Sean Payton 'Paid' John Elway a Lot of Money on the Golf Course
As the Denver Broncos' new brain trust held court on Thursday, one week ahead of the 2023 NFL draft, it didn't take long for the John Elway subject to come up. Elway recently stepped away from the Broncos, for good, apparently, and GM George Paton and head coach Sean Payton reflected on the Duke of Denver's impact.
"John is the most important figure in this franchise's history and one of the more important figures, I believe, in NFL history," Paton said.
The Broncos general manager went on to call Elway a "personal mentor" and a "friend." As for Payton, his take on Elway was different.
Payton's anecdote about Elway spanned his time as a quarterback in Mike Shanahan's offense, to sharing responsibilities on the NFL's Competition Committee, to hanging out with him in Idaho during the summer and losing, apparently, copious amounts of coin to him on the golf course.
“For me, this is a little interesting. I've been on the competition committee with John for a number of years," Payton said. "My relationship with John from afar was that of someone on offense watching his film. Watching the Shanahan-Elway film, it was always one of those tapes that you had to study. I can recall the first time Mike and John put the big tight end outsides of the receivers in an empty formation against the Dallas Cowboys at your old Mile High Stadium. When we got that film, we thought someone had split the atom."
Indeed, Shanahan's offense literally revolutionized the NFL, and Elway was its first triggerman. The coach/QB duo won back-to-back Super Bowls together in the late 1990s before Elway retired.
Cut to modern times, and one would be hard-pressed to identify a contemporary NFL offense that doesn't have Shanahan's fingerprints on it on some level. He deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and that should happen in the not-too-distant future.
But when it comes to Payton's relationship with Elway, there's more.
"That relationship from afar was as a player, but it gets better. In the summers, I have a chance to get up to Idaho," Payton reflected. "There's a little lake place up there where we golf. For me, it's only three years. John's been up there for a long time. I'm the head coach of the Saints at this time, and I'm getting to know him every morning... We’ve golfed, and I can't tell you how many rounds."
Payton wants to keep Elway close, just so he has an opportunity to win back some of the money he's lost to the excellent golfer who also happens to be a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
"It is important for me that—John has an office here and he's going to obviously [be] around a lot," Payton said. "I paid him a lot of money, so I don't want him going anywhere fast because I'm trying to get back in his pocket. I kind of feel like I helped him with that retirement decision with the income he's gotten from me in the summers."
In all seriousness, Payton reflected on how small the NFL world can be and how he went from New Orleans to coaching the Broncos in Elway's backyard.
"It's a small world to now all of a sudden be coming in," Payton said. "I'm now the head coach of the Broncos, and John and I would talk about the Broncos and the Saints all the time in the summer or at competition committee meetings. It’s telling of how small our world is. He's a better golfer than me. Obviously, I need more strokes.”
It's hard to say if Payton was saying that he wishes Elway would keep an "office here" as a joke because he wants to keep him close to win back some golf money, or if the Broncos are leaving an office open to the man who served as the team's top football executive for a decade. Based on reports, Elway has parted ways with the Broncos, which, ostensibly, would include relinquishing his office.
In a virtual press conference that was meant to be about the Broncos' draft preparations, there wasn't space to drill down into Payton's comments about an Elway office. Perhaps more will be unveiled on that subject as time marches on.
In the meantime, Broncos Country continues to celebrate what Elway has meant to this team over his 28 years combined as a player, executive, and consultant. It didn't end well, but never forget that Elway is one of the NFL's rarest birds to win a World Championship as a player and general manager.
He's an unprecedented type of guy. But when it comes to Elway's legacy, he's of the opinion that it's not for him to decide.
“I’ve always let everyone else frame that answer," Elway recently told Woody Paige. "My thoughts are the Broncos always have been loyal to me, and I always have been loyal to the Broncos. As a player and an executive, they gave 28 years, and I hope I gave back to the Broncos and the fans for all my 28 years. It didn’t end as well as I hoped, and I made mistakes. But we did win another Super Bowl. Most important is the great relationships I’ve fostered in my 40 years in Colorado.
“Everyone wants to be remembered for being good at their craft. I’m proud of what we all have accomplished together. I did everything to be the best I could.’’
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