30 for 30 running thread

Cool story bro...

That story does speak volumes... There are some owners whose players treat them with complete respect. Robert Kraft comes immediately to mind... Obviously, it was the case with the Hunt, Halas, Rooney and Mara families... Eddie D... I'm sure there are a few others... Then the opposite spectrum is what you just described... Someone who may sign the checks, but just doesn't get it...

 

Finally got around to watching this in the hours before the draft, and absolutely loved it. The candor of everyone involved was nice to see.

Loved the segments with Blackledge and O'Brien being amazed that they were taken over Marino. And the stuff with Kelly ripping Buffalo only to become one of their all-time beloved players was pretty funny in retrospect.

I'd like to know the story of why Eason wasn't interviewed when all the other key guys were. I have my suspicions, but it wasn't addressed on-air.

Looking back, that draft will always be known as "the Year of the Quarterback," but it was pretty incredible even without those six guys. Six Hall-of-Famers and 15 Pro Bowlers in the first round.

And that number doesn't count Eason, Leonard Smith and Willie Gault, who were key contributors on Super Bowl teams. Billy Ray Smith, Mike Pitts and Jim Jeffcoat all had long solid careers. Tim Lewis was an excellent player before he was injured.

I guess the ultimate winners in all this were Elway and Marino (and Demoff), but Ernie Accorsi comes out looking pretty good as well. Imagine if he could have pulled off either of those trades with the Raiders or Cowboys.

Accorsi gambled and he lost, but he had the stones to stick to his guns until his owner undercut him. Loved his answer when he was asked why he didn't just draft Marino if he was going to try to trade for his rights later. He said something like "Elway was the pick. He was the best player by far and you always draft the best player available."

 

With the 30-30 bar set so high by all of us, you guys really think this is one of the best ever? Wow! I am only a third way thru, but I am sort of 'meh'...

A couple things:
I think they said the Colts were winless the year before... no way.

I don't think Dad and Demoff did Elway any favors by concocting the fakakta "I don't want to play in the cold east coast". Something for the press and players (ie Bradshaw) to kill him for. Demoff was being paid 5% (or whatever the agent fee was). Do better.

 

0-8-1 during the strike-shortened 1982 season. Tied the Packers.

 

What does that have to do with it being, or not being, one of the better 30 for 30s?

 

Thank you. I stand corrected.

 

It doesn't. I made a couple thoughts in one post.

 

No doubt. The cold weather excuse just made him look like an absurdly spoiled entitled wussy at the time, especially since Baltimore ain't exactly the Great White North. The press would've treated him better if he just told the truth: don't like their coach, don't like their owner.

 

It's a fine line... I remember as a kid, and someone who always hated Elway, I kind of had the attitude of "Well, if he's so good, he should be able to go to a shitty franchise like the Colts and turn them around..."

You realize later that there are a few owners/coaches/GMs out there that if you can steer clear from, you should...

In hindsight, they should have called out the Colts from Day One, which is sort of what Archie Manning did in 2004.

 

They couldn't have exactly come out and said "Irsay is a drunk and a buffoon". Irsay was the worst of a bad bunch of owners.

A third of the NFL owners in 1982 were drunks, buffoons, completely incompetent or gambling degenerates. Irsay, Bidwill, Leonard Tose, the Sullivans with the Pats, Bud Adams, Culverhouse, Jack Kent Cooke, Cheap George Halas.

It wasn't like today where, except for the Raiders, Bills and Cardinals, most of the teams have somewhat decent ownership.

 

Remember, too, that Archie Manning had personal experience with what it was like to play for a hopeless organization. And, for that matter, Jack Elway, as a college coach, I'm sure had players who got stuck in crap organizations. So these weren't just some stage dads. They knew what could happen if their sons got stuck with the Irsay Colts or Dysfunctional Chargers. And history bears them out.

By the way, if it hasn't been mentioned, the GM who was the beneficiary of the Manning's grandstanding -- Ernie Accorsi.

 

A rarity but I'll fully agree with Bob on this one.

Imagine a .500 QB going after an organization the way the Elways went after Baltimore and told them not to draft him. The stories about Frank Kush in the 1982 0-8-1 Mike Pagel-season were pretty legendary...and not in a good way.

In both cases, Archie Manning and Jack Elway knew what the hell was going on. The Colts did themselves no favors if, for the early talks, Accorsi handled them and then Drunk Irsay would show up halfway through and change the talking points. That's all on Baltimore -- not on Accorsi not on Bob Irsay. Accorsi was a young guy stuck in the middle of a maniac owner. History proved that Accorsi knew what he was doing as well.