John Albert Elway Jr.

I never liked John Elway back in the day. I can't say there was ever anything that John Elway did that caused my hard feelings for him. In fact, I can't even say that I remember seeing John Elway play. There is a faint memory of the Broncos beating the Cowboys back when I was a Dallas Fair-Weather fan, and being upset about that. But I'm not even 100% sure that ever happened. Maybe that was my way of justifying my disdain for him.

Or maybe it was the Church Ball Coach that would take me out of the game and say "You never make that pass! Unless you're John Elway, don't even try it!" Apparantly this guy wasn't a fan of full-court passes.

Or maybe it was getting beat every day at recess in 5th grade by the team with the 6th grader for a quarterback. Of course the kid's name was John, so you can imagine what everyone called him. "He throws like John Elway!" all the kids at school would say. He always wanted to use the Junior Size football that only three kids could catch. I started to dread recess because I knew we were headed for a beating. Eventually we had to stop playing because someone broke an arm. I did miss being able to play football at recess but I didn't miss playing against John.

I don't know why, but I never outgrew my dislike for John Elway, the man I knew nothing about. He was the Ben Roethlisberger of his day: he didn't look, talk, or act like someone who was good at football. He was retired by the time I started really caring about football so I never learned anything about him. I should have given him a second chance.

I am here today to say that John Elway is a hero and there are few, if any, pros that I respect more. I was checking out ESPN.com the other day and I came across an article by Rick Reilly titled Hey, pro, don't want to be a role model? It's not your choice. In the article he tells of a boy, Jake, who loses his father, and with that, his will to exist. Jake and his father were simple guys who loved the Broncos. When his father died, Jake didn't care about anything. Reilly surprised Jake by taking him to Elway's restaurant where they ran into the owner himself. Not all the details are clear about how much of the day was arranged by Reilly, but by the end of the day Elway kept surprising all of them. John Elway was a super hero to Jake. All it took was one day of kindness from an icon to bring a boy back to life.

Thank you, John Elway, for caring about the people who care about you. I think as kids we would all love to be friends with our favorite pros. As we grow older we start to think that all pros spend all their free time in gentlemen's clubs and shoot themselves in the leg for fun. I think there are a lot of good guys out there and I don't think our media gives them enough credit. On the other hand, giving the good guys credit makes it hard to keep hating them. A few more examples:

Santonio Holmes: shut down the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history and shattered the dream of Cardinal's fans everywhere. So what does he do after the game? Goes back to the hotel with his kids and goes to bed! He didn't commit any crimes, or humiliate himself on the national stage. How am I supposed to feel about the guy now?

Pete Carrol: the thorn in the side of every other Pac-10 team. This guy steals our recruits, beats us during homecoming, and is condecending every time he talks about Tucson. You know what else he does? Spends his evenings and weekends with inner city kids trying to teach them that there is more to life than what they learn on the street. He figures if he's going to take a job in L.A. he might as well try to do some good while he's there.

It really tears a guy like me apart.