John Elway Is an Anti-Subsidy Hypocrite

Not to beat up on the Denver Broncos after Sunday’s rout in New York, but one of the team’s heroes and top executives really needs to check himself.

As David Sirota observes over at PandoDaily, Hall of Fame quarterback and Broncos Executive Vice President John Elway went on Fox News before the Super Bowl and said, “I don’t believe in safety nets. Obviously, we’ve got to have some kind of safety nets. But I think my philosophy is when given the opportunity to go take advantage of that, I think that’s when you get the best out of people.”

Sirota, who also lives in Denver, dissects the hypocrisy of that statement:

As Pando reported last week, the NFL is the beneficiary of one of the most lucrative taxpayer-funded social safety nets in the entire American economy. The league itself is exempted from paying taxes, and NFL teams receive on average $900 million in taxpayer subsidies every year. Elway’s team has been the beneficiary of some of those subsidies through the taxpayer dollars that went into building the Broncos’ own stadium.

Of course it’s nothing new for some to condemn assistance to the poor while ignoring or celebrating corporate welfare. We just didn’t know John Elway was one of those. Perhaps there are football gods and they punished the innocent fans of Denver on Sunday for Elway’s beliefs. How else do you explain such an explosive offense losing 43-8? Oh that’s right. Peyton Manning is a notorious choke.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer