"Elway to Marino"

I don't pay much attention to ESPN anymore. I certainly don't go there for news but I will go there for their "30 for 30" series. It's excellent. To ride the wave of the recent NFL Draft, ESPN aired their most edition of the show last week. I finally saw it this week. "Elway to Marino" might have been the best yet. The episode was about the draft that introduced a brought a ton of football talent to the NFL. It was viewed through the eyes of John Elway's and Dan Marino's agent Marvin Demoff as well as many of those that experienced that amazing draft first hand. The 1983 NFL Draft had more intrigue than perhaps any other. It also had talent. A lot of talent. It's best known for the six quarterbacks that were selected in the first round. That run on quarterbacks started with the Baltimore Colts selection of Stanford's John Elway with the first pick in the draft. The run ended with the second to last pick of the first round when the Miami Dolphins lucked into Pitt's Dan Marino. In between those two Hall of Fame quarterbacks the Kansas City Chiefs selected Penn St.'s Todd Blackledge at #7, the Buffalo Bills selected their own Hall of Fame quarterback in Miami's Jim Kelly at #14, the New England Patriots selected Illinois's Tony Eason at #15, and the New York Jets surprised some, especially their fans, when they selected Ken O'Brien of UC-Davis at #24. The biggest story of the entire draft was Elway's refusal to play for the Baltimore Colts. The entire Elway family made their feelings known well in advance of the draft. They didn't want to play for Colts coach Frank Kush. They were very familiar with Kush's harsh and sometimes brutal coaching ways. The Elway's had no interest in dealing with Colts owner Bob Irsay. Actually, no one in football really enjoyed  dealing with Irsay. He was nuts. The only sane person on the Colts side of things was general manager Ernie Accorsi. Elway was the best prospect that Accorsi had ever scouted. As a self-respecting personnel man, he had to take Elway at #1. He'd listen to trade offers but those offers started at three #1 picks with one of those picks being a top-5 pick. It was a steep price but Accorsi felt that a player like Elway warranted a steep price. No one met it. The most interesting part of "Elway to Marino" was all the teams that tried. San Francisco 49ers coach and decision-maker Bill Walsh even thought of trading Joe Montana to get Elway. The Dallas Cowboys came close. So did the Patriots. The Los Angeles Raiders were close but Al Davis, of course, thought that the NFL killed a possible trade. Fun and games. A week after the draft, Accorsi learned that Elway was traded to the Denver Broncos while watching a Denver Nuggets playoff game. Irsay made the trade for a fraction of what Accorsi was demanding. Needless to say, Ernie Accorsi couldn't work in that environment and resigned. There was also similar drama surrounding the Bills drafting of Kelly. The Miami quarterback really had little interst in playing in Buffalo. While he didn't go as far as Elway in his dislike of the team that drafted him by demanding a trade, Kelly just didn't sign with Buffalo. He didn't sign right away. He went the USFL route and signed with the Houston Gamblers. Of course, Kelly would eventually do special things in Buffalo. Well, as special as four Super Bowls without wins is special. Marino's fall to #27 was another big story of the draft. Especially considering the three non-Hall of Fame quarterbacks taken before him.

The 1983 Draft is best known for the quarterbacks but this draft had a bunch of non-throwing talent as well. Selected at #2 was SMU running back Eric Dickerson. Enough said there. The Houston Oilers selcted one of the most versatile and best offensive lineman to play the game in USC's Bruce Matthews at #9. The Washington Redskins selected Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green with the 28th, and final, pick of the first round. Six Hall of Fame players were selected in the first round. A seventh was selected in the eighth round when the Chicago Bears found defensive end Richard Dent. Terrific players such as Curt Warner, Chris Hinton, Jim Covert, Joey Browner, Don Mosebar, Gill Byrd, Terry Kinard, and so many more. Most often you look back at a draft and see maybe a quarter of the first round amounting to something. The 1983 Draft is the reverse of that There's only a few that did little to nothing.

ESPN really does a fantastic job with their "30 for 30" work. The football episodes usually get an assist from NFL Films which adds a significant amount of magic. The 1983 NFL Draft is one of the most intriguing and interesting events in league history. This draft and the Elway saga was franchise changing. I always wondered what would have happened with the Baltimore Colts if Irsay hadn't bungled things and Accorsi's sanity had saved the day. If things had worked with Elway and the Colts, would the team have bolted from Baltimore for Indianapolis? If the Colts had Elway, would they have ever drafted Peyton Manning? Elway likely would have had the Colts closer to Super Bowls than the top of the draft in 1998. ESPN didn't deal with the "what if's". They just dealt with people that lived it and the events that transpired in 1983.