How Broncos helped create NFL vacuum in Bay Area this season

It is breaking no news to assert that this NFL season has been a certified dud in the Bay Area.

Know how it could have been a little more entertaining? If Joe Ellis had disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness shortly after Christmas last year, and not re-emerged until Labor Day.

Who’s Joe Ellis? The guy who told John Elway that he couldn’t re-hire Mike Shanahan as head coach of the Denver Broncos.

That was the plan last winter, per Woody Paige of the The Colorado Springs Gazette.

“According to five independent and reputable sources, Elway and Shanahan seriously discussed a deal last December,” Paige wrote. The Wood-ster reported there were other parts in motion. Rookie head coach Vance Joseph would have been cashiered after a 5-11 season. Quarterback Kirk Cousins would have signed with Denver, for a discount. All this according to Paige.

It says here that Ellis made the right move. During the NFL’s Super Bowl era, only a fistful of head coaches have been hired twice by the same team. The second time around is invariably a flop. Example: The Raiders’ Jon Gruden (38-26 his first tour of duty, 3-11 so far in his second). You’re right — it’s still early in his 10-year contract.

But check out:

Art Shell, Raiders (54-38 followed by 2-14).

Joe Gibbs, Washington (124-60 followed by 30-34)

Bud Grant, Vikings (151-87-5 followed by 7-9).

Ted Marchibroda, Colts (41-33 followed by 46-65-1)

Get this: George Allen coached the Rams to a 49-17-4 record from 1966-70. He was rehired after the 1977 season. Halfway through training camp in 1978 he got canned.

So good call there by Ellis.

But for selfish purposes here in the land that pro football forgot, Shanahan ver. 2.0 would have provided entertainment even before the first coin was flipped. Recall the first Broncos-Raiders game this season was played in Week 2. Shanny got his first head coaching gig with the L.A. Raiders in 1988. Four games into the 1989 season, he was fired (in part because he abolished the team’s tradition of allowing players to sit on their helmets while on the sideline).

Shanahan claimed Raiders owner Al Davis shorted him $250,000 in back pay. The bitter feud bubbled to the surface before all 28 games that Shanahan’s Broncos played against Davis’ Raiders.

Suffice to say that the current Raiders owner is not his father. Mark Davis actually contemplated interviewing Shanahan for the Raiders’ head coaching position. Al Davis loyalists, notably longtime play-by-play announcer Greg Papa, were outraged. When the dust had settled, Papa had been thanked and excused, Mark Davis had hired Gruden, and Brent Musburger had been installed as the radio voice of the Silver and Black. A pretty spicy run-up to a Week 2 game, wouldn’t you say?