What Might Have Been

In 1983, the Baltimore Colts made John Elway the top pick in the draft. The former Stanford QB didn't much care for that. He didn't want to play for the Colts. He even went so far as to say that he would rather play baseball for the New York Yankees. He actually did have that option. The pressure got too great for Colts owner Robert Irsay and he traded Elway to the Denver Broncos. The rest was history. I read that then Colts GM Ernie Accorsi was very close to changing Elway's mind. He was close to signing the future Hall of Famer and Super Bowl hero. Just imagine the different paths that the Broncos and the Colts would have taken if Irsay had waited and listened to his GM. For one, the Colts may have remained in Baltimore. I would expect more fan interest and overall team success with Elway at QB than Mark Hermann. Elway played until 1999. Perhaps, the Colts choose someone other than Peyton Manning in '98.

I always get a kick out of hearing about these "what might have been" situations. It's truly amazing how easily paths could have changed . I just read New York Jets' coach Rex Ryan's book. It's a very interesting read, if anyone is curious. Ryan mentioned one of these crossroads moments that really grabbed my attention. As the 2009 draft approached, Ryan and the Jets had fallen for USC QB Mark Sanchez. Unfortuantely for the Jets, they picked at 17. They would have to jump into the top 5 to have a shot at him. Of course, history tells us they made that trade and drafted Sanchez. They had a backup plan in case they couldn't move up in the draft. The Jets were going to draft Florida receiver Percy Harvin at 17. As soon as the draft ended Ryan was going to jump on a plane and visit Brett Favre. Wow. History tells us that Favre and Harvin helped make a magical Minnesota Vikings possible.

Little nuggets like these happen all the time, especially in the draft. We rarely hear about them, but when we do it can shocking. So many things that we just accept may have come so close to being so very different.