If ever an athlete earned the right to go out on his own terms, John Elway did. The Denver quarterback put in 18 gruelling seasons in the National Football League, and after nearly every one of them he checked himself into a hospital for surgery on one part of his body - knees, elbows, shoulders - or another. Last season alone he missed the better part of six games with assorted back, rib, and hamstring injuries, but at the age of 38 he still led the Denver Broncos to victory in Super Bowl XXXIII, a game in which he was named Most Valuable Player.
He accomplished all of that on a left knee so gimpy that, he confirmed this week, it will require eventual replacement surgery. Add to that, his wife's ongoing illness (last summer Janet Elway underwent surgery for ulcerative colitis; trust me, you don't want to know the details) and the desire to re-introduce himself to his children and the conclusion is inescapable: Elway didn't need an excuse to hang up his cleats. He had earned that right.
He becomes the third North American sports icon this year to retire at the top of his game. Basketball's Michael Jordan made his own well-anticipated announcement just a few days before Elway's Broncos took the field against the New York Jets in January's AFC Championship Game, while ice hockey's Wayne Gretzky took his leave two weeks ago.
Elway might have beaten Gretzky to the punch had fate not intervened. True to his word, he had apprised Denver owner Pat Bowlen and coach Mike Shanahan of his intentions prior to the April 17th NFL draft. (The Broncos, having decided to place their faith in understudy Bubby Brister and developing second-year man Brian Griese, didn't select a college quarterback, but they did shore up the position by signing retreat Chris Miller as insurance for Brister.)
"It was basically a short conversation," reported Bowlen. "He said `Pat, I decided to retire and go on with the rest of my life,' and I told him I respected his decision because I know how long he struggled with it."
The owner did have one request. He asked that Elway postpone the announcement until Bowlen returned from Australia, where he had travelled to make arrangements for a Broncos' pre-season game in Sydney this August.
A press conference was quietly planned for last week, but then a pair of neo-Nazi student terrorists went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Littleton, killing a dozen fellow pupils, a teacher, and, eventually, themselves. Elway immediately deferred his announcement and went off to make his scheduled appearance in The Swallows golf tournament at Pebble Beach over the weekend.
By then the word had leaked out; his intentions had become the sporting world's worst-kept secret. Elway all but confirmed his decision in a television interview on Saturday, and then last Sunday, as he limped off the course after shooting 74 at Spanish Bay, he removed all doubt when he told an old friend, Denver Post columnist Woody Paige, "absolutely, I'm retired."
With the ceremony already robbed of its potential drama, Elway postponed it twice again this week. They were still burying the dead in Littleton, and he considered the intrusion of a football announcement inappropriate.
Elway will hold a news conference on Sunday at 3.00 p.m. EDT at the Inverness Hotel in the Denver suburb of Englewood. The only remaining surprise would come if Bowlen did not announce that the Broncos are permanently retiring his jersey number seven at that time.
Elway had contemplated retirement after Denver beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII a year ago, but miscalculated by putting the question to a family vote, which he lost, 5-1.
This time, Elway reserved the final decision for himself. That he had all but decided back in January was clear from the nostalgic victory lap he took around Mile High Stadium in the gathering darkness after the Broncos' win over the Jets in the AFC title game, his final appearance in Denver.
But then came his stirring performance against the Falcons in Miami, which by his own admission "threw a new kink" into the equation.
Not only did he have the chance to become the first quarterback to win three consecutive Super Bowls, but his team had a chance for a "three-peat" it probably could not accomplish without him.
The spirit was willing, but the body was not. As he limped around the Pebble Beach courses over the weekend, Elway confided that another year would have meant another off-season surgery on a knee that is eventually going to have to be replaced in any case - and another protracted and gruelling period of rehabilitation.
He decided to get on with his life. Elway retires one of two quarterbacks to have passed for 50,000 career yards (Miami's Dan Marino, who has never won a Super Bowl, is the other), but as long as the game is played he will be remembered as the magician who produced 47 come-from behind final-period victories. In the end, he won more games than any quarterback in NFL history.
And it isn't as if he is going to have to work for a living. Earlier in his career Elway, who majored in accounting as a college student at Stanford, capitalised on his fame by acquiring a number of Denver-area automobile dealerships. It was widely assumed that he would be a mere figurehead, but the quarterback proved to be as astute in the business world as he was at reading defences. Last year he sold seven John Elway franchises to Miami owner (and Blockbuster Video founder) Wayne Huizenga, and, with a net worth estimated at $30 million, now rates as a tycoon himself.
And while you wouldn't even rate it the straw that broke the camel's back, the location of the Broncos' pre-season opener makes it a game Elway won't mind missing. A few days ago the Denver Post's Paige catalogued the venues in which Elway has played as a Bronco and came up with Mexico, Spain, England, Germany, Japan, 23 of the 50 United States and Washington, D.C.
Too bad about Australia.
"A 15-hour aeroplane ride in coach?" said Elway. "No thanks."
As Elway put it in the television commercials he taped for his car dealerships, "it's about time."
