The Drive
JANUARY 11, 1987
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, CLEVELAND STADIUM
DENVER 23, CLEVELAND 20
"It was my coming-out party," said Elway of the drive that will always simply be known as The Drive. Late in the fourth quarter, trailing 20-13 and backed up at Denver's own two, in fifteen plays, Elway moves his team 98 yards, finishing up with a five-yard TD pass to Mark Jackson with only 39 seconds remaining in regulation. The game goes into overtime. In OT, another outstanding Elway drive leads to a game-winning field goal, and the Broncos go their first Super Bowl in almost a decade.
|
The Dive
JANUARY 25, 1998
SUPER BOWL XXXII, QUALCOMM STADIUM, SAN DIEGO
DENVER 31, GREEN BAY 24
After losing three Super Bowls in 1987, '88, and '90, Elway enters his fourth World Championship with a supporting cast equal to his own talent and character, most notably #30, MVP RB Terrell Davis.
The most defining moment of the game--Elway's scramble on a broken play late in the third quarter boosts Denver's will to win, and they do. Mike Shanahan expresses the significance of "the Dive" for the Broncos and as the emblematic play that is John Elway:
". . . when I go back to that Green Bay game, when he does that whirly-bird, . . . to me that's one of the most memorable plays in his career. . . . He takes off; he knows he's got no chance for a play. I'm thinking about those 14 years at the NFL, four in college; he's not going to be denied. He takes that thing, most quarterbacks are going to hit the ground. Right at that time I knew we had won the game. That perseverance, that drive, everything he stood for, he did it on that play. We had won the game."
|
No Doubts: Super Bowl XXXIII MVP
JANUARY 31, 1999
SUPER BOWL XXXIII, PRO PLAYER STADIUM, MIAMI
DENVER 34, ATLANTA 19
While Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen said the Super Bowl XXXII victory was "for John." The triumph on the field was largely Terrell Davis'. The next year, Elway, synonymous with Broncos' football for close to two decades, had his own triumphant championship performance, silencing once and for all criticism and doubt of his stature as the ultimate total quarterback. Denver "repeated the feat" because of Elway's fifth, most-ever-by-a-quarterback, superlative Super Bowl start: 18 of 29 for 336 yards, a rushing TD, and an 80-yard TD bomb to Rod Smith--quintessential Elway for MVP honors. He never has to make another comeback again.
 Elway was chosen the #1 QB of the 90s in NFL.com's Team of the Decade voting,
and he is a 2004 Hall of Fame Inductee.
Click here to see some of Elway's Hall of Fame Accomplishments
Click here to see Remarks about Elway's Remarkable Career
Click here to see the Elway Slide Show
|
