What, you think The Fumble was Earnest Byner’s most significant contribution to the Broncos’ history? Not even close.
Byner may have fumbled at the goal line to send the Broncos to a Super Bowl, but an impromptu conversation he had with John Elway a few years later proved even more impactful. In fact, you could argue it was the beginning of the end of Elway’s relationship with Dan Reeves.
The deal was done, Byner told Elway. And then, for whatever reason, it wasn’t. Elway was going to be a Washington Redskin. And then, for whatever reason, he stayed with the Broncos.
The conversation took place in 1992 over a blackjack table in Lake Tahoe, Calif. Elway thought it was going to be a quick how-you-doing between two NFL veterans, but it turned into a signature moment, a watershed development.
“He said, ‘We thought we had you,’ ” Elway said. “And I’m like, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘You didn’t hear about it? It was a done deal. You were coming to Washington.’ ”
Less than a year later, Reeves was fired as the Broncos’ head coach. Elway? He played six more seasons in a Broncos uniform, winning two Super Bowls and landing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Now come Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels. Make no doubt, these are different times, different personalities and entirely different circumstances. Unlike Reeves and Elway, Cutler and McDaniels have no baggage between them. But still, maybe we have to wonder if the first few bags just arrived.
Reeves wanted to trade Elway, had an agenda to trade Elway. He had had enough of the contentious relationship. So much so that he drafted another quarterback, Tommy Maddox, in the first round of the 1992 draft.
McDaniels? We’re left to wonder the exact truth, but he said he wasn’t the one who initiated trade talks involving Cutler. He simply responded to the Tampa Bay Bucs’ inquiry. He listened to talks that would have sent Cutler to Tampa Bay and Matt Cassel to Denver.
Question is, will he come to regret it?
Cutler, a temperamental — OK, moody — sort to begin with, told The Post’s Mike Klis he isn’t happy about his name being kicked around in trade talks.
“I’m upset,” Cutler said. “I mean, I’m really shocked at this point. Obviously, Josh and I’s relationship has taken a few steps backward.”
Before that, Cutler talked in the past tense, saying, “We’ll see where I end up at. I liked it here.”
With Cassel having landed in Kansas City, all indications are that Cutler, 17-20 as a starter, isn’t going anywhere. But already, it’s fair game to wonder about his relationship with McDaniels.
Stuff happens between coaches and quarterbacks. In the end, Elway and Reeves were bitter rivals who didn’t trust one another. But even they didn’t have this rocky of a start.
