Article Contributed on: 5/31/2007 11:45:43 PM
John Ralston wasn't the "half a loaf" guy. That was Lou Saban. Lou actually did what he could to turn chicken poop assemblies of players into chicken salad teams.I believe the Phipps were the owners when he was coach, and they weren't anxious to put up the dough for offensive firepower. Even with those difficulties, though, Lou did assemble some awesome defenses. which included people like Dave Costa (knocked out Joe Namath the year after the Jets won the Super Bowl), Rich Jackson, Paul Smith, and other notables.
But Lou's fate was set when, incredibly, a normally struggling Broncos team found itself tied with a very good Dolphns bunch late in a game. Don Horn, the quarterback, said later that he practically begged Saban for permission to toss the ball and try to win the thing. Saban replied that "if you think I'm going to let you guys screw this up you're wrong," or words to that effect! Apparently, he didn't have much confidence in his team. Horn said, "All I heard was Floyd, Floyd, Floyd," referring to Floyd Little (one of the best running backs not in the Hall of Fame).
The game ended with the score even, and legions of fans both bewildered and enraged.
After the game, when reporters asked Saban about his decision, he replied with his infamous "half-a-loaf is better than none." I met Floyd Little years later, (at the time he owned a Seattle area car dealership, probably still does, and was kind enough to sign a couple bubble-gum cards for me!) who said that, not only was Lou pelted with half-loaves of Wonder Bread and such after that game right up until he finally resigned, but his kids experienced the same thing at school!
We Denver fans can be, unfortunately, vicious!
So, you could make the point that Red Miller probably got the Broncos to the Super Bowl on John Ralston's fumes. And, we can make fun of John's "Power of Positive Thinking" preaching and hand-holding defense (a guy named Ray May, acquired from Baltimore, actually instigated that--not John. And the hand-holding was showcased on Denver's first Monday Night Football appearance, back in the days of Don, Frank, and, yes, Howard when they gained national credibility by tying--there's that word again--Oakland).
But leave the half-a-loaf laying with its author, not John Ralston, and certainly not Red Miller (who finally exited over the same frustrations with tight-fisted owners that plagued Lou, and would later do so to Dan Reeves until Pat Bowlen bought the team), but the ever-persevering and, at least in Denver, not successful, Lou Saban.