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By Adam Schefter
Jan. 17 - Watching him never got old, even if he did. Through the years, he has turned Sundays into celebrations. There was an endless run of them, sometimes feeling as if they could not end. Now they are about to. The sad but probable truth is today is John Elway's encore at Mile High Stadium. Maybe, if things do not go the way the Broncos plan, it is the final Elway encore. Colorado will miss what Elway brought to Mile High each Sunday. But maybe not as much as the people who were regular stops along the path Elway cut each NFL Sunday in Denver. In many ways, the careers of these supporting actors have been, to varying degrees, molded around Elway. And for the 16 seasons of Sundays, Elway has turned Mile High Stadium into his own little playground, these "players'' have hitched their wagon to a star, helped him achieve some small degree of his success, all while watching quietly in the background. As Colorado prepares to give Elway the loudest send-off since Discovery, the people who helped make everything but the games a Sunday routine for the quarterback will prepare for their final chance to be part of the Mile High memories Elway has carved since 1983. Servicing John Bill Rader, Broncos team chaplain Four-and-a-half hours before kickoff, about 20 Broncos players and coaches file into Conference Room J in the Inverness Hotel in Englewood, directly above the room where the team gathers to eat breakfast. At the head of the room is Bill Rader, the Broncos' team chaplain. In front of him are five rows of chairs, and the people who fill them. Almost always, the same people attend. There's guard Mark Schlereth, fullback Howard Griffith, offensive tackle Tony Jones, tight end Byron Chamberlain, among others. And in the last row - always in the last row - Broncos quarterback John Elway sits right next to defensive-line coach George Dyer, in the same middle seat he usually does. With Rader's assistance, the team prays. They read scriptures. They discuss faith. It is a solemn and spiritual time, this 30-minute Sunday service 4 hours before each kickoff. And to Elway, it is mandatory. Elway is the only Broncos coach or player not to miss a single one of the Sunday services in the eight years Rader has worked for the team. Elway is Mr. Perfect Attendance. "He just won't miss,'' Rader says. "Even when we're on the road back east, and the services start at 6:45 (a.m.) Colorado time, John just won't miss.'' This morning, same time as always, Elway plans to be in Conference Room J in the Inverness Hotel. It is game day. It is time to pray. "And I don't know that I'll ever be in that meeting room with him again,'' Rader said softly last week. "I'll miss him. He's real. He's refreshing. And he's a dear friend.'' The Hungry Man Bill Harpole, Broncos director of operations Elway's life is complicated enough. For all 16 seasons, Broncos director of operations Bill Harpole has been around to make it easier. Harpole makes sure that when Elway arrives at a side entrance at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood the night before every home game, he already is preregistered and his hotel room is waiting. It is always the same room. "Can't tell you the room number,'' says Harpole, who has worked for the Broncos for 20 years. "Someone could call the room (this morning).'' The night before each home game, Harpole makes sure the Inverness is serving Elway's favorite dinner. And serving it the right way. "His favorite is the macaroni and cheese,'' Harpole says. "And he likes it cheesy, not creamy.'' Elway's breakfast demands are just as stringent. When he walks into the team meal after his 30-minute Sunday morning service, he expects to see English muffins waiting on the buffet line. One time last year they weren't. "He asked me, "Where's the English Muffins?'- '' Harpole recalls. "I said, "I don't know. But I'll get them right now.'- '' Next season, Harpole will not have to worry about getting the same room ready and making sure macaroni is extra cheesy and checking to see if the English muffins are there. He wishes he did. "I don't like the idea of it very much,'' Harpole says. "Because I am having a difficult time picturing somebody else eating that macaroni and cheese and English muffins, and I'm serious about that. Sixteen years is a long time. I'll miss him. I'll miss what he brought to this place. He brought a feeling that he could accomplish anything.'' The Stickler Doug West, Broncos equipment manager For six straight seasons, since he took over as the Broncos' equipment manager, Doug West has unpacked Elway's bag into the same locker, the one tucked into the northeast corner of Denver's locker room in Mile High Stadium. West makes sure the man who has everything will have everything he needs. Helmet with a coach/quarterback electronic communications system that works? Check. Custom-fitted shoulder pads? Check. Shoes with the right-sized cleats for the field conditions? Check. Orthotics to make his shoes more comfortable? Check. Knee brace to prevent any further damage? Check. Sleeve to go under the brace on his right knee? Check. Thigh pads and knee pads? Check. A Logo Athletic baseball cap to wear on the sideline? Check. "He's really not a needy guy,'' West says as he sits behind his desk in the Broncos' equipment room. "We all know what he likes, and it's nothing out of the normal.'' Yet normal for Elway is not normal for everyone else. Elway is thought to be the only quarterback in the league with double-sided adhesive carpet tape placed between his upper-body padding and his jersey. This is something the athletic, scramble-happy Elway has had the Broncos do since the late 1980s, when one of the only ways a defensive lineman could catch him was reaching for his jersey and yanking him to the ground. Now, because of West, no one gets a grip. Each Sunday, Elway has West take about five minutes to create a one-piece setup - pads carpet-taped to his jersey - that the quarterback can simply slip on with the equipment manager's help. Today, West helps Elway set up one more time. "I don't know any other quarterback in the league who does it,'' West says. "And it's funny because when we played at Kansas City (on Monday night), Bubby Brister came to me before the game and said, "Doug, I'm running the ball on the first series of the game tonight. Tape me up.' So for the first time, I taped him up, too.'' And on Denver's fifth offensive play of the game, Brister bootlegged right and ran 38 yards for a touchdown. The Caretaker Steve "Greek'' Antonopulos, Broncos trainer Back in 1984, with the swipe of a pencil, Broncos veteran center Billy Bryan anointed Elway the franchise's most important player. Bryan penciled Elway's name atop the Broncos players' taping list, an honor that always had gone to a veteran. So since his second season, Elway has been the first Bronco to meet with Broncos trainer Steve "Greek'' Antonopulos to get all taped up. The two usually have talked about the friendly seven-man college football pool they operate, the one in which, Antonopulos is quick to point out, Elway has finished last in the past two years. While they teased each other about their picks, Antonopulos would tape Elway's left big toe. Then his right big toe. Then tape him really tight around his ankles. Antonopulos, who has 23 years of service with the Broncos, has done the same tape job on Elway for 16 seasons. All these years later, Elway still is No. 1. "This,'' Antonopulos says, "is the last time in that locker room that No. 7 is going to be No. 1 on that list.'' Just a week ago Saturday, when the Broncos were playing their AFC divisional playoff against the Miami Dolphins, Antonopulos realized Elway probably was making his second-to-last appearance at Mile High Stadium. When the Broncos introduced Elway during pregame warmups, Antonopulos watched from the Denver sideline and tears welled in his eyes. "That got to me,'' Antonopulos says. "You start thinking about John Elway, and the man he is, and the player he has been, and what he has meant to this organization and this city, and you can't help it. And I don't well up very much.'' The last time Antonopulos had welled up was during the pregame introductions of Super Bowl XXXII. There was a fly-by, and Antonopulos thought of his 26-year-old son, Nick, who is in the military, flying C130s in Little Rock, Ark. The Messenger Jack Elway, Broncos director of pro scouting The punishment for coaching college football was not getting to see his son play it. Only four times during John's standout Stanford career did father Jack get to see his boy quarterback. Those four times were when Stanford played San Jose State, the team Jack coached. It was not much different when John Elway left Stanford, moved to Denver and played for the Broncos. Jack Elway was too busy recruiting for San Jose State in 1983 and Stanford from '84-88, and too busy scouting for the New York Jets in '90, to find time to see the Hall of Fame passes his only boy was throwing. "I'd see him play one or two games a year, at most,'' Jack Elway says. It was not until 1993, when Jack Elway joined the Broncos as a pro scout, that he got to see his son play every week, every game. Now, 2 hours before each game, just as he has done during each of the past six seasons, Jack Elway makes his way down from the Mile High press box that he sits in during the game to the Broncos' locker room. Once there, Jack Elway sidles up next to his boy's locker. The father-son duo typically will not discuss family or business or anything of any kind of substance. Typically, it will just be the same simple little message, as if they were back sitting across from each other at the breakfast table, father ready to go to work, son ready to go to school. "Always tell him the same thing,'' Jack Elway says. "I just say, "Good luck. Give 'em hell.'- '' Air Bronco Ronnie Bill, assistant equipment manager Elway loves his wife, Janet, and each of his four children, but it really is Broncos equipment assistant manager Ronnie Bill who gets him all pumped up. For all but one of Elway's NFL games, it has been Bill - a quiet and shy man - who has pumped the air into the quarterback's helmet right before pregame warmups. A blast to the bladder in the back of the helmet, a blast to bladders on the sides. Bill, the only member of the Broncos' organization to be with the team since its inception in 1960, is Air Bronco himself. "It's just something I do,'' Bill says with a shrug. "Don't know why we started doing it, but we've been doing it ever since John got here.'' Yet just before the Broncos played the Raiders in Oakland in October 1997, Elway sought out Bill to pump up his helmet. Only Bill, for the first time since 1960, failed to make the trip. Much to the chagrin of Elway, West had to pump the air into the bladders of Elway's helmet. That day, Oakland running back Napoleon Kaufman ran wild and the Raiders ran over the Broncos with a 28-25 victory. And as soon as the Broncos got back to their training facility the next day, Elway marched himself into the equipment men's office, seeking out Bill, the man who let him down. "Where the heck were you?'' Elway asked. "The doctor wouldn't let me go,'' Bill explained. "I had to pass a kidney stone.'' Ever since then, there has been some kind of air about Bill. The good-hands person Pat Bowlen, Broncos owner "He's been around for my whole career, and I've been around for all but one year of his,'' Broncos owner Pat Bowlen said about Elway one night last week. Bowlen pauses, thinks about his time with Elway. It has been 15 years together, like a happily married couple. They even have held hands like it. Each Sunday after every Denver game for the past 15 seasons, Bowlen has been in the Broncos' locker room for the team prayer. And for every one of those team prayers, Bowlen has kneeled down to Elway's left, grabbed the quarterback's hand and held it until the prayer is finished. Bowlen does not know how the practice started. He guesses that, because Elway's locker is located in the northeast corner of the Broncos' locker room, right next to the door, Bowlen just walked in one day in 1984, kneeled down and happened to grab his quarterback's hand. He has not let go since. They have been with each other after painful playoff losses and jubilant Super Bowl wins, holding hands more often than most couples do. "It's never not happened because I haven't missed a game and he's always been in the locker room,'' Bowlen said. "And I don't want to overdramatize this. But this could be the last time I kneel down next to John in the locker room, holding hands when we say the team prayer. It very well could be.'' The Front Man Jim Saccomano, senior director of media relations Anyone who wants to talk with Elway talks with Jim Saccomano first. Saccomano, the Broncos' senior director of media relations, protects Elway from the crush of reporters the way the quarterback's offensive line protects him from the rush of a defensive line. Saccomano has given the Broncos 21 good years. Elway has gotten 16 of them. "I've been with John Elway longer than Mike Shanahan, longer than Pat Bowlen, longer than Terrell Davis,'' Saccomano says in his office that is decorated with six laminated Sports Illustrated covers that Elway has graced. "John has defined more than 75 percent of my working career. He is a dominant figure in my life, along with my wife, my daughter, my son, my mother.'' While Elway has compiled a mass of some incredible numbers, so has Saccomano. Each game at Mile High Stadium, Saccomano coordinates, on average, about 50 postgame interviews with Elway. Then there are about 50 postgame ones on the road as well. It all comes out to about 1,000 per season - which might be about average for a week at the Super Bowl - which comes out to about 16,000 over 16 seasons. Hall of Fame-type numbers. "I always ask, "Is John OK with what I'm doing or where this is going?'- '' Saccomano says. "As I'd tell him, "You drive the wagon. I'm just the guy who puts some grease on the wheels.'- '' The wagon is now rolling out of town faster than it ever has. The crush today, with Elway bidding to become the first quarterback to start five Super Bowls, with Elway exiting Mile High for what is probably the last time, will be extra, extra, extra tough. As will the goodbye Saccomano will one day tell the boss who never once signed his paycheck. The Bodyguard Fred Fleming, Broncos assistant to the general manager From 1960-66, Fred Fleming played guard for the Calgary Stampeders. Even at 59, he still plays guard today. The 5-foot-11, 205-pound Fleming, the Broncos' assistant to the general manager, is the closest thing Elway has to a bodyguard. During pregame warm-ups, Fleming and his mirrored sunglasses constantly are within 15 yards of Elway, making sure no one interrupts the quarterback's pregame routine. During the game, Fleming stands as close to Elway as possible along the Broncos sideline, an added security guard. And after the game, when Elway walks out of the locker room and into the public, Fleming is always standing by his man, serving as the autograph police. And nobody gets in his way. Earlier this season at Cincinnati's Cinergy Field as Fleming was leading Elway through the throngs back to the team bus, he shoved a shorter, dark-haired man out of the quarterback's way. Much to Fleming's surprise the shorter, dark-haired man turned out to be head coach Mike Shanahan. "I stay with John, not so much with him as at his back,'' Fleming said. "It's just an extra set of eyes so he doesn't get pounced on to sign this or sign that. I'm the guy people can get mad at.'' It seems Fleming always has been on the lookout for someone in the Broncos' organization. Fleming spent 24 years working for the Bowlen family business in Canada before coming to work for the Broncos in 1991. One day during training camp in 1995, Fleming happened to be standing near Elway when autograph seekers besieged him. Elway signed some, before Fleming rescued him. "Sorry, folks,'' Fleming told the crowd. "John has to go to meetings now.'' Elway was freed up. Fleming was brought aboard. And since then, Fleming has been every bit as valuable to Elway as his knee brace. Just before this season started, Elway handed Fleming one of his autographed books with the inscription: "Thanks for everything you've done. You're pretty big in my eyes.'' The Buddy Dennis Engel, president of the Elway Foundation They are so close, they even lived together after the Elways married. It was John, Janet, and Dennis Engel, Elway's college roommate and teammate. "The best thing for their marriage was me getting married myself,'' Engel says. "I moved out.'' But not out of Elway's life. Engel has been to almost every one of the Broncos' home games these past 16 years, there to meet Elway after the game and take him out. The day Elway threw five interceptions against the Kansas City Chiefs, Engel took him out that night and tried to lighten the mood, telling the bartender, "Give him a drink with five ice cubes in it.'' The day Elway lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars and felt like he had lost a ring forever, Engel visited the quarterback's house and listened to him vent for hours about the big one that got away, being that's what friends are for. The January night Elway beat the Packers and achieved his lifelong quest, Engel was at Qualcomm Stadium to give his friend the hug he still feels. And the two even celebrated Christmas together last month, with Elway giving Engel a duplicate Super Bowl ring with Engel's name and college number - 69 - on it. "I'm with him when he loses as much as when he wins,'' says Engel, also the president of the Elway Foundation. "I'm his biggest fan no matter what. It's unconditional.'' Engel has heard all the hints Elway has dropped. He has heard Elway say, too many times to count, "I'm done.'' He has heard Janet talking about her husband's final regular-season game at Mile High, which came three Sundays ago against Seattle. Now comes what looks like it will be Elway's encore at Mile High. And just last month, when Engel and Elway and a group of their friends were out drinking beers again, a member of their party said, "Geez, I can't imagine John not playing next year.'' Engel looked at Elway, Elway looked at Engel. "I can,'' Engel told the group. "I can imagine camping reservations next year.'' A grin appeared on Elway's face. Then he and Engel raised their beer mugs and high-fived. |