Some big news was announced over the weekend in Denver, but because of the holidays it didn’t receive a ton of national attention. Three days later, the sports world got its first glimpse of John Elway: Broncos exec. Elway, who won two Super Bowls with the Broncos, met the media Wednesday for the first time in his new role as VP of Football Operations.
One of Elway’s first responsibilities will be hiring a new head coach. Number seven recited the names of coaches on their list to interview, but gave fans reasons for concern. Though he was highly inspirational and persuasive in his news conference, he kept getting the name of one of the coaching candidates wrong. Elway kept calling Mike Mularkey, the former Bills head coach and current offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, “Mark Mularkey.”
Either John was brain cramping in the moment, has a mental block with Mularkey’s name, or is so unfamiliar with the man he didn’t know his name. Let’s give Elway the benefit of the doubt and hope the screwup was due to reason one or two. Here’s how it sounded:
Here are two problems that I have. One, he wants to bring in coaches for interviews just to get their opinion of the team. That’s like the tutor asking the student to teach him the subject. Two, he hasn’t exactly picked out people he thinks will make good head coaches, but rather the guys the rest of the pro football world has ordained as the top candidates. Not exactly an expression of ingenuity from Elway. Let’s hope for the sake of Broncos fans he can turn things around. Thanks to Pro Football Talk for pointing out the Mike/Mark thing.
