SUPER BOWL XXI : DENVER vs. NEW YORK : . . . And, by Way of Contrast, There’s the Broncos’ Karl Mecklenburg

Denver linebacker Karl Mecklenburg doesn’t look like Lawrence Taylor, act like him, carouse like him or, according to Taylor’s own accounts, drink like him, either.

Mecklenburg would kill for Taylor’s talent, though. He would tell you how it is unfair that one man should be blessed with such skill while another, himself, would once suffer the indignity of sweating out a roster cut in training camp.

Mecklenburg and Taylor are brought together this week by virtue of the position they play and the game they’re playing in. They are both consensus all-pros, arguably the best two linebackers in the game today.

Both are ground-breakers in a National Football League revolution that has produced defensive linemen who have risen from three-point stances and become stalking, roving linebackers, capable of striking an offense at any time from any position.

But any other comparison is fictional. It seems that Taylor was born into the good life, whereas Mecklenburg had to kick down the door to get in.

“Whatever he’s got, he’s deserved,” Mecklenburg said of Taylor. “But my situation is different and very satisfying to me. I think maybe it’s sweeter, because I had to work harder.”

Mecklenburg has taken the violence of his sport and combined it with the cerebral challenge of a chess match.

His life outside the game is anything but a mystery. You can find him at home most nights with his family. Or at a charity event.

“I’m able to take off my pads and become a human being,” he said.

Yet, Mecklenburg was one cut away from leaving the game and going to medical school, following in the footsteps of his father, Fred, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Washington.

That Mecklenburg managed to make the 1983 Denver Broncos and rise to a position of stardom is as much a tribute to fortitude and plain luck as anything else.

Mecklenburg wasn’t exactly a household name when he left the University of Minnesota.

He was used to that, though. Earlier in his college career, when Mecklenburg was looking for a change in scenery, he didn’t even rate a return phone call from UCLA Coach Terry Donahue.

The Gophers packaged Mecklenburg for the NFL draft his senior year by losing to Northwestern at a time when no one lost to Northwestern.

Somehow the NFL didn’t get to Mecklenburg until the 12th round.

“I was a 230-pound nose tackle on a 3-8 team,” he said.

So understand that Mecklenburg was asleep when the Broncos--well, a Bronco secretary, at least--woke him with a phone call at 1 a.m. to tell him the good news.

The Broncos were more intrigued with Mecklenburg’s brain than his brawn. He had the highest score on an intelligence test that had been given to all college seniors who were deemed NFL prospects.

The Broncos apparently figured that if Mecklenburg couldn’t make the team, he might be able to draw up a new playbook.

The lucky part for Mecklenburg was that he was drafted in year when the NFL had a 49-man roster, a luxury that has sinced passed.

Still, it was a close call.

Mecklenburg remembers cut-down day and sitting at a training-camp breakfast table waiting for word of his fate.

There were four players to cut.

“I counted the ones the coach picked off coming into breakfast,” Mecklenburg said. “When he got to four, I knew I made the team.”

Mecklenburg had one big exhibition game--two sacks and a fumble recovery. He thinks that saved him.

“In a way I was naive,” he said. “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to make the team. I had to beat a lot of odds, but I didn’t realize it at the time.”

It turns out that the Broncos had ideas of making him a linebacker from the beginning.

“He couldn’t get any heavier than 235 pounds,” Denver defensive coordinator Joe Collier said. “We decided that if he was going to play full time, that he had to be a linebacker.”

Mecklenburg didn’t become a full-time starter until the 10th game of the 1985 season, but he didn’t waste any time making an impact. He finished with 13 sacks and went to the Pro Bowl.

The Broncos moved Mecklenburg all over the field, exploiting his intelligence and versatility. In one game, he lined up in every defensive position except cornerback and safety.

But he is unlike Taylor, who is primarily a pass rusher.

“He’s at outside linebacker 95% of the time,” Mecklenburg said. “And most of what he does is on great physical ability. I’ve got some ability, but a lot of what we do is anticipation, knowing where the team is going to be.”

Mecklenburg, who plays mostly at inside linebacker and defensive end, has committed to memory about 100 different defensive combinations.

“I love what I’m doing, playing a lot of positions,” he said. “If I don’t make a lot of big plays, I’m not doing my job.”

He’s doing his job.