For its time, the offer was good one, the kind any respectable 22-year-old economics major at Stanford University would leap to accept: a chance to make several hundred thousands of dollars a year. Guaranteed. And when news leaked in February of 1983 that this is what the USFL’s Oakland Invaders were dangling at John Elway, the Associated Press hailed it as “virtual lifetime security.”
In the end, Elway turned down the five-year offer from Invaders owner Tad Taube, and eventually went to the
Denver Broncos where he won two Super Bowls and is now the architect of this Denver Super Bowl team. And yet sometimes Taube wonders what might have happened had Elway said yes.
He is sure Elway’s signing wouldn’t have saved the USFL. He fully blames Donald Trump for destroying their football league. But maybe the Invaders would have won a championship had Elway come. At the least, it would have significantly altered
NFL history and five Super Bowls in which his Denver teams played.