Super Bowl 50: Storylines

Another losing streak brewing for John Elway — this time from the office?

There are a generation of fans out there –younger for the most part– that remember John Elway as the man who won two straight Super Bowls for the Denver Broncos and rode off into the sunset, only to eventually return and start running the team from the office. However, kids, that was not always the case, for those of you that don’t know.

Before Elway led the Broncos to two consecutive Super Bowl wins in the 32nd and 33rd edition of the big game against the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons respectively, he wasn’t exactly considered a Super Bowl hero. As a matter of fact, he was seen as one of the greats who just simply couldn’t win the big one. Elway led the Broncos to Super Bowl appearances following the 1986, 1987 and 1989. Three Super Bowl appearances in that span is quite the accomplishment.

You know what sort of ruined those accomplishments for a lot of people, though? Well, the fact that all three games ended in blowout losses. The closest of the three games was a 39-20 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl 22. Otherwise, there was the 42-10 beating delivered by the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl 21 and the 55-10 drubbing at the hands of Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 24. So, yeah, I guess you could consider that loss to the Giants as the “good one” out of all these.

Fast forward now back to the present time and Elway returned to the Broncos in 2011 as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations. In 2012 he made the ultimate power move by bringing in a quarterback that he can call one of the best of all-time right beside him, Peyton Manning. With this already being a playoff team, many felt another Broncos Super Bowl victory was soon to come. In 2012 they suffered a brutal two-overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round, but in 2013 they earned that AFC title that everyone was looking for and headed off to Super Bowl 48.

Well, we all know what happened there. When all was said and done the Seattle Seahawks came away with the 43-8 victory, embarrassing the AFC kings in the process. Now here we are, two years later with Elway now holding General Manager duties as well, and the Broncos are back in the big one.

But, if they lose this one, especially in another blowout, it’ll bring back some bad memories for Elway — and it will also have us wondering whether another string of Super Bowl woes is hitting him, this time while he’s in the front office.

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