Documenting Denver's Elway Cult.
 

As an amateur anthropologist, I like to read about primitive cultures who worship bizarre things. For example, there are those tribes in the South Pacific that worship World War II airplanes and build their own straw airplanes and stuff. There's the cult near my house that worships the Purple Light of Knowledge. There's that guy in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom who put people in that cage and lowered them into lava and enslaved children. And then, of course, several steps below them on the desirability scale, there are Denver Broncos fans who worship large-toothed former NFL quarterback John Elway.

This is not football fandom. This is way beyond football fandom. This is a bona fide cult that truly believes that he is a half-simian god who forsook the Garden of Eden that is Baltimore to bring to them the glory of several Super Bowl losses and some forfeited draft picks for salary cap cheating.

For the sake of science, I would like to document the evolution of this cult. Therefore, from time to time, I will do a search of our local newspaper to track the number of times that the Elway God is mentioned, and will share the most interesting and the most unique news report about this evil deity.

Report 1: November 20, 2007.

Search reveals:

587 hits for "Elway" in the news
12 hits in "Extras" section
48 results in "Yourhub" section

Most notable news story. Story reports that it is John Elway's birthday, and that six years earlier, he made a hole in one playing golf.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Do you know anyone who owns John Elway brand furniture?

The ESPNZone has "John Elway" easy chairs. I pick my nose and wipe it on the label.

I watched part of the Broncos' game last night. My wife came down, rolled her eyes and then sat down briefly. She watched for a few minutes and then said, "Why are the fans wearing Broncos' jerseys?" I said, "Well, to show support for their team and players, honey." She replied, "Who is #7?" "John Elway," I replied.

"Doesn't he sell cars now, or something?"

On the news yesterday morning, the sports broadcast wrote a special Christmas song about John Elway and sang it on the air for at least the amount of time it took me to find the remote and switch channels.

In today's news, Elway is playing in a golf tournament.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...e-december-27/

I have a question: Do people at Arrowhead still wear the jerseys of former players? I'd guess DT but any others?

Is that before, during or after he saved the dog that fell through the ice on the South Platte while simultaneously coaching his son to be as great a football player as he was?

At some point, I think it's fashionable, though only if every other person in the stadium is not wearing that player. For example, I saw a guy once wearing an Art Still jersey, and I thought that was cool. My wife sported a vintage Deron Cherry at our last game, and I had a DT.

I think the problem is when everyone in the stadium is wearing the jersey of one player who retired ten years ago. I would think it would be disheartening to the Broncos team when every single person in the stands is wearing an Elway jersey as opposed to the jersey of a player who has played in the current century.

I think that a non-pathetic ratio of current to past players should be about 8 to 1. Maybe 7 to 1. I bet Arrowhead is probably in that range. With the Broncos, it's probably closer to 1 to 7.

I wore my #89 Otis Taylor jersey the last time I attended a game.

It would be fun to get a picture of a game from this year to do a quick count.

That would be quite interesting. I'm looking online, but can't find a good crowd scene. A little help, anyone?

Here's one. Only three jerseys are visible, of which one is an Elway.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...Main090607.jpg

Here's another one. Only two jerseys are visible - both Elway.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...506art_200.jpg

Perhaps you should start a poll on OrangeMane about what jerseys people own. That could be informative.