Bowl wins.... His record 47 fourth-quarter game-winning or game-tying drives are legendary.... In 1986 AFC title game, he engineered a 98-yard touchdown drive to tie the Cleveland Browns and send the game into overtime, and the Broncos went on to win, 23-20.... Only player in NFL history to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 200 yards in same season seven consecutive times.... Only second quarterback in NFL history to record 40,000-plus yards passing and 3,000-plus yards rushing during career.... Ranks second all-time in three of the game’s most significant passing categories, passing yards (51,475), attempts (7,250), completions (4,123).... Selected to nine Pro Bowls, a first- or second-team All-Pro three times, first- or second-team All-AFC five times.... The NFL MVP in 1987, the 1993 AFC offensive player of the year and the 1999 Super Bowl MVP.

BARRY SANDERS

Running Back, 5-8, 203

NFL career: 1989-1998 Detroit Lions.

* Selected by Lions in first round (third player overall) of 1989 draft.... Played 10 seasons, 153 games.... Rushed for 1,000-plus yards in each of 10 seasons, first to do so.... In 1997, became third person to gain 2,000 yards in a season.... Rushed for 1,470 yards during rookie season, only 10 yards short of the league’s best for the year.... Led all rushers in 1990 (1,304), 1994 (1,883), 1996 (1,553), and 1997 (2,053).... In 1997, gained 100-plus yards rushing in record 14 consecutive regular-season games.... Named league MVP in 1997.... Capitalizing on his size by running low to ground, Sanders was elusive, with an uncanny ability to reverse direction.... First- or second-team All-Pro 10 consecutive seasons.... First running back to record five 1,500-yard rushing seasons, and only one to do so in four consecutive seasons (1994 to ‘97).... Selected to the Pro Bowl 10 times.... Had 15,269 yards rushing and was within reach of the all-time record when he suddenly retired.

CARL ELLER

Defensive End, 6-6, 247

NFL career: 1964-1978 Minnesota Vikings, 1979 Seattle Seahawks.

* Drafted by Minnesota Vikings (NFL) and Buffalo Bills (AFL), both in the first round.... Played 16 seasons, 225 games.... Became a regular as a rookie and held the job for 15 seasons.... During Eller’s tenure, Vikings won 10 NFC Central Division crowns, 1969 NFL title, NFC championships in 1973, 1974, 1976, advanced to four Super Bowls and lost them all.... A major factor in the ferocious defensive unit known as “Purple People Eaters,” Eller was excellent on rushing defense and a superb pass rusher.... Recovered 23 fumbles by opponents, third-best in history at time of his retirement. Eller forced fumble that led to teammate Jim Marshall’s famous wrong-way run in 1964.... All-Pro, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973.... All-NFC five times.... Selected to six Pro Bowls.

BOB BROWN

Offensive Tackle, 6-4, 280

NFL career: 1964-1968 Philadelphia Eagles, 1969-1970 Los Angeles Rams, 1971-1973 Oakland Raiders.

* Eagles’ first-round pick (second player overall) of 1964 NFL draft, also Denver Broncos’ first-round pick (first player overall) of 1964 AFL draft.... Played 10 seasons, 126 games.... An aggressive blocker, he used his size and strength to neutralize pass rushers.... Possessed great quickness, strength and self-confidence.... He was traded to Los Angeles in 1969, after four all-league seasons with Eagles, and that year the Ram offensive line set an NFL record for protecting the passer.... Named All-NFL seven of 10 seasons (1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972) and second-team All-NFL twice (1964, 1967).... Named NFL/NFC offensive lineman of the year three times.... Selected to six Pro Bowls -- three with Eagles, two with Rams and one with Raiders.