John Elway quarterbacked the Broncos to two NFL championships. Peyton Manning, Elway&#8217;s key acquisition as team executive, has put the Broncos in
John Elway quarterbacked the Broncos to two NFL championships. Peyton Manning, Elway's key acquisition as team executive, has put the Broncos in position to make a run at a third title. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

NFL records are meant to be broken by John Elway. A quarter century after winning MVP as a quarterback, Elway is slower and grayer. He's also in position to be the first MVP in league history to later be named executive of the year.

Which award might look cooler in Elway's trophy case?

A grimace crossed Elway's face. Oops, I thought. Stupid question.

"You always wish you could be 25 years old and playing football. You always wish that. Nothing compares to playing quarterback," said Elway, leaning back in his chair at his Dove Valley office, where an $18 million gamble on quarterback Peyton Manning made the Broncos an unexpected contender for the Super Bowl during Elway's second season as executive vice president of football operations in Denver. "But because I can't play, this job is the next best thing."

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Who is more essential to the success of the Broncos?

A) Manning, a leading MVP candidate in 2012.

B) Elway, architect of Denver's football renaissance.

It's no contest. The answer is A.

How do we know? No less an authority than Elway told me so.

"The most important people in football are the ones who play. The players are the ones who make it happen on the field. I'm just trying to put the puzzle together outside the lines," Elway said. "Front-office people and coaches who have success in the NFL understand it's the players who make everything happen."

At age 52, Elway has mastered a lesson of ego and franchise management that many former superstars never do. I'm not sure Michael Jordan ever will understand the basketball world no longer revolves around him.

Elway is the face of sports in Colorado. But the Broncos are Manning's team.

The boss is wise enough to know the difference.

When Elway walked in on the mess left by Josh McDaniels in January 2011, conventional wisdom was the team would require three, maybe even five years to regain elite status.

We should have known better. As a quarterback, Elway never needed more a few ticks on the clock to mount a miracle comeback. And he knew the shortcut to success.

"The key thing for every NFL team, and I believe this whole-heartedly, is you need a quarterback," Elway said.

That's why Tim Tebow had to go. Tebow was an inspiration, a winner and a role model. But he was no NFL quarterback.

"A great quarterback makes up for so many other voids on your football team, because you've got that guy who touches the ball every snap. And, if you don't have that guy, those other weaknesses are more exposed," Elway said.

"When Peyton Manning decided to come to Denver, it was huge for us. It made everybody in this organization more confident. He made every other player better. He gave every player the hope that now we could compete for a world championship. Peyton Manning came here with a chip on his shoulder. If anybody could make this deal work for us, it was Peyton Manning."

The Broncos, of course, own an 11-3 record for reasons more intricate than Manning. The defense has been reworked on every level, from rookie defensive end Derek Wolfe to veteran middle linebacker Keith Brooking to the steadying influence of free-agent safety Mike Adams. Elway does not worry new defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio might be hired away as a head coach after only a single season, because he would much rather employ a coach that everybody wants than a coach nobody wants.

But the influence of Manning on the Broncos far exceeds his sterling 103.5 quarterback rating, 4,016 passing yards and 31 touchdowns.

The arrival of Manning declared to every Denver player that it was indeed Super Bowl or bust. There was No Plan B and no reason to defer dreams.

That's why Elway deserves to be executive of the year. He gave a franchise living on a prayer a genuine reason to believe it could win it all.

"As I player, all I wanted was the hope instilled by the people at the top of the organization. I wanted the hope they were going to give me the very best chance to compete to win a world championship," Elway said.

"When you have the hope of competing for the Super Bowl, the level of everybody's play increases. It didn't guarantee we were going to win the Super Bowl. But if you have that hope, you play better, you enjoy the job more, the nicks and pains seem to heal quicker, and the hard work is not as hard."

Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053, or