Why doesn't John Elway get more criticism?

To my knowledge, John Elway did the same thing Eli Manning did. When he was drafted 1st overall by Cleveland, he forced them to trade him to the Denver Broncos by threatening to go play baseball. Eli catches a lot of flak from SD fans for what he did and of course they'd do that b/c what he did was insulting to their team. But why does Elway get away with it? Is it b/c he became a great player? Or do I not know the whole story?

Because he won two Super Bowls.WhoShotMe

Not even close, that was years and years later.

It's because Elway went to Denver which wasn't that savvy when it came to the media and such.

Eli went to New York, the hub of all media.

Add in the fact that this was almost 25 years ago when sports news wasn't covered as much as it is today.

For some reason, I still have the feeling that Eli will become a great QB.. Maybe I'm his good luck charm. Because, seemingly, when I watch him, he does real good. But when I don't, he sucks.

Now to the point. Like 90 people already said, it's cuz it's the past... far past.