We'll bring on the og the man himself, Mike Clifs. Mike, how you do this evening?
I'm doing great, just handing out candy, pretty busy, well my old neighborhood.
I don't have any candy here.
I know to go stop by the cliff household in to get my candy on once I get done with this show.
But Mike, you get some candy for our for our eyes here The Lway Years.
Your latest book is out and I've uh been enjoyed reading it up about three quarters of the way through.
Don't spoil the ending for me.
Uh and uh, I have really enjoyed enjoyed reading this so far. What what brought on the the impetus for writing this book?
Well, Try and Publishing Bill Lane's gave me a call and asked me if I would be interested in doing the book. And he said that you know, with with seven eight years of the of the drought for the Broncos, that uh, maybe people were hungry for reliving some glory and Halway, of course was the impetous Happy Halloween everybody.
Uh Uh.
The impetus as it was going to be just about the ninety seven ninety eighteen with an emphasis on Lway, and then it became a little more on Elway as the most influential person and in a in a climaxinge with the nineteen ninety seven ninety eight Super Bowls. So kind of took readers through the journey through John Elway's journey, and but also had chapters in there on Rod and ed on Terrell Davis of course, so uh, you know, kind of began with how John h joined the team
with the Orange Crushers. The Orange Crushers were still around, a bunch of them were on their in their final three or four years, and so he bridged a few eras and then we finished up with a chapter on his GM tenure, his ten year GM tenure, where I got to know John quite well. Covered every part of that. So yeah, I talked to quite a few people, Kubiak Shanahan. Shanahan wrote the forward, and I think people will enjoy it.
Yeah, I've certainly enjoyed it so far.
Talking with Mike cliss and about his new book, The l Way Years, there was a particularly appointed part in there for me, and I appreciate this book as it comes out now because of the parallels with trying to
grow bone Nicks. But there was a particularly poignant part in there where you talk about Torell Davis and mentioning him bringing up the how devastating that Jacksonville loss was and how that was sort of the catalyst for the Super Bowl runs in the sense that when they had a bad practice or you know, they had a let down moment, they just went to each other and said, day man, Jacksonville and that sort of was a rallying cry around, you know, the catalyst for being able to
push through those difficult moments during the Super Bowl runs.
Yeah, I was surprised a little surprised by that because I remember for the Uh I think I was with the Gazette then Carle Springs Gazette. I covered that Jacksonville game.
I had the Jacksonville locker room, which turned out to be the victorious locker room, which you know, was surprising, and talking to Tony Vasselli and the gang, I thought, I looked back on that time and thought the Broncos should have been a three pat you know, they should have won three in a row, and then they really would have stamped themselves as one of the all time great teams had they won three in a row, but TD said that he didn't think they'd win those back
to back in ninety seven and ninety eight without the motivation from losing in ninety six to Jacksonville. The way they did it was it was a bummer how they lost it because they clinched too early that year. They were twelve and one. They clinched with three weeks to go, and Shanahan was still going that for going through that for the first time, how's everybody doing? Yeah? Take two and then so they weren't sharp in that Jacksonville game.
They went up twelve nothing but they but they but they they they were I don't know, they had the they had the four to five week blues by week blues, and you know they Shannon Sharp dropped the two point conversion, Jason and Elam missed an extra point. Burnell was on fire. They couldn't cover Jimmy Smith. The throne means Shanahan blamed himself because he didn't run the ball enough. Uh, that's the one. I think TD had seven games where he rushed for or or eight playoff games where he rushed
for one hundred yards. Seven of the eighty rushed for one hundred The one he didn't was Jacksonville yet ninety one yards on just fourteen carries, and he wouldn't make that mistake again. The next year in ninety seven on that revenge tour, they just steamrolled Jacksonville. TD had a big day. They just ran like crazy in that game. And that was Shanahan's ever last seen regret is that he got away from the running game in that playoff loss to Jacksonville.
Well, it's no trick, it's a treat for us.
Get to talk to Mike Cliss about his book The Elway Years. You know, you mentioned the kind of confluence of errors, you know how everything kind of went wrong in that moment to Jason Eland, the Shannon sharp drop of the two point conversion. We juxtaposed that with this season for the Denver Broncos, where everything sort of seems to be going right. You caught a Tampa Bay team missing what five six starters on defense blew them out.
You had a New Orleans Saints team on Thursday night missing their quarterback, missing five or six players.
Now you get a carol lot of team. Albeit they weren't very talented before they were missing.
Their players, and now you've got a Baltimore situation where you've got one defensive lineman healthy, had a quarterback who's missed two practices with a growing issue that's being termed knee and back.
Is this sort of the antithesis.
Of everything going wrong at the you know, everything going right for the Denver Broncos for once.
Well, yeah, I was gonna say for once. It's been a while because this team is definitely in a drought and the schedule has worked out for him pretty well. And we'll see about three evens. I give him a chance. Hi, ladies, take take two? Okay, Happy Halloween. You think Lamar plays, by the way, Ben.
I do believe that he's going to play.
Yes, everything I've been told is that he's going to play, but that growing issue is definitely sore, so they're going to try and rest him until then.
You know, Lamar seems to me like he has a practice uh missing practice drama a couple times a year and uh and usually makes it on game day. So yeah, I'm I know Baltimore media are wondering because they have a short week. On the other side, Thursday Thursday game against the Bengals, which is big form division opponent that maybe Lamar d rests this game and plays against the Bengals, But I know the Broncos sure are thinking he's gonna play. I don't know about the whole uh, you know, the
other sense working in the in the Broncos favor. It seems to me the only thing I've noticed about this team is just how much more, how much tougher they are. And I you know, I credit Sean Payton and and you know, whatever whatever you think of Sean Payton and how he seems his mood seemed to swing on press conferences, especially after games win or lose. He's got this team playing tough, and he's got them playing together, especially on defense.
It looks like everybody really likes each other, like their best panels, and they're selling out for each other. And meanwhile, Bull's coming along. You know, He's he's getting better and better. He didn't look good the first two weeks. He hasn't looked good here and there, but I think overall incrementally he's getting better and played real well against a weak Carolina team. But still he needed that for his confidence.
You talk in the book The l Way Years about how Mike Shanahan and uh and and others pointed out that as John's moods went so in the team at various intervals, but the team loved him.
I mean, they love John Elway.
They they played for John Elway and all that, and it feels to me like we sort of see a little bit of that in bo Nicks. Bow hasn't been the greatest so far, there have been some missus, as you know, Dow pointed out, but there there it feels to.
Me like he's got that tough, gritty persona.
He's willing to put his body on the line, and there are the players sort of respect that in a way that I don't know that I've seen out of a quarterback since maybe Olway.
Yeah, I agree, he they they do have they do. Like my wife just walked in. I don't think she knows I'm on with shit, Honey, I'm on the radio. Thank you, and now you.
Are too, Uh Hi, missus Cliff, we love having on as well.
The Yeah, I think, Paul, I agree that they seem to like him from the beginning. Kind of a guy's guy, and that's what Elway was. Elway to me, was a guy's guy. You know, when Elway was the type of guy who would go go out and have a beer with his offensive lineman and whoever it was on the team, you know it was it was off the field on the field. He was a good pal and Paul Uh. You know, it doesn't strike me this guy who goes out for many beers, if at all, but he is.
I tell you he's a smart football player, like high IQ football player. He's been around football players all his life. You know, his dad was a coach. He was done. Dad was done playing by the time Bow was born. But still, you know, his dad was around football all his life. So is Bowl. He knows everything about the sport inside and out, all the nuances. And you know, he's a mature We've talked about this ad nauseum. He's a mature rookie. And and plus he's he's a good teammate.
He looks like he you know, he's one of those guys that rallied the others around him. And keep in mind also he followed Russ and that was a different deal for Sean Payton and all the Broncos were you know Russ. I think there was had a persona that he was. He was the biggest guy on the team. Sean Payton didn't want anybody who was bigger than others, and bow Nix doesn't carry himself that way.
Yeah, he certainly doesn't. And I think that's been a refreshing change. I were talking with Mike Cliss again is his new book, The Lway Years Inside the Super Bowl era of the Denver Broncos. Mike was the what was the most surprising aspect in writing this book?
Obviously you lived a lot of that, but was there anything new.
That you you suddenly discovered and as you were as you were writing this.
Well, the one thing that Tom Green kind of jumped on in my first interview on this book, and you know, I what he what he jumped on were the Dan Reeves here, just how much Elway and Reeves did not like each other. There was a column by Dick Connor in nineteen ninety one nineteen ninety two right in there where Elway exploded, vented his frustrations on Dan Reeves, suffocating him in Elway's eyes offensively and wouldn't let him go until the fourth quarter. And then in the fourth quarter
John got to go schoolyard and do his thing. You know it hit the paper. Dick Connor wrote all of Elway's frustrations. He threw the paper down. He called the Shanahan in, who was the offensive coordinator, and threw the paper down, said why why is this in the newspaper? And Shanahan said, well, why are you yelling at me for? You know John said it. He said, hold on right there, I'm going to bring John in right now. I'm tired of being the uh the goal between here. You guys
talk it out. And so he brought John in and it didn't really go well.
Uh.
John exploded some more and then uh it got to a point where l Reeves wanted to trade John to Washington, the Washington Redskins. At the time, John was at uh uh, he was playing in that celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, and he was at a blackjack table and there was Ernest Spiner, who at the time was no longer the Browns running back but Washington running backs coach, and Weiner said, John, I thought we had you. And Elway said, what do you mean you thought you had me? And he said,
we thought we had you in a trade. And Elway found out right then at the blackjack table that he that there was a trade finished. He was going to Washington, and you know, they had all the pieces in the draft picks all figured out. But Pat Bolan wound up nix in the trade.
Well lucky for us he did.
Yeah, And and Elways said, look, it wouldn't have been bad for me because Washington won the Super Bowl that year with Mark Rippin. And but still the next year, despite all that acrimony, the next year, the Broncos went twelve and four and went to the AFT Championship Game, where they loss to the Bills. You know, Mecklenburg put it pretty well. They were there. Elway and Reeves were too much the same. They were highly highly competitive. They
were both extremely stubborn. And you know, and and the fact of the matter is the Dan Marinos and the and the and the and the Moons, who were throwing the ball all over the yard, they weren't going to the super Bowl. You had to run the ball and play to the defense in order to get to the
super Bowl. And that's what the Broncos did. And Reeves did what was best, and John wanted the ball in his hands more so there was some there was some conflict there, but uh, they still won a lot of games, despite despite the fact that they really couldn't stand each other.
Sometimes sometimes that can sometimes that could lead to great results. You know, sometimes it takes those personalities like that to to get the best out of each other.
Right, exactly exactly.
I appreciate you joining us The l Way Years Inside the Super Bowl Era of the Different Broncos by Mike Cliffs Forward by Mike Shannon.
It's out now, guys.
Want to get your hands on a copy of Mike I'm love and reading it and I appreciate you taking some time out tonight.
You got to go to Amazon dot com guys, and that that's.
Where you'll find the book Amazon. And I really appreciate you, Yes, sir, appreciate it. That's my cliss, my news.