Elway pre draft 1983: If I could choose it would be the Raiders...

[Muddled]

Things we don't want to know, but hey, gotta face up, and that dumb thread I originally posted this in thankfully had no decent visitors apparently

SI has that vault thingy where they make old articles available, this one was interesting, Elway pre-draft 1983, discussing whether to choose baseball or football and where he'd like to play, pretty fun in retrospect

Elway would like that. He breaks into a smile at the thought of playing in the same backfield with Marcus Allen. "If I could choose, it would be the Raiders or Seattle," he says

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.c....htm?eref=sibn

[Inkana7]

They were just coming off of a Super Bowl win. Why not?

[Northman]

Would of, Could of, Didnt. And thats all that matters. If Al saw that comment and didnt make a play for John i guess John went on to show him what its all about. Thanks again Big Al!

[ward63]

Also played high school football in Cali

[baja]

and collage

[27atwater]

Yeah...given wher he was playing at the time, no biggie that he woulda liked to stay on the coast. He obviously had no issue w/ being in Denver and it turned out well for all parties involved...well, except for Oakland.

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Would of, Could of, Didnt. And thats all that matters. If Al saw that comment and didnt make a play for John i guess John went on to show him what its all about. Thanks again Big Al!

Al made a HUGE play for John... it was much bigger than Denvers play, but the commish, thank goodness, hated the eternally b****ing Al Davis and shot it down out of spite.

[Bronx33]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

Al made a HUGE play for John... it was much bigger than Denvers play, but the commish, thank goodness, hated the eternally b****ing Al Davis and shot it down out of spite.

And from that day on crazy alice and his franchise has been screwing the pooch.

[Kaylore]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

Al made a HUGE play for John... it was much bigger than Denvers play, but the commish, thank goodness, hated the eternally b****ing Al Davis and shot it down out of spite.

Al Davis had a plan to trade for the Duke but chickened out at the last minute. He later blamed the whole thing on conspiracy theories to stop him from Pete Rozelle who had become a boogeyman to Davis at that point.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

Al made a HUGE play for John... it was much bigger than Denvers play, but the commish, thank goodness, hated the eternally b****ing Al Davis and shot it down out of spite.

Link?

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Bronco_Beerslug

Link?

It's a fairly common story. Stuff of legends.

[Jason in LA]

Originally Posted by ward63

Also played high school football in Cali

He played in LA (Granada Hills to be exact, which is in LA). If he were drafted by the Raiders he'd be going back home.

[DB_champ24]

Originally Posted by Jason in LA

He played in LA (Granada Hills to be exact, which is in LA). If he were drafted by the Raiders he'd be going back home.

Ya my dad went to Highschool with him...John was I think 2-3 yrs above him though, said he was a big jerk

[Hulamau]

He's forgiven

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Originally Posted by listopencil

It's a fairly common story. Stuff of legends.

I heard a lot of stories but have never seen any numbers. I thought he might actually have some evidence or facts instead of rumors. I'm sure Davis would have sued the NFL if they were true.

[gunns]

HISTORY repeated itself for Ernie Accorsi, but in reverse.

Accorsi was the general manager who was sabotaged by his owner, Bob Irsay, when John Elway refused to join the Baltimore Colts after being the No. 1 choice in the 1983 N.F.L. draft. Elway was traded to the Denver Broncos soon after.

Yesterday, Accorsi -- now the Giants' general manager -- put together the trade for Eli Manning, the Ole Miss quarterback who had been drafted No. 1 over all by the San Diego Chargers but who didn't want to play for them.

''It's amazing,'' Accorsi said in the days before the draft, ''how this same situation developed 21 years later.''

It's even more amazing that Accorsi was in the middle both times: the apparent winner yesterday, the loser two decades ago.

Elway's poker game also changed the history of two franchises, the Colts and the Broncos.

Now the history of the Giants and the Chargers could turn on a deal in which the Giants traded quarterback Philip Rivers, whom they took with the fourth overall choice, and their third-round choice in this draft along with their first-round and fifth-round choices next year.

Elway, an all-American quarterback at Stanford who was the obvious No. 1 selection, warned the Colts that he would not report if chosen. He said he wanted to play for a team in the West, preferably the Raiders (who were in Los Angeles at the time) or the Seattle Seahawks.

Elway also threatened to return to the Yankees' organization as an outfielder; he had batted .318 for their farm team in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1982.

''To me,'' recalled Accorsi, who was then awaiting his second season as the Colts' general manager, ''if Baltimore was good enough for John Unitas, it was good enough for John Elway.''

But as the Colts' front office debated what to do, Irsay objected to the multimillion-dollar contract Accorsi planned to offer Elway.

''I had no support,'' Accorsi said. ''When Bob asked me how much Elway would cost, I told him $5 million for five years, a record amount for a rookie quarterback then. Bob didn't want to spend that kind of money, so I agreed to try to trade the choice, but I had to get the record return that I wanted: three first-round choices, with at least two of them that year, and two second-round choices.''

At the time, the only pro football trade involving three first-round choices had been the New England Patriots' swap of quarterback Jim Plunkett to the San Francisco 49ers for two first-round choices in 1976 as well as a first-round and second-round choice in 1977, and quarterback Tom Owen.

''The Raiders and the Chargers were interested,'' Accorsi said. ''When the Raiders were trying to get another first-rounder from the Bears, the Chargers already had two first-round choices, but they told me they didn't want to give up both. I told them, 'You better give them up or -- being in the same division as the Raiders -- you might have to play against Elway for the rest of your life.' ''

But the Raiders never acquired a second first-round choice, and the Chargers didn't budge.

''I wasn't worried about Elway going to baseball,'' Accorsi said. ''I had a baseball contact who told me Elway was not a major league prospect. But the morning of the draft, about an hour before it was to begin, the Patriots called Bob Irsay with a straight-up trade -- guard John Hannah for Elway.''

Hannah, a perennial All-Pro, would be a Hall of Famer, but his career would end in 1985.

''I said no to that trade,'' Accorsi recalled, ''but Bob said, 'I'll do it.' That's when I told him: 'If you do, you'll need to call two press conferences. One, to announce the trade. Two, to announce my resignation.' ''

Irsay backed off. About an hour later, Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced that Baltimore had selected Elway. ''That,'' Accorsi said, ''is when I heard Irsay's lawyer, Michael Chernoff, tell him, 'We've got to get rid of Elway.' ''

Less than a week later, Accorsi was at home watching the N.B.A. playoffs on television when he heard breaking news: the Colts had traded Elway's draft rights to the Broncos for guard Chris Hinton -- who had been Denver's first-round choice in that draft -- along with quarterback Mark Herrmann and a 1984 first-round choice who turned out to be guard Ron Holt.

Cont'd http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...=&pagewanted=2

[Kaylore]

But the Raiders never acquired a second first-round choice, and the Chargers didn't budge.

There you go. Al Davis can spin all the conspiracy theories he wants to about Pete Rozelle, but the bottom line is he chickened out and it cost him big time. Thank goodness the Colts were owned by a moron.