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Thundering ovation Broncos, fans celebrate yet another Super Bowl win
Posted: Sunday February 28, 1999 10:04 AM
DENVER (CNN/SI) -- Broncos fans turned out by the thousands on a cloudy Monday, mainly to celebrate Denver's second straight Super Bowl win, but also to potentially bid farewell to Super Bowl MVP John Elway. And it's never too early to lobby for the quarterback to come back for one more year -- again. "He will come back because he wants to be the only quarterback to three-peat," said Cindy Unrein Chengery, a season ticket holder like her parents before her. But, hugging a reporter, she added, "It's not just Elway anymore. We have a whole team now ... Terrell Davis, Bill Romanowski, Rod Smith..." "You can't call them the donkeys anymore," said Fran Cronin, a Denver native who has been a fan all her life and watched the Broncos lose four Super Bowls. Many of Elway's teammates had said they expect him to retire, but that was before Sunday night's 34-19 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Elway was named the game's MVP. Speaking to the crowd at a downtown rally that followed a victory parade, Elway gave the fans a spark of hope that he could be back for more, but no guarantee. "That three-peat does sound interesting," Elway said after doing a little dance to a Billy Idol song when he was introduced. "But we'll talk about that, but right now we're going to enjoy this win we had last night." Even Coach Mike Shanahan, who usually avoids putting any public pressure on his quarterback, urged Elway to stay, saying "One more time for Elway," and starting a crowd chant of "One More Year, One More Year!" Elway would say nothing more about his plans. "I just want to say that after 14 years I thought it could get better, 15 it was great, and after 16 to win two in a row, it's been unbelievable," he said. "And we all up here owe you a bunch because without you it's not all possible. So we up here thank you. "We thought last year was great, this year was even better," the quarterback said. "As I said two weeks ago, I love you." The Broncos initially said they wanted only a rally because nine players needed to get to Honolulu for the Pro Bowl by Tuesday. But fans and Mayor Wellington Webb convinced the team to change its position, saying the Broncos should show some gratitude to the city that voted last November to give them a new stadium. The Broncos traveled down Broadway on fire trucks and in buses, starting in the downtown area and continuing about a mile to Civic Center Park for the rally. Police and a spokesman for the mayor estimated the crowd size at 375,000. Many of them were small children, some doing their best imitation of running back Davis, whose jersey they wore, as they zigged and zagged to get away from their parents. So many thousands of people crowded into the 16th Street Mall that shuttle buses had to stop running. The city took on an almost medieval air with hawkers selling every kind of Broncos paraphernalia, and others offering to paint fans' faces blue and orange for $3. Many in the crowd sat for several hours or more -- with a strong north wind dropping the wind chill into the 20s -- to hear their heroes. "I just wanted to say that this year I think is a little bit more special than last year," Davis told the crowd. "I think the road to getting back here was a little tougher. But my teammates and I we got together ... and we got another one baby, thanks a lot." Fans began gathering at Civic Center before the sun rose. Laurie Franti, who moved to Denver from Buffalo, was sporting a No. 84 Broncos jersey in honor of her favorite player, Shannon Sharpe. "I like him because of his mouth," she said. "He can talk his way down the field." Franti's son, Jake, a fifth grader, skipped school to attend the rally. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of his favorite player, Ed McCaffrey. Dymple Palmer had painted the Broncos mascot, Thunder, on her fingernails. "I didn't believe we would win two in a row," she said. "Now we're true believers." Many in crowd wore Styrofoam horse heads modeled after Thunder that were going for $40. In a playoff game, tight end Sharpe rushed over and nuzzled the horse after scoring a touchdown. The parade route was much shorter than last year, when 650,000 people turned out to celebrate the end of Denver's 37 years in football's wilderness. That rally was held several days after the Super Bowl on a sunny day when temperatures hit 60. The team had gone to the Super Bowl four times, losing by large margins in all of them, and after its first victory drew nearly twice as many to its parade as had gathered to see Pope John Paul II celebrate mass in 1993. Some fans, their hearts broken so often, took to calling them the "Donkeys." Some media representatives referred to them as "Elway and the 10 dwarfs." Elway was the quarterback in the last three losses. Last year, he became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, in a 31-24 victory over Green Bay, at age 37, in his 15th season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||
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