Las Vegas – John Elway was on the awards stand Thursday night, three days before his Colorado Crush plays the Georgia Force for the Arena Football League championship.
Elway, a co-owner of the Crush, received an AFL Founders Award for his work to bring credibility to the arena league. Also honored with a Founders Award was Jon Bon Jovi, co-owner of the Philadelphia Soul.
But Elway made it clear the award he wants is the championship ring from Sunday’s title game. He was asked how he would treat a ring from the arena league compared with the two Super Bowl rings he won with the Broncos.
“It’ll go right with the others,” Elway said.
Elway and Bon Jovi were featured in a TV commercial that shows the Crush and Soul playing a game inside a Las Vegas casino.
Crush offensive specialist Damian Harrell received his award for the offensive player of the year.
Confetti talk
There was much talk Thursday about the confetti that covered the Pepsi Center floor during Sunday’s game against the Chicago Rush.
The Crush won 49-43 in overtime, but the confetti was released prematurely after what appeared to be a Crush victory on the last play in regulation. There was a defensive penalty on the Crush, and Chicago tied the score on a field goal by Rush kicker Keith Gispert.
AFL commissioner David Baker said the delay to clean up the field and the overtime caused a major disruption in NBC’s programming.
“I really was honored that they stayed with us,” Baker said. “It was a real badge of courage on the part of NBC Sports. It would have been horrible to not have known who won.”
Baker joked that the TV ratings probably hit 1.9 during the confetti drop.
“I was pleased with both of our conference championship games,” Baker said. “For one game to go into overtime and the other to go down to the last play of the game, we can’t ask for anything better than that.”
