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Elway almost came to Washington???


Zen-like Todd

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I was somewhat young at the time, but I don't remember this at all.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E86%257E1924224,00.html

This became the trademark of Elway's career, relishing the chance at a comeback. But his chance to do it in Denver nearly was snubbed out before the 1991 season.

While sitting at a blackjack table in Lake Tahoe, Calif., Redskins running back Ernest Byner informed Elway, "We thought we had you."

"And I'm like, 'What?"' Elway recalled.

"You didn't hear about it?" Byner said.

"Hear about what?" Elway asked.

"It was a done deal," Byner answered. "You were coming to Washington."

At the last moment, trade talks collapsed. Elway never went to Washington. He remained in Denver, where he piled up Hall-of- Fame numbers to rank second all time in three of the game's most significant passing categories - 51,475 passing yards, 7,250 attempts and 4,123 completions.

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Could you imagine how pissed off the people in Baltimore would have been, knowing that Elway didn't wanna come to play for the Colts, which in part lead to them leaving the city, and then have to watch him come back to DC to play for the Redskins and possible win a Super Bowl for them as well

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Originally posted by Zen-like Todd

This became the trademark of Elway's career, relishing the chance at a comeback. But his chance to do it in Denver nearly was snubbed out before the 1991 season.

While sitting at a blackjack table in Lake Tahoe, Calif., Redskins running back Ernest Byner informed Elway, "We thought we had you."

"And I'm like, 'What?"' Elway recalled.

"You didn't hear about it?" Byner said.

"Hear about what?" Elway asked.

"It was a done deal," Byner answered. "You were coming to Washington."

At the last moment, trade talks collapsed. Elway never went to Washington. He remained in Denver, where he piled up Hall-of- Fame numbers to rank second all time in three of the game's most significant passing categories - 51,475 passing yards, 7,250 attempts and 4,123 completions.

I suspect that this never happened, Byner was probably pulling Elway's leg. In 1983 Elway had refused to play for the Baltimore Colts because they were on the east coast. The Colts drafted him with the number 1 pick in the 1983 draft, and he refused to play for them, saying that he would play baseball if he couldn't play for a western team closer to his home in California. So the colts traded him to denver rather than have the number one pick wasted on a guy who would never play for them.

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That was in 1983, by 1991 baseball wouldn't have been an option and after so many near misses with Denver I would not have been surprised if he felt a move to a "powerhouse" franchise could give him his Super Bowl dream.

Hew got it in the end, but he must have thought around about 1991 it was never going to be!!

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I was always amazed that Elway refused to play for the Colts. If you get drafted into the NFL you play where you are drafted. Not many people get the chance. 99% of the population would love to play pro football and they wouldn't give a damn where it was.

I guess it worked out for him, but I would still hold a grudge if I were a Colts fan.

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Originally posted by OrangeSkin

I was always amazed that Elway refused to play for the Colts. If you get drafted into the NFL you play where you are drafted. Not many people get the chance. 99% of the population would love to play pro football and they wouldn't give a damn where it was.

I guess it worked out for him, but I would still hold a grudge if I were a Colts fan.

In his HOF press conference today, Elway said that his refusal to go to Baltimore wasn't because he didn't want to play on the east coast, but rather that he didn't want to play for a losing team. Baltimore was the worst team in the league that year, that's why they had the #1 pick.

That defeats the league's policy that the worst teams get the first picks. I think that if he had said then what he said today, the league would have been all over him. The top picks every year probably feel the same way. I lost a lot of respect for him when he refused to play for the Colts in 1983, and what he said today made him even more of a turkey in my eyes. I'm sorry he made the HOF.

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Certainly, the Redskins of the mid-nineties lacked a lot more than just a QB. The team had fundamental problems EVERYWHERE, save corner (or at least Green's Corner), and at RB (save in '98 when Allen was finally done and we had no decent replacement that we knew of). The OL was pretty bad, the DL stunk, the LB's weren't all that great, the WR's stunk, Elway could have perhaps made maybe '92 and '93 a bit different but other than that I don't see much different. Other than Elways perhaps saving Petitbone's job in '93 which would have prevented us from developing the virulent plague known as Norvitus.

What were we trading for him?

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Originally posted by OrangeSkin

I was always amazed that Elway refused to play for the Colts. If you get drafted into the NFL you play where you are drafted. Not many people get the chance. 99% of the population would love to play pro football and they wouldn't give a damn where it was.

I guess it worked out for him, but I would still hold a grudge if I were a Colts fan.

Agreed you play for the team that drafts you period. Or you don't play.

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Originally posted by Zen-like Todd

I was somewhat young at the time, but I don't remember this at all.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E86%257E1924224,00.html

The article says that Denver played in more Superbowls than any besides Dallas. I thought Denver played in 5 Superbowls. Elway played in 4 of them.

The Raiders have played in 5 Superbowls also.

Can anyone confirm this.

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I don't think he retired because he smelled some rot in the foundation, from everything I've read, it seems to be that he retired so he could spend more time w/his family, watch his son at Stanford play, and stop working 18-20 hour days.

However the potential ramifications of the Elway trade could have been astounding, imagine a nineties without Norv. How beautiful would that have been? W/petitbone in command and Elway at QB the '93 squad might not have folded as it did.

Still, like my old college roomie used to say, "yeahd, and if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle." It's fun to play the "if" game, but in the end, the trade didn't go down, and we entered Falcons/Saints/Bucs phase of our existence and the nineties then began to feel like someone tossed us all into a freaking septic tan and locked the door to the facility. Now, someone's opened the door, and the smell may be foul, but Gibbs is the one holding the water hose!

How's that for a revolting analogy?;)

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