John Elway, the Vice-President of Football Operations for the Denver Broncos, has finally come clean about his decision to trade Tim Tebow and go after future hall of famer Peyton Manning. Nearly eight months after Elway created unheard of buzz during the NFL off-season by rolling the dice on the neck of Peyton Manning, it seems he knew what he was doing all along. He's been fairly quiet about it, however, but on Tuesday spoke with USA Today about the decisions.
"The risk was no one really knew about Peyton. There were so many unanswered questions. We went through the process, got all the information we can, talked to the doctors, and decided it was a risk worth taking. And it's worked out."
Days later, Elway started yet another media fire by trading away what many believed to be his insurance policy on Manning, the very popular Tim Tebow. Tebow was coming off a miraculous run as a starter for the Broncos and even won his first playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on the first play of overtime, connecting with Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass.
"It was a tough situation," Elway said, "There are Tebow fans and there are Broncos fans. My responsibility is to the Broncos fans, and my responsibility is to (owner) Pat Bowlen and what he wants to do, and that's win championships. I base all my decisions on that. It's difficult not to get personal, because every kid that comes in, it's his dream to play. But the bottom line is, my responsibility that Pat's given me, is to give him the best opportunity to hoist that trophy. With Peyton being here, we couldn't have two different offenses," he said. "We couldn't have a backup quarterback with a totally different offense. We wanted to get back to where everyone was learning the same offense."
Elway's gamble has paid off in spades. Manning is firing at MVP levels and has the Broncos at 6-3, their only losses coming to the Texans, Falcons, and Patriots (all within the first few weeks of the season). With a win over San Diego on Sunday, they could take a three game divisional lead. The Jets, meanwhile, are still struggling to figure out what exactly to do with Tebow and sit at 3-6 on the year. via USA Today Want more? Get more at Cosby Sweaters!
