Originally Posted by
brdempsey69
You are correct. The Donkeys in 1997-1998 did not win those Super Bowls outright -- they were given to them by Paul Tagliabue and the rest of his riff-raff in the league office as a going away present to John Elway, because he couldn't win one outright ( remember the playoff loss to the Jags at Mile High after the 1996 season? ). Is it a coincidence that the Broncos were given easy schedules in '97 & '98 allowing to get off to fast starts with an unbeaten record through at least first seven games in each of those seasons ( do note that they did not have to play any early season games against teams that had made the playoffs the year before or an early season game in KC or in Miami where they have never beaten the Dolphins ) ? Is it a coincidence that Terrell Davis racked up big numbers in both of those years because his O-Line was allowed to get away with massive holding & illegal chop-blocks & yet in 1999 when they weren't allowed to get away with that, Terrell Davis got beat up and his career was over. Is it also a coincidence that many of the calls ( or non-calls that should have been called against Denver that weren't ) by the officials on the field went in Denver's favor -- the most glittering example was the pass caught in the end zone by Tony Gonzalez in the '97 playoff game that clearly should have been ruled a TD as he would have easily come down with both feet in bounds, but was pulled down by a defender and it was his shoulder that hit out of bounds -- they would have ruled that play a TD if it had been a Denver receiver in question, I have no doubt of that. Is it coincidence that Denver was way over the salary cap both of those seasons and yet in 1999, some of those players like Neil Smith and Darrien Gordon were gone.
The '97 & '98 seasons will always be ones that I look upon as the NFL not having an outright champion & they wouldn't have happened that way if Pete Rozelle had still been commissioner because I really believe it was Donkeys owner Pat Bowlen who lobbied with the league office to stack the deck to help Elway get his two Super Bowl rings before he retired, whereas Pete Rozelle would have told Bowlen "tough sh!t, buddy", just like he did to Bears owner George Halas back in the late '50's. I was a subscriber to NFL Sunday Ticket in '97 and '98 and I watched all the Donkeys games and I know all the atrocities that I saw both of those years. I have told many Donkeys fans that if they think that their team won 2 Super Bowls outright, then they've humped their neighbors dog one too many times. It really p!sses them off to tell them Joe Montana is the best QB of all time & that he won 4 Super Bowls and that Elway lost 3, won 0, and had 2 given to him as going-away present. The truth hurts them and they don't like it.
And yet, they probably have Elway listed high somewhere in the top 100 players and say that he won 2 Super Bowls.
End of my rant, but since you brought up that subject Connie Jo, I figured that I'd post what I know to be true about it.
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