Elway Is Set to Oppose Montana With Virtually Nothing at Stake

John Elway and Joe Montana, each coming off severely disappointing games, lead their respective conference all-star teams tonight at 5 p.m. (PST) in the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium.

Elway, the starting quarterback for the American Football Conference, will be trying to ease some of the pain of the Denver Broncos’ 42-10 Super Bowl loss to the Washington Redskins.

San Francisco’s Montana, who will start for the National Football Conference, rode the bench in the final minutes of the 49ers’ 36-24 playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings. He was pulled from the game by Coach Bill Walsh and replaced with Steve Young.

The intensity of competition in the Pro Bowl is often questioned, since it is assumed players don’t want to take undue risk of being injured in an exhibition game.

Montana, however, said it’s business as usual. “You have to take it seriously. There are great players out there running around banging into people.”

An interesting running back matchup will be Charles White of the NFC and Eric Dickerson of the AFC. White, a reserve who became the Ram starter at tailback when they traded Dickerson to the Indianapolis Colts, went on to beat Dickerson as the league’s leading rusher,

White gained 1,374 yards in 324 carries, including replacement games during the NFL strike. Dickerson, who didn’t play during the strike, gained 1,288 yards in 283 carries.

Kevin Mack of the Cleveland Browns will start alongside Dickerson in the AFC backfield, with the Houston Oilers’ Mike Rozier and the Raiders’ Marcus Allen as substitutes.