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What becomes a legend most? (Elway lands Manning)
ESPN.com ^ | 3/20/12 | Rick Reilly

Posted on 03/20/2012 10:10:56 AM PDT by GSWarrior

At a Super Bowl dinner this year, I couldn't help but ask John Elway why he'd never done The Tebow, the one-knee mini-prayer popularized worldwide by his quarterback.

Elway is fairly religious, so he thought about it and then said, "How about this? I'll Tebow when he wins us a championship."

Add that to your list of Things You'll Never See. Right below "Lenny Dykstra, President of the United States."

Tebow is trade meat this morning after Elway used a combination of stones, guile, risk, friendship and legend to land the biggest free-agent whale in NFL history: Peyton Manning.

Manning, of course, has no business picking Denver. Cold-weather town? Green receivers? Thin backfield? Tennessee made much more sense (disregard all previous dispatches).

The reason Manning is about to become a Bronco has everything to do with one man, Elway

(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: broncos; chat; elway; tebow
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To: Defiant

Elway was a solid scrambler in his time. He understands winning with non-classic drop back QBs. What he can’t figure out is how you win with a QB who misses open receivers enough to have a completion percentage of 47. When your QB can’t do timing patterns and can’t be counted on to put the ball on target the whole winning thing gets problematic.

And Harbaugh didn’t turn Smith into a great QB, he turned Smith into a no longer horrible QB. There’s a reason their FG unit set records last season, the Niners couldn’t finish drives.


21 posted on 03/20/2012 11:05:08 AM PDT by discostu (I did it 35 minutes ago)
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To: GSWarrior

Being from Indiana, and a manning fan, I just can’t see why he’s taking the risk of spending the rest of his life drinking his steaks through a straw.

That said, Elway must think Denver is within two years of a Super-Bowl.

The Tebow thing, like or not, has become a HUGE distraction for Denver, too. Don’t forget that the media HATES Christians, and thinks they are stupid and hateful. (It’s a gay thingy).


22 posted on 03/20/2012 11:06:24 AM PDT by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: SoFloFreeper

I hope the pundits are right in that Manning makes the Broncos instant contenders. I remain skeptical.


23 posted on 03/20/2012 11:09:05 AM PDT by GSWarrior (Some people tell me I worry too much.)
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To: MtnClimber
I predict Manning will end his career like Joe Namath did. The Bronco recievers will drop Mannings passes too.

What Bronco receivers? They got rid of their best (Marshall) last year. There's no Clark or Wayne for Peyton here. And no O-line phalanx to protect his fragile neck. And he will play in thin air, at 36, in lots of cold, windy games, after playing 66% of his storied career tossing the pigskin indoors. This could be ugly to behold.

24 posted on 03/20/2012 11:12:34 AM PDT by montag813
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To: fso301

I meant Eric Decker.....is he still on IR?


25 posted on 03/20/2012 11:13:26 AM PDT by GSWarrior (Some people tell me I worry too much.)
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To: GSWarrior

This is so stupid, Manning will go down and out with one more good tackle with his neck getting in the way of the ground. I’ve been saying that if Manning had 400 touchdown passes instead of 399 he wouldn’t have come back. I don’t think he’s really looking long term. Tebow? God help him.


26 posted on 03/20/2012 11:15:34 AM PDT by BlueStateBlues (Blue State business, Red State heart. . . . 2012 for change, this time for the people)
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To: GSWarrior

What is Denver thinking?...

Happy feet and a rubber arm?...

I think Peyton will be a hell of a coach, perhaps that is what Denver is thinking. What did Bill Walsh say...”Peyton interviewed me.”


27 posted on 03/20/2012 11:20:45 AM PDT by montomike (Politics should be about service and not a lucrative, money-making opportunity!)
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To: GSWarrior
This is going to be a make or break moment for Elway. I don't think that there's going to be any shades of gray, here - either it will be an incredible success, or a failure for which his head will roll.

For all of the back-and-forth on FR, Tebow is just a good, not a great, QB. What he does have, though, is that intangible confidence of knowing how to win. That's infectious and can make a good team great. I've read several interviews with the Broncos who said, approximately, that no matter what the score, they always thought they were in the game. He'll do the same thing whereever he winds up.

The big winner here, I think, is John Fox. He *loved* Jake Delhomme - a pocket passer like Manning - when they were in Carolina.

I'd not want to need to draw up a game plan for a QB like Tebow every week. The fact that the Broncos did, and were pretty successful, speaks as much to Fox's coaching as Tebow's playing.

28 posted on 03/20/2012 11:24:57 AM PDT by wbill
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To: GSWarrior

They have already traded their backup QB Brady Quinn so if they trade Tebow they’ll have to get at least one other QB.

As I’ve posted on other threads, I think Manning and Tebow along w/ another running back would make an extremely potent formation. Two passing and two running potentials.
Tough to defend.


29 posted on 03/20/2012 11:25:43 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: Nervous Tick

The ultimate ‘revenge’ would be for the team Tebow lands on to win the Super Bowl and beat Denver in the playoffs on the way.


30 posted on 03/20/2012 11:26:44 AM PDT by Keith in Iowa (Willard Romney, purveyor of the world's finest bullmitt. | FR Class of 1998 |)
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To: American Quilter
and showing evidence of becoming a great quarterback within a few years.

Which is why New England is toying with the idea of acquiring him and converting him to a tight end/fullback/h-back/wildcat QB.

Apparently quite a few of you people didn't watch much of his Jekyll and Hyde performance as a QB in Denver last season.

31 posted on 03/20/2012 11:30:44 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: expat2

Gonna love watching the rest of the AFC West tee off on Manning...


32 posted on 03/20/2012 11:31:02 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: wbill

Fox was a great hire.


33 posted on 03/20/2012 11:33:17 AM PDT by GSWarrior (Some people tell me I worry too much.)
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To: Vinnie
As clarification..

I think Manning and Tebow along w/ another running back in the same backfield would make an extremely potent formation

34 posted on 03/20/2012 11:33:37 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: GSWarrior

Elway & Manning.

The ‘bromance’ of the century?


35 posted on 03/20/2012 11:36:51 AM PDT by WayneS (Comments now include 25% more sarcasm for no additional charge...)
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To: DaveyB
DaveyB,
Like you I was a Bronco fan and a Colorado citizen. And an Elway, the quarterback fan. I quit being a fan of his when he and Shanahan engineered the firing of Dan Reeves. That to me showed not only Elway and Shanahan’s true colors, but Pat Bowlen’s also.
I also think Elway could not stand the comparisons of his character with Tebow’s. Just my opinion, but I think it is valid.
36 posted on 03/20/2012 11:45:35 AM PDT by Tupelo ( 2012 TEA PARTYER but no longer a Republican)
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To: Tupelo
I also think Elway could not stand the comparisons of his character with Tebow’s.

I wrote yesterday on a different thread that it is Janet (John's ex) who might be doing the comparison. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Scorn can deeply effect a man who still longs for the respect of his wife (even an ex wife)and who knows he has deeply hurt her and his children, not to mention disappoint his mother.

When I first heard about the acquisition of Manning I hoped it was to help Tebow, but I suspected it was Elway's way of getting rid of a man who is his better where it hurts.

37 posted on 03/20/2012 11:57:51 AM PDT by DaveyB (Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. -John Adams)
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To: Defiant
Elway exposed himself as someone of limited mental skills by his resistance to Tebow and his undercutting him at every turn.

What the hell are some of you people smoking?

a rocket for an arm.

A 46.5% completion rate for the season, a 40.4% completion rate in the playoffs and a career QB rating of 75.1 is not indicative of a "rocket for an arm". Obviously you didn't spend too much time watching the Jekyll and Hyde performance in the 13 games Tebow started in 2011; how about that 2-8 performance against Kansas City in week 10 or his 6-22 performance against Kansas City in week 17?

Elway had no mobility.

Elway rushed for over 3400 yards in his career.

I guarantee you that if Tebow goes to SF, NE, Baltimore or any team with a coach who can think creatively, those franchises would succeed.

That's why everybody in the league is breaking down the Broncos door to get Tebow, right? By the way, why was Tebow being tutored by Noel Mazzone on his mechanics in February if he's such a great prospect? By this time in his football career he shouldn't have to be working on his throwing motion, hips or footwork.

38 posted on 03/20/2012 11:59:42 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: GSWarrior
Manning, of course, has no business picking Denver. Cold-weather town? Green receivers? Thin backfield?

He was puzzled by Tebow's stats. The kid didn't even complete 48 percent of his throws. Peyton Manning completes 65 percent of his.

Receivers are half of the equation on QB pass stats, and Elway's rookie time wasn't all that stellar.

IMO Elway had an issue with being out-loved by some newbie.

39 posted on 03/20/2012 12:01:07 PM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: GSWarrior
Manning, of course, has no business picking Denver. Cold-weather town? Green receivers? Thin backfield?

He was puzzled by Tebow's stats. The kid didn't even complete 48 percent of his throws. Peyton Manning completes 65 percent of his.

Receivers are half of the equation on QB pass stats, and Elway's rookie time wasn't all that stellar.

IMO Elway had an issue with being out-loved by some newbie.

40 posted on 03/20/2012 12:01:30 PM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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