Alternate Sports Trades

Here are some trades that either almost happened, or were talked about by team staff, but didn't make it too far.

1. What if the Broncos traded John Elway to the Redskins in 1991?

2. What if the Saints would have traded the 81 #1 to the Cowboys for Ron Springs, Larry Bethea, a first round pick(and I think that QB Glenn Carano would have been included as well)?

3. What if Doug Williams was traded to the Raiders in 1987?
 
Gretzky

What if Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Vancouver Canucks or the New York Rangers, instead of the LA Kings?

Hockey wouldn't have expanded as much to the south.

1. What if Dallas would have traded QB Danny White to the Giants in the late 70's?

2. What if Archie Manning's backup didn't get hurt, and he was dealt to the Packers in 1974?
 
Here's one

What if Ayrton Senna didn't die in 1994, and went on to sign for Ferrari for '95 as he was thought to be about to?

Another possible twist on that one is North America. Senna had tested Team Penske's Indycar in 1993 and was amazed by it, and he had held the dream of racing alongside Emerson Fittipaldi, his boyhood hero. I think that's a possibility, especially as Ferrari didn't change drivers for '95 and hiring Mansell and Prost in the early 90s didn't exactly make them set the world on fire. Assuming the Indycar world isn't split by the CART-IRL split, Senna would finish his contract with Williams (probably winning the 1994 drivers' title - his fourth - in the process) and arriving at Team Penske for 1996? This would leave Penske with four pilots - Senna, Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy. One hell of a driver lineup there. Senna, assuming he adapts to Indycars well, takes the '96 or '97 Indycar title and takes over in a two-car Penske team after Fittipaldi retires and Tracy moves on. Puts another 3-4 seasons in, probably wins an Indy 500, retires after 2001 or 2002 as one of the long-line of spectacular foreign-born Indycar pilots who also became stars, right with Emmo and Alex Zanardi, with Kenny Brack, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves and others following behind him.

(I am working on that for a TL. :))
 
2. What if Archie Manning's backup didn't get hurt, and he was dealt to the Packers in 1974?

If he stays, then Peyton, Eli and Cooper probably have different accents, and one of them becomes the next Brett Favre:D

It all depends. Green Bay wasn't that good in 74, and sucked over the next few years. New Orleans still was the Aint's, so they probably would have sucked too.

In my mind, it would have affected the Manning boys more than anything.
 
Hockey wouldn't have expanded as much to the south.

1. What if Dallas would have traded QB Danny White to the Giants in the late 70's?

2. What if Archie Manning's backup didn't get hurt, and he was dealt to the Packers in 1974?

By the end of the 70s, Roger Staubach was in his late 30s and wasn't going to last much longer. Danny White knew it was just a matter of time before he got the job. The Cowboys would never have traded him, simply because they didn't have (and wouldn't have) anyone else to replace Staubach for many years.

However, your question was, "what if"? It's true the Cowboys did have some interest in Joe Montana when he was drafted in 1979, but any scenario of him coming to the Cowboys would be a long, long reach.
 
McVay

By the end of the 70s, Roger Staubach was in his late 30s and wasn't going to last much longer. Danny White knew it was just a matter of time before he got the job. The Cowboys would never have traded him, simply because they didn't have (and wouldn't have) anyone else to replace Staubach for many years.

However, your question was, "what if"? It's true the Cowboys did have some interest in Joe Montana when he was drafted in 1979, but any scenario of him coming to the Cowboys would be a long, long reach.

I agree. I read a small preview of the book The Catch, and it said that John McVay, the Giant coach at the time, tried real hard to get White. The book also said that Landry didn't want to draft Joe because he felt that he would cut him.

Here are a few more sport trades that could have happened:

1. What if Scottie Pippen would have been traded for Shawn Kemp in 1994?

2. What if Kevin Garnett was traded to the Bulls in 2006 for Tyson Chandler, Luol Deng, and the fourth overall pick?
 
Suppose the Flyers had said "the hell with it; you're asking too much" to the Nordiques regarding Eric Lindros? The Rangers would have gotten that soap opera with his father as his agent, and all of the attendant turmoil--and it would have been magnified all the more by the New York media. Likely the Rangers would have hoisted the Cup sometime in the early 1990s, but it would have been a one-shot deal, and the talent they would have relinquished would have mortgaged the team's future heavily.

On the other hand, the Flyers would have had Peter Forsberg for his entire career, and a solid goaler in Ron Hextall--and that's just for starters. Chances are there would have been several parades down Broad Street in Philadelphia during the '90s in contrast to the single one in New York.

Would the Nordiques have moved to Denver? I'm not too sure about that. The move was pulled off at the last minute in OTL (indeed, the franchise had new sweaters and new logos ready to go for the '96-'97 season in Quebec), so it's possible Quebec might still be in the NHL. Perhaps the Winnipeg Jets might have moved to Colorado instead (becoming, say, the Denver Dinosaurs).
 
Would the Nordiques have moved to Denver? I'm not too sure about that. The move was pulled off at the last minute in OTL (indeed, the franchise had new sweaters and new logos ready to go for the '96-'97 season in Quebec), so it's possible Quebec might still be in the NHL. Perhaps the Winnipeg Jets might have moved to Colorado instead (becoming, say, the Denver Dinosaurs).

The Nordiques moved for off-ice financial reasons. The massive return in players and draft picks they got in exchange for Lindros gave them on-ice success but they still had financial troubles due to playing in the smallest market in the NHL. Marcel Aubut had no choice but to sell the team to Denver-based investors after he couldn't get a bailout package that included a publicly-funded arena. Sending Lindros to New York isn't going to make the provincial government more receptive to a bailout, nor will it increase the local population enough to matter, nor will it make COMSAT any less interested in acquiring a team with an owner who needed to unload them because he was losing his shirt.
 
Suppose the Flyers had said "the hell with it; you're asking too much" to the Nordiques regarding Eric Lindros? The Rangers would have gotten that soap opera with his father as his agent, and all of the attendant turmoil--and it would have been magnified all the more by the New York media. Likely the Rangers would have hoisted the Cup sometime in the early 1990s, but it would have been a one-shot deal, and the talent they would have relinquished would have mortgaged the team's future heavily.

On the other hand, the Flyers would have had Peter Forsberg for his entire career, and a solid goaler in Ron Hextall--and that's just for starters. Chances are there would have been several parades down Broad Street in Philadelphia during the '90s in contrast to the single one in New York.

Would the Nordiques have moved to Denver? I'm not too sure about that. The move was pulled off at the last minute in OTL (indeed, the franchise had new sweaters and new logos ready to go for the '96-'97 season in Quebec), so it's possible Quebec might still be in the NHL. Perhaps the Winnipeg Jets might have moved to Colorado instead (becoming, say, the Denver Dinosaurs).

The problem for us (the Flyers, I should say) is that the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo/Next Bank To Buy It Center was, really, the house that Lindros built. How would it have affected the Flyers' finances, and status in the city, if they were marketing a relatively unknown Swede rather than the Next Gretzky Who Never Was?

As a side note, the Rangers offer was: Tony Amonte, Doug Weight, Alexei Kovalev, James Patrick, John Vanbiesbrouk and $20 million in cash, as compared to Forsberg, Hextall, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, Mike Ricci, 2 1sts (Jocelyn Thibault. The other was traded in the Wendel Clark deal, and became Nolan Baumgardner) and $15 million.
 
The problem for us (the Flyers, I should say) is that the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo/Next Bank To Buy It Center was, really, the house that Lindros built. How would it have affected the Flyers' finances, and status in the city, if they were marketing a relatively unknown Swede rather than the Next Gretzky Who Never Was?

As a side note, the Rangers offer was: Tony Amonte, Doug Weight, Alexei Kovalev, James Patrick, John Vanbiesbrouk and $20 million in cash, as compared to Forsberg, Hextall, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, Mike Ricci, 2 1sts (Jocelyn Thibault. The other was traded in the Wendel Clark deal, and became Nolan Baumgardner) and $15 million.

The Flyers would have more than just Forsberg in this TL, as you noted. Several of the players you mentioned became central to Colorado's Cup year in '96. Hextall would be back with the Flyers before the Nordiques moved IOTL, so no big difference there. Not giving up all those players for one guy makes for a better team that goes farther in the playoffs, and earns more money for the club. In addition, Philly gets to keep $15 million they sent to Quebec IOTL. So I don't see any impediment to a new arena; it will just be the House that Lord Stanley built.

And I doubt the Rangers offer would be as much if the Flyers drop out of the bidding. IOTL the Rangers were trying to outbid Philly; in this scenario they are the only team in the running.
 
The Flyers would have more than just Forsberg in this TL, as you noted. Several of the players you mentioned became central to Colorado's Cup year in '96. Hextall would be back with the Flyers before the Nordiques moved IOTL, so no big difference there. Not giving up all those players for one guy makes for a better team that goes farther in the playoffs, and earns more money for the club. In addition, Philly gets to keep $15 million they sent to Quebec IOTL. So I don't see any impediment to a new arena; it will just be the House that Lord Stanley built.

And I doubt the Rangers offer would be as much if the Flyers drop out of the bidding. IOTL the Rangers were trying to outbid Philly; in this scenario they are the only team in the running.

The Flyers and Rangers weren't the only teams in the running OTL. I presume that, with the Flyers out of the way, the Blackhawks and Red Wings, who were also taking to Quebec, would still be involved. The reason it came down to Philly and NY were that they were the two teams Quebec agreed to a trade with (which they shouldn't have done, but that's neither here nor there.) The reason Philly got him is that we agreed with Quebec before NY did, and the arbitrator deemed it a legally binding agreement.

As to the point about the money, I'd love to think it was that easy, but I'm not sure it is. Yeah, we'd have $15 million straight cash, but the value of Lindros the brand was worth more to the team than that. Without the increases in marketing, ad revenue, and ticket sales he brought, and the better case the team could make to the state government and corporate sponsors, we might not have been able to increase payroll enough to build a Cup-winning team, unless the addition of Peter Forsberg and Chris Simon to the last-in-the-Patrick 91-92 Flyers makes us a Cup contender immediately. Everyone else we sent to Quebec was on the roster in 91-92.
 
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