Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway is ready to get back into the NFL more than 11 years after retiring.
Elway, who retired in 1999 after winning his second straight Super Bowl for the Denver Broncos, is planning to attend some of their training camp practices this summer and has agreed to help market the team’s game in London in September.
Elway told the Denver Post recently that he’d also eventually like to own a piece of the Broncos.
After finishing his round at the Colorado Open golf tournament on Thursday, Elway said he had no news to report from owner Pat Bowlen regarding his desire to be a co-owner but was eager to help his old team in many ways.
Elway, who carries a handicap of zero and fired an 11-over-par 83 at the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club on Thursday, reconnected with the Broncos on the golf course this summer.
He teed off last month with Broncos second-year coach Josh McDaniels and the two discussed ways he could be involved with the franchise again after having very little contact with the team during the latter part of Mike Shanahan’s tenure.
He isn’t doing his famous helicopter dive back into football, just getting his feet wet again.
“I think it’s going to be just a step-by-step type thing as needed,” Elway said. “Kind of be around them a little bit more. Do some stuff on the business side for them with sponsors and stuff, to get a little bit closer to them and slowly work into it and see what they need. If they need advice, then I’m there to give it to them — if they want my advice.”
The Broncos are eager for Elway, who turned 50 last month, to be a part of their future and not just their past. Whether that means Bowlen offers him a piece of the team is uncertain.
Elway said he wanted a clean break from American football when he retired. He learned the business side of the sport as one of the owners of Denver’s Arena League team before that league folded.
“When I first retired I wanted to get away. I had been in football my whole life. My dad was a coach so I wanted to get away from football,” Elway said. “And then when I wanted to get back in, that’s why I did the Arena League, to learn the business side of it, be on that side and get some experience.”
Elway said he’s eager to step back into pro football, especially now that McDaniels is entering his second season in Denver.
“I think that now is the time. Last year I think would have been tough with the transition to what they were going through and so maybe now is the time to start,” Elway said. “Timing may be a lot better now in their minds than it was a while back.”
And it certainly is in Elway’s mind.
“I’m finally at the point of my life to where I guess I’m starting to just enjoy life a little bit instead of charging ahead,” he said.
“Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve always charged and now I’m in a pretty good spot,” Elway said. “I’m back in the car business. I’ve got three dealerships in California and they’re doing fine now. I’m taking the foot off the pedal a little bit and kind of smelling the roses a little bit.”
Elway said he hasn’t been around the Broncos enough but said eight to 10 wins would be a successful season for the team that beefed up its defensive front but also lost Pro Bowl wideout Brandon Marshall.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed