Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September 11, 1983: Elway Gets Booed Out of Baltimore

On September 11, 1983, Broncos rookie quarterback John Elway was pulled in the third quarter of a game against the Colts in Baltimore.  It was the first time Elway played in the city of Baltimore since he was drafted first overall by the Colts in the '83 draft, then refused to play for the organization. The fans in Baltimore made it known that he would not receive a warm welcome and they stayed true to their word. The crowd of 52,000+ was so loud as they booed and chanted obscenities when the quarterback was under center. The Denver squad couldn't get a play off, and every time they failed to get the play off the crowd fed off of it and got even louder. The head coach of the Broncos, Dan Reeves seemed to only have one choice and that was to remove his up and coming star from the game with the score knotted up at 3. Elway's Broncos got the last laugh. After the Colts jumped ahead 10-3 in the fourth quarter, Denver backup Steve DeBerg engineered two scoring drives that led to a 17-10 win for the Broncos. There is an old saying that I am going to twist a bit... Hell hath no fury like an entire city scorned. I don't know anyone personally from the Baltimore area so I'm not sure how they feel about Elway today but I would imagine there isn't a lot of love for him after he made that decision. From the outside looking in perspective, it definitely doesn't seem like he made a bad choice after building a legendary career in Denver.


Here's the Box Score: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198309110clt.htm




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