On the morning of April 26, 1983, the day of the NFL draft, Baltimore Colts owner Bob Irsay was trying to hold a fire sale.
Even though the Colts owned the first pick in the draft, Irsay didn't want to draft the top prospect, Stanford quarterback John Elway, because of his demand for a five-year, $5 million contract.
That was fine with Elway, who didn't want to play for Colts coach Frank Kush.
But other teams were making lowball offers because they knew Irsay wanted to dump Elway.
Irsay was ready to deal Elway to the New England Patriots for Pro Bowl guard John Hannah and a No. 1 pick when Colts general manager Ernie Accorsi objected.
Irsay then called Kush into his office and asked if he'd like to have Hannah. Kush didn't want to buck the owner.
"I'd love to have him, Boss," Kush said.
Accorsi finally played his trump card.
He told Irsay, "If you make that trade, we'll have two press conferences. The first to announce the trade and the second to announce my resignation."
Irsay then backed off and Accorsi drafted Elway, who promptly said he'd play baseball rather than play football for the Colts.
But Accorsi had a good baseball scouting report on Elway, who was an opposite-field slap hitter and not a top prospect. Certainly not a Hall of Fame prospect the way he was in football.
Accorsi figured if the Colts held firm, Elway would change his mind because he wanted to play football.
Nobody knows what Elway would have done if months had passed, and he had to decide in July or August whether to skip football that year.
That's because six days later, Irsay traded Elway without telling Accorsi.
Dealing directly with Edgar Kaiser, who was then the Denver owner, Irsay gave Elway away for offensive lineman Chris Hinton, quarterback Mark Herrmann and a No. 1 pick.
Jim Saccamano, who is still the Broncos' director of media relations, said, "You talk about defining a city. You can ask people in Denver where they were when they heard about the Elway trade and they can tell you. They remember it the way they remember the Kennedy assassination."
Accorsi also remembers where he was when the trade was announced. He was watching ESPN when they cut in with the news.
Now the assistant general manager of the New York Giants, Accorsi has no regrets about trying to fight the trade.
He had grown up in Hershey, Pa., steeped in Colts tradition. The only job he ever wanted was general manger of the Colts.
