WI: John Elway Won All of His Super Bowls?

As many know, John Elway was known as the player that couldn't win "the Big One" for much of his career, thanks to three Super Bowl losses, before winning back-to-back Super Bowls to end his career. My question is simple: what if John Elway and the Denver Broncos won all of the Super Bowls they went to IRL? For many of them, they had led for the much of the first half only to lose in second half blowouts, so let's make it so that each of the teams they faced had a second half collapse. How would this change football today? How would this effect the legacies of the other members of the QB Class of 83'?
 

Philip

Donor
Elway goes 5-0 in Super Bowls? Most likely he is anointed as the greatest quarter back of all time. He'd be the first to 5 rings and have a Jordon-esqe mystique. For the first three titles, he would have carried the team more do than Bradshaw and Montana (who now has three rings) before him.
 
Elway goes 5-0 in Super Bowls? Most likely he is anointed as the greatest quarter back of all time. He'd be the first to 5 rings and have a Jordon-esqe mystique. For the first three titles, he would have carried the team more do than Bradshaw and Montana (who now has three rings) before him.

How do you think Dan Marino would be seen?
 

Philip

Donor
How do you think Dan Marino would be seen?



I grew up a Marino Dol-fan, so this will cut a bit close to the quick. This hurts Marino's legacy.

I've always looked back at Marino and thought 'Yeah, but...' When he retired, Marino was the best passer (as opposed to quarterback) the game has seen. He may still be. But he never won the SB. It was easy to say that if he had a better team, he would have made it. But now you have Elway carrying three teams to the title. The last two titles belong to Davis, but Elway was the Broncos in the early years. If he could carry a team to the title, why not Marino? Maybe he's not that good.

I assume Kelly remains the poster boy for 'It's better to have loved and lost....'
 
Die hard Broncos fans like me are even happier?

Elway wins 5, and retires on top? GOAT QB. Brady, Manning and Rodgers are competing to be the Lebron to his Jordan.
 
How would this effect the next few years in the NFL? Would we see Tom Brady (if he is even drafted) be compared to Elway if he reaches the same heights? How about the effect on future players compared to Elway, like Ben Roethlisberger? He could very well be drafted higher because he's so much like the GOAT.
 

Philip

Donor
Would we see Tom Brady (if he is even drafted) be compared to Elway if he reaches the same heights? How about the effect on future players compared to Elway, like Ben Roethlisberger?

Brady didn't compare well with Elway physically. (And you're right, we might never see him. If Bledsoe never takes that hit, we might never hear of Brady.) Rodgers probably draws a lot of comparisons to Elway, along with some Cal vs Stanford debates.
 
Brady didn't compare well with Elway physically. (And you're right, we might never see him. If Bledsoe never takes that hit, we might never hear of Brady.) Rodgers probably draws a lot of comparisons to Elway, along with some Cal vs Stanford debates.

How do the next few years go in a Brady-less world?
 

Deleted member 14881

Boston sports fans are much less obnoxious?

That or Bellicheck just plugs in another QB into his system.

Maybe Belichik stumbles upon Drew Brees or heck Drew Bledsoe may go to Seallte and the Pats get Rick Mirer in the 93 draft?
 
Well acording rumors bellichick was interested in brees if slip in second round

Very interesting. This does also mean that Bellichick might not even sign with the Pats. I could see him replacing Parcells if something goes differently, or even being hired to be the Head Coach for the Browns.
 
A side butterfly, Bill Parcells and George Seifert are down to one ring, and Joe Gibbs is down to two. On the other hand, Dan Reeves would be considered, with both his career as a player for Tom Landry and a three time Super Bowl winner, one of the most iconic figures in league history. Him and Bill Walsh may be seen as co-coaches of the 1980s. I still suspect Walsh's impact would be longer lasting, since his offense is so influential on what teams are still doing today.

However, if the Broncos are rolling, it may be harder for it to fall apart and Reeves and Elway to have their power struggle that set the Broncos to have some lean years in the early 1990s, which then led them to hire Mike Shanahan and put everything together in 1997/1998.
 
A side butterfly, Bill Parcells and George Seifert are down to one ring, and Joe Gibbs is down to two. On the other hand, Dan Reeves would be considered, with both his career as a player for Tom Landry and a three time Super Bowl winner, one of the most iconic figures in league history. Him and Bill Walsh may be seen as co-coaches of the 1980s. I still suspect Walsh's impact would be longer lasting, since his offense is so influential on what teams are still doing today.

However, if the Broncos are rolling, it may be harder for it to fall apart and Reeves and Elway to have their power struggle that set the Broncos to have some lean years in the early 1990s, which then led them to hire Mike Shanahan and put everything together in 1997/1998.

To expand, I think the real butterflies happen with Reeves. Elway and Reeves beefed with each other from Day 1 in Denver, and part of the reason Reeves was let go after the 1992 season was because Elway felt Reeves's scheme cost them in the playoffs. If the Broncos have three Super Bowl under their belt by 1989, surely this relationship is miles better than it was OTL. Maybe Reeves is given the benefit of the doubt when the team goes south in the early 90's. Or maybe team morale is improved and the team keeps on being a contender.

If he does stay, then his trips to New York and the Falcons might be bufferflied away. This is big for the Giants, Reeves was set on keeping Phil Simms and trading away Jeff Hostetler. Simms would retire the next offseason and Hostetler made a Pro Bowl for the Raiders OTL, if another coach is there that keeps Hostetler that all changes. Reeves also probably doesn't go to the Falcons in 1998 and lead that team to a Super Bowl.

Weirdly though, I think there's a good chance that Shanahan still ends up in Denver at the same time. Assuming that winning three Super Bowls in four years doesn't butterfly things beyond recognition in a couple years, Reeves leads the Broncos to several non-Super Bowl seasons and retires with nothing left to prove. Shananan probably doesn't get hired somewhere else, in both our timeline and this ATL he gets hired, and fired by the Raiders and stews around the league a bit. The Broncos rehired him more than once, I could very much see the Broncos hiring Shananan after Reeves leaves the team and have a revival of Elway's career like in OTL
 
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