Of all the names on our list last month of the most overrated quarterbacks in history, none incited a more emotional response than the name of John Elway.

 

Of course, loyal CHFF readers (Hi Cousin Cooter!) know what happens when emotions run up against the steely, impenetrable defenses of the Cold, Hard Football Facts:

 

Emotions get bitch-slapped as badly as a Patriots offensive lineman in Super Bowl XLII.

 

Elway is clearly an epic hero in NFL history. He’s clearly a guy who engendered an emotional attachment from his fans. And he’s clearly a great, Hall of Fame quarterback. We don’t dispute any of that and – all you little bloggers and chat-board posters out there – don’t pretend we’ve said otherwise.

 

However, Elway is hardly one of the two, three or four greatest quarterbacks in history – positions in which he’s routinely placed when people compile their emotional lists of greatest QBs in history (Athlon Sports, as we've noted, recently named Elway the second best quarterback of the Super Bowl Era, which is factually inaccurate by any measure).

 

In fact, as CHFF readers learned back in January, Elway doesn't even make the definitive list of the top 10 quarterbacks in history. Sammy Baugh, he was not.

 

Therefore, he’s overrated. That’s O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D for the spelling impaired and factually impaired.

 

Here’s a typical email we received from Elway fans about the list of overrated quarterbacks. We just got it earlier this week, and it comes from someone who lists their name as the alliterative Brandon Bammel. Its sheer ignorance prompted a response.

 

Here’s what Beau Brummel wrote:

 

“For the most part I agree with that list. Where I take issue is with John Elway. Of all the QBs in the history on the NFL you have Elway at 5?! That is a complete joke. Whoever wrote this is all about the stats. Is Tom Brady overrated because he doesn’t put up Peyton Manning numbers? I think not. Elway won 2 Super Bowls late in his career. He also went to 3 others. He was the sole reason they were in those Super Bowls with that terrible defense.” (Our emphasis.)

 

As the great rock chanteuse Ellen Foley once shouted in Meatloaf’s high-school-boy classic “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”:

 

 

As is so often done with certain select quarterbacks in NFL history, emotional fans believe their favorite player was singularly responsible for any success – and blame everyone else on the team for any failings. (Note the "Cult of Dan" centered in South Florida.)

 

These fans are tools. Elway fans are among these tools. And we have the Cold, Hard Football Facts to prove they are tools.

 

Of all the myths that surround Elway, such as the myth that he produced great numbers, the most vile and ignorant myth is the belief that he – as fan Brandon Bammel claimed above – single-handedly carried pathetic, un-talented, defense-less teams to the Super Bowl, particularly their first three Super Bowls at the end of the 1986, 1987 and 1989 seasons.

 

The Cold, Hard Football Facts tell quite a different story. The Cold, Hard Football Facts tell us that his teams were actually better on defense than they were on offense. This irrefutable Cold, Hard Football Fact runs contrary to the opinion expressed by Elway lemmings that he was “the sole reason they were in those Super Bowls with that terrible defense.”

 

Let’s look at the Cold, Hard Football Facts, shall we?

 

The 1986 Broncos, in addition to Elway, fielded Pro Bowlers at running back (Sammy Winder), guard (Keith Bishop), defensive end (Rulon Jones), linebacker (Karl Mecklenburg) and safety (Dennis Smith)

 

The 1987 Broncos, in addition to Elway, fielded Pro Bowlers at guard (Bishop) and linebacker (Mecklenburg).

 

The 1989 Broncos, in addition to Elway, fielded Pro Bowlers at nose tackle (Greg Kragen), linebacker (Mecklenburg), safety (Smith) and kicker (David Treadwell).

 

Do any of those sound like teams with a “terrible defense”?

 

Of course not. In fact, Denver’s first three Super Bowl teams with Elway were, on average, better on defense than they were on offense! Denver’s first three Super Bowl teams with Elway, on average:

Clearly, Elway made the Broncos better. We don’t dispute that. But the notion that Elway was “the sole reason they were in those Super Bowls with that terrible defense” is clearly and statistically inaccurate, as even Beau Brummel can see above.

 

Of course, Denver’s defense got whitewashed in the three Super Bowls those seasons. They surrendered 39 points to the Giants in Super Bowl XXI, 42 points to the Redskins in Super Bowl XXII and 55 points – the most ever – in Super Bowl XXIV.

 

But that doesn’t pull Elway off the hook. After all, he was utterly dreadful in those three Super Bowls, offering up some of the worst performances of his career. The Broncos offense produced a total of just 40 points in those three games (an average of 13.3 PPG) and Elway was a large reason why his offense underperformed:

 

Elway was fairly ordinary in Super Bowl XXI against the Giants. He completed 22 of 37 passes (59.5%) for 304 yards, 8.2 YPA, 1 TD, 1 INT and an 83.6 passer rating.

 

Elway was pathetic in Super Bowl XXII against the Redskins. He completed 14 of 38 passes (36.8%) for 257 yards, 6.8 YPA, 1 TD, 3 INT and a 36.8 passer rating.

 

Elway was an Asian-tsunami-like disaster in Super Bowl XXIV against the 49ers. He completed 10 of 26 passes (38.5%) for 108 yards, 4.2 YPA, 0 TD, 2 INT and a 19.4 (yes, 19.4) passer rating.

 

Elway's cumulative performance in Denver’s three Super Bowl losses:

Beau Brummel probably believes that the talent-less Broncos fell apart around Elway in those Super Bowls, while his hero stood tall and strong in the face of defeat. The Broncos certainly fell apart around him, but Elway was as big a part of the problem as anybody, as evidenced by his pretty pathetic average performance in those three games. Six picks in three Super Bowls will earn you three losses just about every time.

 

Of course, to Elway’s credit – again, he is a great, HOF quarterback – he won two Super Bowls late in his career. And if he didn’t carry defenseless, untalented team to his first three Super Bowls, he certainly didn’t carry defenseless, untalented teams to his final two Super Bowls.

 

In fact, he had quite a lot of help, contrary to the mythology that surrounds his career.

 

The 1997 Broncos fielded Pro Bowlers, in addition to Elway, at running back (Terrell Davis), tight end (Shannon Sharpe), center (Tom Nalen) and defensive end (Neil Smith).

 

The 1998 Broncos fielded Pro Bowlers, in addition to Elway, at wide receiver (Ed McCaffrey), tight end (Sharpe), running back (Davis), tackle (Tony Jones), guard (Mark Schlereth), center (Nalen), linebacker (Bill Romanowski), safety (Steve Atwater) and, yes, even kicker (Jason Elam).

 

Clearly, those Super Bowl champions were better on offense than they were on defense. But again, contrary to the belief that Elway played all 11 positions and did it all by his lonesome, he had an incredible amount of help – on both sides of the ball.

 

A great running game certainly aided Elway's cause, too.

 

The 1997 Broncos possessed one of the best rushing attacks in football, pounding out 520 attempts for 2,378 yards, 4.6 YPA and 18 rushing TDs.

 

The 1998 Broncos were even better on the ground. They pounded 525 attepts for 2,468 yards, 4.7 YPA and 26 rushing TDs – one of the highest single-season totals in history.

 

Elway earned his first and highly anticipated Super Bowl title at the end of the 1997 season, with a 31-24 victory over the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. Sure, Elway fans like Beau Brummel would like to think that Elway single-handedly carried the team to victory all by his lonesome.

 

But, once again, the Cold, Hard Football Facts say otherwise. In fact, Elway continued his grand tradition of playing poorly in the Super Bowl that day against the Packers. He completed 12 of 22 passes (54.5%) for 123 yards, 5.6 YPA, 0 TD, 1 INT and a 51.9 passer rating.

 

Elway was aided largely by his team’s 179 rushing yards and four rushing TDs, and Davis's MVP 157-yard effort, accounting for more than half of Denver's 302 yards of offense that day.

 

Of course, Elway capped his career brilliantly, with an MVP performance in his very last game of pro football, a 34-19 win over the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. Elway was great that day:

It’s the type of dream-day performance you might expect from a Hall of Fame quarterback. Elway deserves all the praise in the world for going out in style – in a style few others can ever claim.

 

But the notion that Elway was “the sole reason they were in those Super Bowls with that terrible defense” is, as you now see, a complete myth.

 

Elway was a great Hall of Fame quarterback, who had the fortune of playing with consistently strong defenses and great players on both sides of the ball. Hell, seven of the 11 offensive starters on the 1998 Broncos reached the Pro Bowl. So let's give a little credit to the rest of the Broncos who shared in those great moments of triumph with Elway.