John Elway

Interviewed twice in the past 12 months for coaching openings in the NFL, Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak could be introduced as Colorado University's coach as early as tomorrow, the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News reported yesterday.He would replace Rick Neuheisel, who was hired a week ago by the University of Washington.Kubiak was a candidate for the Dallas Cowboys' vacancy last February, and earlier this month interviewed with Cleveland Browns president Carmen Policy about the coaching job with that expansion team.

MIAMI -- Think it's going to be easy for John Elway to retire now, after what happened last night at Pro Player Stadium? Better think again.Oh, sure, the Broncos' 34-19 victory over the Falcons would make a perfect ending to Elway's career. It gave the Broncos a second straight Super Bowl title, with Elway in the starring role this time as the game's MVP. He passed for 336 yards and a touchdown and gave his best Super Bowl performance ever.It was the football version of Michael Jordan's title-winning jump shot at Utah last spring, a finish almost too perfect to be true.

MIAMI -- The national media finally are giving John Elway a break.No more beating up the Denver Broncos' quarterback over his tepid Super Bowl performances. No more questions about a Hall of Fame career that rings hollow for want of a Super Bowl ring.Heck, yesterday no one even bothered to quiz Elway about The Feud, so easily has he dismissed his stormy relationship with former Broncos coach Dan Reeves.This is the difference a year makes. It is the difference a Super Bowl championship makes.

Reluctant at first to reopen old wounds on Monday, Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves lost his inhibitions and poured out his soul on Wednesday. What tumbled into view was private pain and public acrimony.In the space of 48 hours last week, Super Bowl XXXIII went from the Dirty Bird to simply down and dirty, from John Elway's valedictory speech to his unwashed laundry.Miami, get ready for the mud bath.Amid Reeves' allegations that he was betrayed by Denver coach Mike Shanahan some seven years ago, the Falcons will face the Broncos in the NFL's championship game next Sunday.

In addition to quarterback Chris Chandler, these are five players who need big games for the Falcons to win:RB Jamal AndersonThe powerful Anderson doesn't have to gain 100 yards to keep the Falcons in the game, but he must convert short-yardage, third-down plays to balance the attack. The Broncos are allowing just 1.1 rushing yards per carry in the postseason, and Anderson will have to do much better than that to keep the defense honest.RT Ephraim SalaamThe rookie right tackle will be going against either five-year veteran Harald Hasselbach or 11-year vet Neil Smith.

GolfBecause of schedule,Nicklaus to miss British for 2nd straight yearJack Nicklaus, who missed the Masters for the first time in 40 years because of hip replacement surgery, will skip the British Open for the second year in a row so as not to jeopardize his recovery.The golfing great saw his streak of competing in 154 straight majors end last year at the British Open because of hip problems. He underwent hip replacement surgery in January and returns to the PGA Tour this week at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.

N.Y. Jets (13-4) at Broncos (15-2)Time: 4: 05 p.m. todaySite: Mile High Stadium, Denver.TV: Chs. 13, 9.Radio: WBAL (1090 AM)Line: Broncos by 9.Vs. spread: Jets 13-4; Broncos 10-7.Vs. common opponents: Jets 6-0; Broncos 5-1.Last week: Jets beat Jaguars, 34-24, in divisional playoff game. Broncos beat Dolphins, 38-3, in divisional playoff game.Series: Broncos lead 13-12-1.Last meeting: Broncos won, 31-6, on Sept. 1, 1996, in Denver.Postseason records: Jets 6-6; Broncos 14-11.Notable: Jets coach Bill Parcells is the first to lead three franchises to the conference championship game.

SAN DIEGO -- Has your heart stopped pounding yet? John Elway's hasn't. Fourth-and-six for Green Bay. Fourth-and-six at the Denver 31 with 32 seconds left. One play to inflict fresh torture, or lift Elway's Super Bowl curse.Was this for real? A Super Bowl heart-stopper? More like surreal. Or unreal. Even at the end, it seemed Elway would be deprived of the happy, delirious ending he so richly deserved.But then John Mobley knocked down Brett Favre's last-gasp pass. The Broncos fans at Qualcomm Stadium erupted.

The Denver Broncos sent a message to John Elway last week that their welcome mat for him is still out.The Broncos quarterback was in Disneyland on vacation when the team had its minicamp, but coach Mike Shanahan didn't complain about his absence.The Broncos even left the usual place open for Elway during their stretching drills. Shanahan wants to give Elway all the time he needs to decide if he wants to play and hasn't set a deadline for him to make up his mind."There is no time frame," the coach said.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Car owner Richard Childress still had his headset on on pit road, when the voice of NASCAR president Bill France Jr. came on."How you doing, Richard?" France asked, moments after Dale Earnhardt had won the Daytona 500 in Childress' car."I'm unbelievable," Childress said, his voice cracking with emotion. "I'm unbelievable."Like Earnhardt, Childress had never won the Daytona 500, and his record stretches back to 1969. He went 0-for-8 while driving for himself, 0-for-2 with Ricky Rudd in his car and then 0-for-15 with Earnhardt before yesterday.

TAMPA, FLA. - Two former Ravens are experiencing different levels of emotions leading up to today's announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. While Rod Woodson is considered a lock to make the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, Shannon Sharpe is not. No ex-Raven has made the Hall. After a career that included eight Pro Bowls and three Super Bowl titles, Sharpe hasn't been this worried about getting cut since he was a rookie seventh-round draft pick out of Savannah State.

Tomorrow's draft will mark the 25th anniversary of what, in my opinion, was the greatest NFL draft of all time - except in a few places, notably in Baltimore. Many football fans recall the 1983 first round as the The Great Quarterback Draft - the one that produced John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly, Hall of Famers all. Three other quarterbacks were selected in that first round - Ken O'Brien, Todd Blackledge and Tony Eason - and even among that lesser group, O'Brien was a Pro Bowl selection and Eason took a team to the Super Bowl.

In some cases, they were simply bad players. In others, they were bad people. And some of them just had bad, bad luck. But whatever the reason, here is a team-by-team rundown of each NFL franchise's all-time worst first-round draft pick. Arizona: Steve Little, K, 1978 (No. 15). A rare first-rounder as a punter and kicker, Little hit just 40 percent of his field-goal tries. Shortly after he was cut by the then-St. Louis Cardinals, he was in a car accident that left him paralyzed. He died in 1999.

In the coming-of-age story of Eli Manning, the New York Giants quarterback who has led his team to the Super Bowl, there is a great measure of vindication for a football guy with strong ties to Baltimore and someone a lot of us in the sportswriting business have always rooted for. Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the Giants, who spent more than a decade with the Baltimore Colts, was the man who engineered the draft-day trade in 2004 that...

NEW YORK -- Is Boomer Esiason, ex-quarterback and veteran NFL commentator, a fan of any football team? That's what his radio partner, Craig Carton, wants to know as they debate the psychology of New York Jets supporters. Sure, Esiason says. He loves one team truly and purely: his alma mater, the University of Maryland. More than 20 years after he last started a game for a team based in Maryland, Esiason maintains strong ties to the state. Though he grew up in New York, he was a Baltimore Colts fan weaned on the feats of Bert Jones.

His name is being removed from AutoNation's Denver-area car dealerships, but John Elway's image will remain fresh in the minds of Broncos fans as long as the franchise continues playing lemons at quarterback. Denver hasn't cemented an adequate replacement since Elway ended his Hall of Fame career after the 1998 season. The Broncos haven't gone to a Super Bowl since Elway guided the team to consecutive championships in his final two seasons before retiring in 1999. Not that the Broncos haven't aggressively tried addressing the matter.

When the Ravens signed Gary Stills as an unrestricted free agent in March, the eighth-year linebacker talked with coach Brian Billick, defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and special teams coordinator Frank Gansz Jr. But there was one person Stills eagerly sought out: fellow linebacker Terrell Suggs. Falcons@Ravens Sunday, 1 p.m., Ch. 45, 1090 AM, 97.9 FM Line: Ravens by 4 1/2 Prime numbers Jerseys pictured on PG 1D (from left to right): John Elway (7), Dan Marino (13), Joe Montana (16), Johnny Unitas (19)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On a historic campus where the most recognizable symbol is known as Touchdown Jesus, in a storied college football program where facts are often obscured by myths, Jeff Samardzija and Tom Zbikowski became best friends, roommates and, eventually, two of Notre Dame's biggest stars. They were, and are, decidedly different. Samardzija grew up in nearby Valparaiso, but his long locks and laid-back persona make him seem more suitable for California's Venice Beach. Zbikowski came from the suburbs outside Chicago, but his demeanor is strictly blue-collar.

For many people, being chased by relentless pursuers with no hope of escape is a recurring nightmare. For Houston Texans quarterback David Carr, it's a recurring reality. Carr, sacked 50 times already this season, has been chased around on football Sundays for much of his four-year career. As the 1-10 Texans prepare to face the Ravens on Sunday, the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft by the expansion Houston franchise already holds the single-season record for sacks taken, 76 in his rookie year.

THE RAVENS aren't asking Kyle Boller to be John Elway this season because he can't be John Elway. He's just Kyle Boller, a second-year quarterback struggling to find himself, this offense and some accuracy. What we saw last night from Boller in the Ravens' 24-0 preseason-opening win against the Atlanta Falcons at M&T Bank Stadium is pretty much what we'll get for most of the regular season: an inconsistent quarterback who will hopefully mature going into the postseason. Boller had decent mobility in the pocket and enough awareness to step up in it when necessary.