Elway

July 13, 2020
Sportswriter Cole (Giant, coathored with Plaxico Burress) delivers an in-depth, entertaining biography of one of football’s greatest quarterbacks, John Elway. Cole painstakingly details Elway’s life, beginning with his Port Angeles, Wash., childhood and his move to Los Angeles when his father became head football coach of Cal State–Northridge. In high school, Elway excelled at both football and baseball, and competed against Darryl Strawberry in the 1979 Los Angeles baseball championship. But it was football that took Elway to Stanford in 1979. Cole details Elway’s college career, including his reaction to “The Play” at Stanford—one of Elway’s best drives that nevertheless resulted in a loss and, according to Elway, “ruined my last game as a college football player.” The Denver Broncos picked him at number one in the 1983 draft, and he went on to play his entire 16-year career there, taking the team to Superbowl victories in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. After his retirement in 1999, he became co-owner of the Colorado Rush arena football team and returned to the Broncos in 2011 to become general manager. Cole smoothly takes readers from on-field action to back-office decision-making as Elway drafted University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, with mixed results, before signing veteran Peyton Manning. Cole shows Elway’s nervousness during his job interview for the general manager position, as well as the Super Bowl triumph that came after Manning was signed. This is a must-read for Elway and Broncos fans.

August 1, 2020

Through high school, college, and the NFL, quarterback John Elway (b. 1960) redefined his position, championed professional athletes' autonomy, and earned a legacy as one of the greatest football players of his generation. Cole (Bleacher Report) attended Stanford University while Elway was leading the school's football team. His personal memories of that era give him unique insight into Elway's controversial transition to the NFL and prominent role in the game's shift from defense and coaching to an emphasis on quarterbacks. From the anguish of "The Play" in 1982, marking Elway's last moments on a college football field, to redemptive triumph in Super Bowl 50, the Hall of Famer was always known for pushing boundaries. In this well-rounded, comprehensive biography, Cole illuminates the origins of Elway's skill set and ultra-competitive nature, and puts the athlete in his rightful place as a football immortal. VERDICT With exclusive recollections of Elway's college football years, Cole delves into the forces that shaped the quarterback and gave him the resiliency to overcome challenges both on and off the field. Recommended for all public library collections, and especially for readers interested in the evolution of sports in the late 20th century.--Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
Vigorous biography of the hard-driven football star. As Cole notes in this admiring narrative, there have been statistically better quarterbacks in the history of the NFL: Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Brett Favre, to name a few. However, the author convincingly shows that no other quarterback has combined his drive, intelligence, willpower, and athleticism, and none has been so relentless in seeking self-improvement and gridiron glory. Cole traces some of John Elway's skill to the instructions provided by his father, Jack, who coached for San Jose State University and Stanford and who provided postgame analyses while Elway was playing high school and college ball--analyses that focused less on individual plays than on Elway's leadership skills and attitude. Elway later brought his father to Denver to coach for the Broncos, where Elway enjoyed a distinguished career that took off after he figured out how to apply those leadership skills to a sometimes recalcitrant team. "After ten years of playing statistically ugly football," writes Cole, "Elway began a run many athletes and sports experts would consider strange," with the QB putting up his best numbers in his last six years of playing, which doesn't often occur. Cole is a fluent interpreter of the game of football and its arcana, and he has a considered appreciation for what it is that makes a great leader; as he notes, the quarterback is "an extension of management," to say nothing of being the "highest-paid player on the team." Elway's skills as a team builder made management strong-arming needless, and when he became a general manager himself, he saw to it that his successor, Peyton Manning, developed the same abilities--even though Elway's haggling over money nearly caused Manning to leave the team more than once. Fans of the Broncos--and football in general--will enjoy this portrait of one of the game's greatest players.

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