“We got a bunch of guys in there trying to talk about a three-peat, and I don’t know if they’re getting to [Elway] or not.”MIKE SHANAHAN MIAMI – Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, along with owner Pat Bowlen, began the movement to lure John Elway back for a three-peat.
“I want him to come back for a third but he’s gonna have to make that decision himself,” Shanahan said after the Broncos beat the Falcons 34-19last night in Super Bowl XXXIII.
They have a special relationship, even better than the one Troy Aikman had with Norv Turner in Dallas. Shanahan was asked about Elway’s dominant play.
“I think that speaks for itself,” Shanahan said. “Most Valuable Player of the game. I don’t know if it’s John’s last game, but I think it’s a good chance it could be, and if you’re gonna go out, what a way to go out.
“We got a bunch of guys in there trying to talk about a three-peat, and I don’t know if they’re getting to him or not. But I know it’s very special.”
The Broncos started 13-0 and buckled under the burden of history. Shanahan got the ship steered straight again. He joins Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll (twice) and Jimmy Johnson as the fifth coach to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
“I think it’s always harder the second time,” Shanahan said.
You know this one meant that much more because Dan Reeves was the vanquished for the fourth time. So much mud had been slung about how they couldn’t stand one another when Reeves was in Denver, and as recently as last week. Shanahan was asked if Reeves congratulated him.
“Yes, he did,” Shanahan said. “He said congratulations and I said congratulations.”
He assembled this team, surrounding Elway with enough Super Bowl-or-Bust team players on both sides of the ball to get his 38-year-old friend his treasured rings.
“I think it’s special to everybody in our organization,” Shanahan said. “We’ve talked about all the time that one guy doesn’t do it. The head coach doesn’t do it, the quarterback doesn’t do it. You’ve got a lot of people going in the same direction, you got a great coaching staff that really gets along, they really do a great job of motivation and the coaching of our players.
“We got guys that believe in each other, guys that are very unselfish. That’s the only way you win championships.”
He was asked what Elway has meant for the NFL. “It all depends on how you perceive John,” Shanahan said. “Me being around John for 16 years, or at least 15 years, I got the utmost respect for him, how he handles himself, how he works, his perseverance to keep on working, to end possibly his career, with two Super Bowls, it just speaks for itself.”
He couldn’t stop talking proudly about his team. “It was a group of guys, 46 guys that I felt right from the start were committed,” Shanahan said. “Our goal was being the world champions from the start of the season. It was a high goal but our players really stayed in there throughout the season. We had a little adversity, they kept their focus, they believed in each other, and obviously this is a dream come true.”
Shanahan fooled the Falcons by giving the ball to seldom-used Howard Griffith (2 TDs) by the goal line rather than Terrell Davis. “We felt like they did a great job on the goal line really keying the primary ball carrier,” Shanahan said.
It wasn’t the only new wrinkle. “We tried to mix things up,” Shanahan said. “We were in what we call empty package where there aren’t any backs in the backfield and Howard and [Davis] were split wide. It gave us a chance to get a pre-snap read if it was man or double coverage. And then we had two tight ends who we flexed out a little more than normal and we had a little package there, and basically everything else was a combination of what we have done throughout the season.”
