John Elway secured his playing legacy with two Super Bowl championships before walking into the sunset.
Returning to the Super Bowl for the first time in 16 years, the legendary quarterback wants to win one as an executive. He told NFL Network on Tuesday that winning another ring would be big for his legacy.
"It would be a huge feather, but that is why I came back to work for the Broncos. I want to compete for world championships," Elway said.
The Broncos' executive vice president of football operations called Peyton Manning the "common denominator" in the team's success over the past two seasons.
During Media Day on Tuesday, Manning said he is in the "home stretch" of his career, but he doesn't believe a second Super Bowl win would change whatever his legacy might be.
"I've been being asked about my legacy since I was about 25 years old, which I'm not sure you can have a legacy when you are 25 years old or even 37," Manning said. "I thought you had to be 70 to have a legacy. I'm not 100 percent sure what the word even means."
Manning said this week players have been asking to get jerseys signed, as if they believe he is going to retire. The presumptive 2014 MVP said he feels "rejuvenated" playing for the Broncos and doesn't see himself walking away like Elway did after his second Super Bowl championship.
"Talking to John, and talking to some other players that have played at my age, I think John Elway would still be playing football if he could physically," Manning said. "Based on his words to me, he just couldn't do it physically."
Elway is crossing his fingers that his future Hall of Fame quarterback won't walk away from the Broncos so soon.
"I'm sure hopeful he's not going to," Elway said. "I'd be very, very surprised if he walked away. I think he wants to walk away with every record that was ever put in the record books as far as offensive football or quarterbacking. So I think he's got a lot of football left in him."
The Broncos hope that is legacy-shaping football.
*We handed out awards for the 2014 coaching class and talked all the latest headlines in the latest "Around The League Podcast." *
