John Elway (‘The Masked Singer’ Leaf Sheep) responds to Jenny calling Tom Brady the GOAT: ‘Everybody’s gonna have their opinion’ [WATCH]
Season 12 of “The Masked Singer” premiered Wednesday night on FOX, with five brand-new secret celebrities belting it out for the Golden Mask Trophy. Following the studio audience vote, Leaf Sheep became the first to unmask, revealing two-time Super Bowl champion John Elway. Watch our video interview above.
“At this stage of my life, I think it would be good for me to get out of my comfort zone,” says the 64-year-old Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. “Plus I’ve got 10 grandkids, so I thought that they’d think it would be pretty cool to see Poppy be on ‘The Masked Singer.’ Even though I got voted off, that’s okay, it was a great experience for me to do it.”
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This year “The Masked Singer” introduced Masked Singer Ambassadors, past contestants who have a special relationship with this season’s crop of talent. For Elway, that was Season 11 Koala, DeMarcus Ware. In Elway’s video package, Ware refers to Leaf Sheep as “the GOAT,” leading panelist Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg to proclaim, “There’s only one GOAT,” and assume Leaf Sheep was Tom Brady.
SEE ‘The Masked Singer’ Season 12 sneak peek: Ship, Wasp and Woodpecker belt it out! [WATCH]
“He probably is the GOAT if you look at his history and what he’s done,” Elway responds with a chuckle. “All of us quarterbacks are proud of how we played and always thought while we’re playing we’re the best, but ultimately everybody’s gonna have their different opinion on who is the GOAT, so by no means was I offended when she said Tom Brady, it was actually a compliment.”
Ken Jeong correctly guessed Leaf Sheep was Elway, but Robin Thicke thought he was Troy Aikman and Rita Ora was way off base with her Billy Bob Thornton pick.
As Leaf Sheep, Elway performed “I Like It, I Love It” by Tim McGraw. “I am a country fan, that’s probably what I listen to 90 percent of the time,” he reveals. “Maybe some 80s stuff, but I’m a country-westerner. I’m a Tim McGraw fan too, so when they suggested that song I was excited about it. It was a relatively easy song to sing. It didn’t have a lot of different octaves, which was good. Tim has a lot more than I do, but it felt like that was going to be the easiest song for me to sing.”
Elway goes on to discuss his fiver Super Bowl appearances and what it felt like to lose three in a row before winning two back-to-back. He also talks about his own personal football hero, Roger Staubach.
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