For all practical purposes the Broncos’ regular season is over. Sure, winning or losing to the Packers in week 17 might change who Denver plays during wild card weekend. But when Denver has no chance of a home game anyway does anyone really care? Mike Shannahan doesn’t. His players don’t. I don’t.

So instead of hyping a game no one outside of Green Bay cares about, let’s wander back a few months and ponder one of Denver’s biggest preseason moves; the release of Brian Griese.

Specifically, did John Elway instigate Brian Griese’s release from the Denver Broncos.

Here’s what John had to say about Brian after his release.

"I don't know that Brian is a Super Bowl quarterback,' Elway told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday. "Brian has to have a great supporting cast around him. Brian is not going to win a game by himself. Brian is not going to run around and make plays on fourth-and-10 like Jake (Plummer). I think Jake can make those."

And

"He's a smart guy, knew the offense inside and out, but Brian, to me, is not going to be the guy to make the game-breaking play. I guess in my mind Brian is not a playmaker," Elway said.

Seems John thinks that any QB not in his own mold isn’t a real QB at all. Unfortunately he forgets that people were saying similar things about him.

It was said that he wasn’t a SB winning QB. He couldn’t handle the pressure of big games. He didn’t have the head for it. He relied too much on his arm and his scrambling ability. He tried to do too much by himself.

He proved them all wrong, yet he saw no irony in his bashing of Griese in a similar manner.

Or maybe he’s jealous of Brian’s success. Griese, through nothing but his own intelligence and toughness, threatened to smash many Elway Broncos records if he played out his career in Denver. He was far more productive than Elway when compared to the same period in Elway’s career, or even when compared to some of Elway’s later years.

I won’t argue that Elway was not a better football player, but Griese is a better QB.

Mike Shannahan and Pat Bowlen could certainly see this. They have the numbers in front of them. They’ve seen the tapes. They’ve worked with both players on the field.

They also had Elway as the fly buzzing in their ears.

Did Elway place niggling doubts in their minds about Griese’s ability and potential? I find it impossible to believe that such conversations never took place. And let’s face it, Elway is more than simply respected in the Broncos’ organization. He’s an icon of all that has ever been good for the team. He’s one of the best ever to play the game. He’s the Broncos first Hall of Fame inductee. He damn near single handedly brought them to three SB’s and was at the helm when they finally won two others – BACK TO BACK.

So Elway’s thoughts and opinions hold some weight with Shanahan and Bowlen. I believe that they allowed John to talk them into making the biggest mistake of their lives, by wrongly making Griese the scapegoat for the past two years of mediocrity, when it was so clearly the defense that kept the team from achieving.

All of that is academic, now. Jake Plummer has, thankfully, played beyond anyone’s expectations. But that doesn’t negate Griese’s talent and it doesn’t make his release any less of a mistake. It only minimizes the importance of that mistake.

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