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When John Elway was drafted ahead of Tony Gwynn
- Updated: April 28, 2016
1:42 PM ET
With the last pick of the second round in the 1981 draft, the New York Yankees selected Stanford outfielder John Elway and gave him a $140,000 bonus — more than No. 1 overall pick Mike Moore received that year. Six picks later, the San Diego Padres selected another college outfielder: future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.
I’m told the NFL draft starts tonight, so I thought it would be fun to look back at where some famous NFL players were drafted … and who their drafting teams could have had.
Elway played one season in the minors, for Class A Oneonta in 1982, hitting .318/.432/.464 with four home runs in 151 at-bats and more walks (28) than strikeouts (25). He’d end up using the leverage of a potential baseball career to demand a trade from the Baltimore Colts after they drafted him first overall in 1983. Was he a legitimate baseball prospect? Probably, although George Steinbrenner’s comparisons of Elway to Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were certainly far-fetched.
Elway obviously made the right choice to stick with football. So did Tom Brady. The Montreal Expos drafted him in the 18th round out of high school in 1995, listing him as a catcher. Which makes sense given his lack of foot speed. He didn’t sign and instead went to Michigan and things worked out pretty well for him. If the Expos had wanted a catcher, they could have drafted David Ross, taken in the 19th round by the Dodgers and still kicking 21 years later. Ross ended up not signing and attended Florida; the Dodgers re-drafted him three years later in the seventh round.
Here are some other names:
Russell Wilson: fourth round, Colorado Rockies (2010)
Wilson played two years in the minors as a second baseman while still in college, hitting .230 and .228 without much power. The Rockies made a better pick in the eighth round, when they selected Corey Dickerson. But if they’d wanted to draft a college infielder with a good arm, they could have drafted a Stetson shortstop named Jacob …
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