Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches (24 page)

Elway was not concerned about any backlash in the locker room. “That’s how much I believed in him at the time. I thought he was the right guy,” he said. “I was running out of time. That was my eleventh year. I wasn’t a young buck at the time. I wasn’t too concerned as long as we went out and won, which I thought we would do. My selfish feeling is I wanted him to come back. I was in a little bit more of a hurry than he was.”

Elway was so upset that he didn’t talk to Shanahan for an entire year. “He was mad at me for obvious reasons,” Shanahan said. “We were very close friends. I had a chance to come back to be the head coach and didn’t.”

Phillips lasted just two seasons with the Broncos. By that time, the 49ers had lost another NFC championship game to the Cowboys, but then they beat them in 1994 in the title game and went on to win the Super Bowl with a lopsided victory over the San Diego Chargers. This time when Bowlen called, enough time had passed and Shanahan accepted. But things didn’t get better right away. The Broncos were 8–8 in 1995 and missed the playoffs and were the AFC’s number one seed with a 13–3 record in 1996 but lost in the divisional round to the Jacksonville Jaguars, a second-year expansion team. Maybe it wasn’t Reeves’s fault. Maybe it was Elway.

Maybe not.

Elway ended his career in style by winning the Super Bowl the next two years, his final two years in the NFL. He beat the heavily favored Packers and Brett Favre after the 1997 season when he was the sentimental favorite. When he stood on the podium with Bowlen and Shanahan after the game, Bowlen held up the Vince Lombardi Trophy and declared, “This one’s for John.”

The Broncos won their first fourteen games in 1998 and made it back to the Super Bowl, this time against the Falcons, who were now coached by Reeves. He had lasted four seasons in New York, had been fired, and was hired by the Falcons in a homecoming—he was born in Rome, Georgia, and grew up in Americus, Georgia—and had the Falcons in the Super Bowl in his second season against Elway and Shanahan. That was when a lot of the old wounds from the Denver days were pried open.

“I don’t think (Shanahan) had my best interest in mind at the time,” Reeves said. “If John Elway had a problem with me, and you’re coaching that position, why did I not know prior to reading it in the paper? If you were the position coach and you’re that close to the quarterback, why didn’t I know that?”

Shanahan insists Reeves already knew that Elway had no use for him and didn’t need Shanahan to tell him. “Dan Reeves knew his relationship with John,” he said. “There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that. They know it was a tough relationship from the second year, from the first year.”

The Broncos beat the Falcons, and months later Elway retired. Shanahan lasted another ten years in Denver and was fired by Bowlen after missing the playoffs three straight seasons. He sat out one year, the 2009 season, and then was hired by the Redskins. Reeves was fired by the Falcons with three games remaining in the 2003 season. Elway and Shanahan see each other occasionally, primarily at league meetings, and Reeves and Elway have decided life is too short to stay mad at each other.

“You lose three Super Bowls, and the two people who get blamed are the head coach and the quarterback. That will certainly strain anybody’s relationship. Believe me, I had the utmost respect for John,” Reeves said. “People talk about I tried to trade him. That’s the biggest lie in the world. The only time it was ever mentioned was Joe Gibbs called me and asked what it would take to get John Elway. That was right after Wayne Gretzky was traded. That was an unbelievable deal they made. I said it’s going to have
to be something like that. And it isn’t going to be me. It’s going to have to be through the owner. I would never have traded John Elway. Hell, they would have run me out of Denver. No way.”

When Elway was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004, he invited Reeves to attend the weekend in Canton. Reeves accepted and sat next to Elway’s mother at the ceremony. “It never crossed my mind not to invite him,” Elway said. “Time heals everything. There are absolutely no ill feelings on my part toward Dan.”

Their relationship had come full circle. “I was thrilled, to say the least,” Reeves said.

Reeves had a contentious relationship with Elway in the decade during which he coached him. It wasn’t until Elway wasn’t playing anymore and Reeves was no longer coaching that they finally found common ground. They still managed to get to three Super Bowls together. Maybe instead of losing all three, they could have won a Super Bowl ring or two if they had just gotten along.

In 2011, John Fox enjoyed Tebow Mania while it lasted, which wasn’t very long. The Broncos thought Tim Tebow was a great person and Elway even said he was the kind of guy you want your daughter to marry, but he clearly wasn’t a quarterback Fox and Elway thought could win a Super Bowl. Tebow became the most popular player in the NFL during his incredible playoff run, but when the Colts cut Peyton Manning the next March, the Broncos jumped right into the cross-country chase. Eventually, Manning chose the Broncos over the 49ers and Titans, and then Denver immediately traded Tebow to the Jets.

This is a cold business that is based strictly on results. Tebow won enough games for the Broncos in 2011 to deserve a chance to build on that success, and Fox was planning for him to be his starting quarterback in 2012. But the Broncos couldn’t push him out the door fast enough once Manning became available. He
was the most popular player on the team, but it was just business. “They went a way that they thought was best for the organization. I’ll never blame them for that,” Tebow said. “There’s no ill will toward the Broncos, Peyton Manning, or anybody. I wish them nothing but the best.”

Manning missed the entire 2011 season after starting every game in the first thirteen years of his career. He had four surgical procedures on his neck in a two-year period. From a football standpoint, it was worth the gamble for the Broncos. They were getting Peyton Manning, a future Hall of Famer. They elected to trade Tebow not so much because it would have required them to reinstall the unconventional Read Option offense for the unconventional Tebow if Manning was injured but because Tebow was such a fan favorite and it was not worth taking the chance that the fans would turn on Manning and demand Tebow if Manning got off to a slow start.

That doesn’t mean it was easy for Fox to say good-bye to Tebow. As the Broncos were deciding between offers from the Jets and the Jaguars, Tebow’s hometown team, Fox was in constant communication with Tebow, who was working out in Los Angeles. The Broncos, as a thank-you to Tebow for helping to revive the franchise, allowed him to choose between the two teams. The Jets presented Tebow with a better opportunity to get onto the field running a Wildcat package. His value to the Jaguars would have been his immense popularity and his ability to sell tickets. Tebow chose the Jets.

The Broncos drafted Tebow in the first round in 2010 when Josh McDaniels was the head coach and before Elway returned to run the team he had led to five Super Bowl appearances. Fox and Elway inherited Tebow and had no obligation to make it work. He was not their draft choice. McDaniels was fired late in Tebow’s rookie season. Bowlen hired Elway to run the team, and Elway then hired Fox, who had been fired after nine seasons as head coach of the Carolina Panthers. If things had worked according
to plan in 2011, Tebow wouldn’t have been on the field much. Kyle Orton easily won the starting job coming out of training camp once a trade sending him to the Miami Dolphins fell through, and it was only after Denver started 1–4 that Fox and Elway realized that they had nothing to lose by playing Tebow. The fans basically demanded the move. Tebow responded by winning his first start in an overtime game in Miami and seven of his first eight with a variety of improbable last-minute victories. The Broncos lost their final three games but still won the AFC West with an 8–8 record and then beat the Steelers in the wild-card round on Tebow’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime before they were crushed by the Patriots in the divisional round in New England.

“I thanked Tim for all the memories,” Fox said. “He sparked our football team. I’ll be forever grateful for that. I really will. We shared some great moments together.”

Fox first met Tebow the night before his pro day at Florida as Tebow was preparing for the draft. The Panthers had traded their 2010 first-round draft pick, but felt they had a chance to get Tebow in the second round. Tebow might have been one of the best college players of all time, but most scouts didn’t believe he projected well as an NFL quarterback. He ran the ball better than he threw it. His accuracy was a major concern. Nobody questioned his character or leadership ability, but it takes more than that to be a successful professional quarterback.

Fox made a reservation at Mark’s Prime Steakhouse in downtown Gainesville and arranged to meet Tebow for dinner along with Panthers offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson and quarterback coach Rip Scherer.

“He was definitely unique. You could see the intangibles,” Fox said. “They just oozed out of him. It was easy to see what kind of leadership skills he had. He had a notepad and took notes. He was real respectful, willing to learn; he had passion for the game.”

They enjoyed a nice dinner. Fox came away impressed, and
although he wasn’t sure the Panthers would take him when their pick came up in the sixteenth spot in the second round, he thought there was a good chance he would be available. “Early in the process, it would be fair to say some people weren’t expecting him to go in the first round,” Fox said.

As dinner ended, Fox asked the waiter for the check. Tebow said he already had taken care of it.

“It wasn’t one of those last minute things, ‘Oh here, I got it,’ ” Fox said. “He had it paid for. Obviously, he had a little juice in Gainesville and the guy that waited on us; Tim already gave him his card.”

Of course, Fox didn’t let Tebow pay. But if Tebow was looking to make an impression, he got the job done. “I never had a prospective player do that,” Fox said.

He estimated that in all his years as a college coach and in the NFL, he’s taken way more than two hundred players out for a meal and Tebow was the first who tried to pick up the check. “There weren’t any holes in him as far as the intangible part,” Fox said. “We spent more time on his football knowledge, how he would fit in, his delivery. It was more football stuff.”

The scouting reports on Tebow raised a lot of questions about his ability to make it in the NFL as an every-down quarterback. The scouting report by the general manager of one team raised a lot of issues:

Fox never had the chance to make a decision on Tebow in the draft. The Broncos selected him in the first round, the twenty-fifth pick overall. That shocked draft rooms around the league. The Panthers were in the market for a quarterback and selected Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen with their second-round pick. The next year, after Fox left the Panthers following a 2–14 season, they drafted Auburn’s Cam Newton with the first overall pick.

When Fox was hired in Denver, it didn’t take long for Tebow to seek him out. “He was one of the first guys in my office,” Fox said. “It didn’t surprise me because that’s the kind of guy he is.”

Fox and Tebow had a connection from the previous year when they’d had dinner. The lockout prevented Fox from having an opportunity to work with Tebow until training camp in 2011. The off-season conditioning program, minicamps, and OTAs were canceled. That put Tebow at a disadvantage. He needed the work. Once Orton failed and Tebow had a chance to get on the field, he began winning games in the most unusual ways. His following, not only in Denver but around the league, was unprecedented. He was a little too open with his religious beliefs for some people, but nobody questioned his heart and desire. He became a polarizing figure: fans either loved or hated him. Judging by the sales of Tebow merchandise, more fans loved him.

“I’m not a sociology major. I’m a football coach. I evaluate him as a quarterback,” Fox said. “Can he lead the team? I respect him tremendously. It upset me at times, when here’s a guy doing everything you want a guy to be, I don’t care what his religious beliefs are or what neighborhood he came from—we ought to be celebrating this guy. He’s doing things the way you are supposed to do them. I’m not saying it’s always pretty as a football player. You’re playing against the best in the world.”