It’s one of the great “what ifs” in Baltimore sports history.

What if, instead of refusing to sign with the Colts, quarterback John Elway had accepted his fate when the team took him No. 1 overall in the 1983 NFL draft and reported to Baltimore? Would the play of the eventual Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl champion been enough to revive attendance at Memorial Stadium and prevent owner Robert Irsay, who was clamoring for a new stadium, from relocating the team to Indianapolis in the dead of night in March 1984?

Of course, we’ll never know the answer.

Elway had no desire to play for Irsay and head coach Frank Kush, so when Baltimore selected him against his wishes, the Stanford product announced he would instead play baseball for the New York Yankees. His chances to reach the majors were good. The Bronx Bombers took him No. 52 overall in 1981 and retained his rights after he hit .318 for one of the organization’s minor league affiliates.

Irsay relented and negotiated a trade to send Elway to the Denver Broncos in exchange for fourth-overall pick Chris Hinton, Denver’s 1984 first-round pick and backup quarterback Mark Herrmann. The rest is history.

All these years later, Elway doesn’t appear to have any regrets about his post-draft gambit. And why should he? Elway spent all 16 seasons of his illustrious career in Denver and is one of the most beloved figures in franchise history.

Read More

The jersey patch from Jackson Holliday’s MLB debut is now on a baseball card

Nov 13, 2024

Well, how do the Yankees feel about it?

Baseball card manufacturer Topps posed the question by putting Elway in Yankees pinstripes for his first baseball rookie card in this year’s edition of Bowman Draft, one of the first products to feature members of this year’s draft class in their major league teams’ uniforms.

A limited number of the Elway cards are autographed, and one photo on Topps’ Instagram page gives us a pretty strong indication he doesn’t lose any sleep over how it all went down: “Yankees > Colts” he inscribed under his signature on one of the cards numbered to 25. Guess he really didn’t want to play for Irsay and Kush.

There’s even more for Yankees fans to consider. By taking Elway, New York passed up the chance to take a San Diego State outfielder by the name of Tony Gwynn. He went six picks later to the Padres, for whom he played 20 years and collected 3,141 hits.

A new video starring Elway posits that it “was all Steinbrenner,” as in then-Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. G.O.A.T. University of Maryland alumnus Larry David revived his boisterous Steinbrenner impersonation from “Seinfeld” for the clip, which should be all the enticement you need to click below.