Waikiki, Hawaii – Count another prominent former Broncos player who could not endorse the team’s pursuit of Terrell Owens.
This time it’s the Duke himself: John Elway.
“I think there are a lot of things about T.O. that none of us really knows, but obviously he can ruin a football team,” Elway said Friday evening. “If it were up to me I would say no. I think the Broncos are close enough anyway, and they don’t need a guy who’s too much of a risk.
“The Broncos have a great locker room right now; they have a lot of good leaders in there. To have somebody come in who’s worried about himself and not worried about what the team is worried about, I wouldn’t do it.”
Elway joins Terrell Davis and Shannon Sharpe as former stars from the Broncos’ back-to-back Super Bowl teams of 1997-98 who have spoken out against Denver adding Owens.
A gifted but disruptive receiver who has publicly disparaged his quarterbacks and teams in San Francisco and Philadelphia, Owens is expected to become a free agent March 3. In anticipation of his free agency, Owens met with Broncos coach Mike Shanahan on Jan. 30.
Shanahan brought in Owens a week after several Broncos veterans stated their support of acquiring the receiver.
“I think they were looking at it as they were hurting by the loss and at that point in time, they’ll do anything to try to improve their team,” Elway said.
The Broncos’ lone Hall of Fame inductee, the former quarterback was here to meet the winner of the John Elway & Sprint Sweepstakes. Although entries were submitted from around the country, the randomly selected winner was Bill Carrell of Rico, which is about 25 miles outside of Telluride.
“I don’t have to be a lonely guy anymore,” Elway said upon meeting Carrell’s family and referring to his popular commercials where he is sitting alone at a theater.
As for the Broncos’ season, Elway was at Invesco Field at Mile High to watch his former team beat the New England Patriots in their second- round playoff game, then get pounded by the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-17 in the AFC championship game.
“They got beat by a better team, that’s the bottom line,” Elway said. “Especially that day. They got behind early, and they’re not a team that can come from behind. They had a great year, but they weren’t playing their best football.
“But the thing is, to get as close as they did, they’ll have that taste in their mouths and it will be there and they’ll remember it next year.”
