The viral video of the two girls who weren’t familiar with a bunch of hit songs from the past 20 years made many feel very old this week. If that didn’t do the trick, how about this: John Elway is 60.
For those of us who grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Elway is still the baseball player who made a power play and defied the NFL draft. He’s the young gunslinger who became one of the best quarterbacks of all time, capping a career without any championships by winning a pair of Super Bowls and walking off into the sunset.
And then, after more than a decade out of the NFL, Elway became a high-level executive with the Broncos, building another Super Bowl winner as a General Manager. Although the search fo a post-Peyton option at quarterback hasn’t gone well (MDS raised the question of how different the NFL may be if Elway had drafted Russell Wilson instead of Brock Osweiler), the selection of Drew Lock in 2019 could turn around three seasons of sub-.500 play.
Like Ozzie Newsome, Elway’s performance as a G.M. could eventually justify a Hall of Fame bust, if he wasn’t already in as a player. (Newsome definitely would have a second one.) And with plenty of years left to pursue more championships, Elway still has plenty of chances to add to a special legacy in Denver.
It would be easier if Elway didn’t have to directly compete with a quarterback who eventually may be better than Elway ever was. A quarterback who will make plenty of people real really old when he turns 60 in 2055.