It Isn't Easy Being Griese

Learning to cope

With an eye on an NFL career, an impossible dream only a year earlier, Griese introduced himself to Denver Broncos assistant coach Gary Kubiak at the scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Drafted as the latest heir to John Elway a few months later, Griese's remarkable rise and controversial tenure in Denver is well-documented.

In 2000, he earned Pro Bowl honors, led the NFL in passing and was rewarded with a $39 million contract, including a $12.6 million signing bonus. During his breakthrough season, though, he also was busted for drunken driving and lost his license.

When wide receiver Rod Smith visited him a while later, he spotted grocery carts in the garage; they were the only way for Griese to get his groceries home.

At one point in 2000, Griese turned to the Dalai Lama's handbook for living - The Art of Happiness - to cope with his high-tension job.

"Off the field, he's not the same Griese I remember," said ex-Michigan linebacker Ian Gold, who joined the Broncos in 2000. "He was a little more outgoing then. Coming in after John Elway, and being expected to play like a John Elway, it's got to be something that would cause a little alteration in one's demeanor or mind-set on the field. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. People just change."

Through all the changes and erratic shifts in fortune, though, Griese hasn't adjusted his ultimate game plan: winning the Super Bowl - as his father did a generation ago - without getting blown away.

"I tell him to take the good things and put them in his back pocket - and hold on to them," Bob Griese said.

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