John Elway says he may need an artificial knee someday. The Denver Broncos quarterback also said reports of the end of his career are greatly exaggerated.
Elway dismissed those stories, including one on ESPN on Tuesday, that doctors had advised him he shouldn't play this season and that his wife wanted him to retire."This is the first I've heard of this," Elway said Wednesday. "I heard it driving in here.
"That's the same thing (ESPN) said my second year in the league. It's nothing new."
Elway, who will start his 13th season in the NFL, has led the Broncos to three Super Bowl appearances.
He said he suspects the latest story about his left knee originated at a clinic in Vail run by Dr. Richard Steadman, who performed arthroscopic surgery on Elway's knee this winter.
After a subsequent knee operation on Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, Steadman reportedly told Kelly that, "Your worst knee is better than John Elway's best knee."
In any case, Elway, 35, acknowledged that some day he might need an artificial knee. He originally injured the knee in high school, when he underwent the first of the five operations he has had on it. Three of the operations have been during his NFL career.