Name: John Elway's biggest challenge: The business world
Uploaded: 2015-01-21
Duration: 5 min 11 s
Description: How the Superbowl champion went from star quarterback to a star in the boardroom.

[ MUSIC ] John Elway had special talent. I mean, he could move around, he had an incredible arm but it was really his competitiveness. It didn't matter where the game was. He still though the could win and he would do anything he could to win. Elway was always known as a star quarterback, but in Denver, there became this stigma that he couldn't actually seal the deal. I mean, to go to three Superbowls in a row and never quite be able to win was devastating for him. And he started to think that he was never gonna earn the full respect of the players and alums who had steered a team to the Superbowl win. You expected him to have a lot of success and he did in the playoffs. You know division titles etc. But it was always that thing. that one big glaring omission in regards to the Super Bowl. He just couldn't win it. For years John Elway came up short in the big game, but it wasn't Elway's fault necessarily. It was the team around him. You know they were always missing something. So, in 1997, ironically in his late 30s, Elway finally gets the supporting cast he needs. Mike Shanahan came to Denver. You know, they sorta changed the way the team ran. They focused on the running game, got some more help for Elway, had a defense. And you know, that, that's what they were missing from all those years. And he goes back to the Superbowl for the fourth time and finally wins. Next year in 1998 he does it again. When you think of the great quarterbacks throughout NFL history, not many of them get back into the game, either in front officer coaching. A lot of them just sort of get into TV or take it easy. John Elway is an exception. Elway had had early success already with a chain of car dealerships. They sold in 1997 for cash and stock worth almost 83 million dollars. But after he retires he faces a number of obstacles in various business ventures that he tries. There's MVP with Gretzky and Jordan which totally bombed. I think he had a train of upscale laundromats nd i am still trying to figure what those are, that he partnered with Mike Shanahan, those bombed out. But hey man you're not going to hot a home run every time. You are not going to throw a touch down every time. Elway just keeps plugging away. John's father Jack was a football scout, loved football as much as John did, and they discussed getting to the arena football league. After Jack passed away, I think John realized it was time to make this happen and he got involved with the Colorado Crush. Interestingly John's first big challenge as a businessman and a manager came right after Jack passed away. After the first season with the Colorado Crush which was very unsuccessful. John had to systematically fire the whole coaching staff and many of them were people who. Who are family friends and whom Jack had put in place. He ended up bringing them a championship. No one talks about that these days, but, I mean, he won it all. The guy goes anywhere and he's a winner. I don't think there's any doubt that John Elway used his time in the arena football league as kind of the minor league for his eventual NFL career. Career. In 2011 he became GM of the Denver Broncos. So Elway gets to Denver and don't have a great team necessarily but in Denver they expect the man to walk to on water so they expected the Broncos to be very good immediately. One of the thorniest issues that plagues Elway's time as GM in the first couple years is that he inherits a quarterback named Tim Tebow. Tebow is helping them win games, and every big play that Tebow makes they're cutting up to John Elway in the suite. And he's gritting his teeth, he's kinda clapping, he's oh, my God, how am I gonna get out of this? But you knew that was never gonna last. There's no way that John Elway, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, is gonna have his team quarterbacked by a guy who can't play quarterback. That was never gonna happen. When Colts quarterback Peyton Manning's contract was up and there was talk of him potentially leaving Indianapolis. Was John Elway who proved pivotal in bringing him to Denver. I don't think there's any question that without John Elway, the Denver Broncos do not land Peyton Manning, I mean there are a handful of guys who can talk to Peyton Manning on his level, and John Elway was one of 'em. To measure Elway's success with bringing Manning over, look no further than Peyton's very first season with the Broncos. They won the AFC Championship. Championship and went to the Super Bowl. He's made the Broncos contenders almost instantaneously. Obviously a lot of that is about Peyton Manning. But they get to a Super Bowl and they get shellacked. And their defense comes up wanting. He immediately addresses the problems. [ INAUDIBLE ], [ UNKNOWN ], DJ Ward and Demarcus Ware on defense, letting Eric Decker go, too expensive, [ INAUDIBLE ] a receiver. Every move that Elway made this off season looks to be working out. With John Elway successful as a front office executive. Because A, he relishes the role. And B, he puts in the hours. He's there for the grind. Guy's like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan is too busy golfing. I mean Dan Marino lasted three weeks in Miami as a front- office guy, and then he we was like, wait a second. This is actual work. John Elway actually wants to do that work [ MUSIC ] Regardless of what happens in the next few years with the Broncos in terms of Super Bowl victories, or like thereof. John Elway has proven that he is as good a GM as he was a quarterback. And in the next few years, there will be people who remember him as a great leader of the Denver Broncos. Not just as a great quarterback.

How the Superbowl champion went from star quarterback to a star in the boardroom.