Three Amigos Aren’t Riding High : Bronco Receivers Have Been a Bit Subdued This Season

Mark Jackson emerged from the shower last Sunday after his Denver Broncos had beaten the Rams, looked across the locker room at teammate Vance Johnson, smiled and yelled, “ Ole! “

Johnson also broke into a grin and responded with an “ Ole! “ of his own.

A sequel in the making? Premiere of the Three Amigos II?

Surely you remember those colorful characters from last season’s Super Bowl. So what ever happened to them?

Commissioner Pete Rozelle of the National Football League calls it parity. Others call it mediocrity. Or worse.

The fact is, Denver, like the rest of the pack in the AFC West, is struggling. Super Bowl teams can have colorful characters. Struggling teams just need character.

So it has been mighty quiet around the Broncos this season, both in the locker room and on the field, where the team has won just 7 of 13 games going into Sunday’s showdown with the Raiders at the Coliseum.

Gone are the heady days of 1987, when the Three Amigos terrorized many a defensive back foolish enough to pursue them through the wild AFC West and into the playoffs.

These Amigos first rode in a Monday night game last season. Denver quarterback John Elway, after a big performance against the Chicago Bears, said he couldn’t have done it without “my three amigos.”

He, of course, was talking about Jackson, Johnson and Ricky Nattiel, stars of the Broncos’ receiving corps named for the movie comedy.

What happened next couldn’t have been planned. It was a public relations dream. And a coach’s nightmare.

The Three Amigos were off and galloping. There were posters. There were videos. There were sombreros and shirts and caps and even a Mexican tour. As Denver headed for a second straight Super Bowl appearance, you couldn’t pick up a paper or watch a telecast about the team without some reference to the trio, all of whom are between 5-9 and 5-11, and 180 and 185 pounds.

Everything was fine as long as the Broncos were winning. However, Denver Coach Dan Reeves fumed after an incident involving Johnson. A groin injury had temporarily knocked him out of the playoffs, but Reeves found out that Johnson was healthy enough to spend several hours sitting on a horse to film an Amigos video entitled “The Touchdown Banditos.”

Then came Super Bowl XXII. All the receiving stars, it turned out, were on the other end of Doug Williams’ throws as the Washington Redskins buried Denver with 4 touchdown passes.

Bye-bye, Broncos. Adios, Amigos.

Johnson, fearful of antagonizing Reeves further and perhaps getting traded, decided to cool it. At least for a while. He went from doing a Muhammad Ali routine to something more along the lines of Steve Carlton. He still talked, but no longer with flamboyant overtones.

“I think he realized that maybe he ought to tone it down if he wanted to stay around, to fit the Bronco mold,” Jackson said.

Jackson and Nattiel followed their teammate’s lead, but Jackson has no regrets about their time in the saddle.

“One thing about that Three Amigos stuff is that I think it made us play better, because each week we knew that if we lost or something went wrong, we were the scapegoats,” he said. “I think that helped make us try to do extra stuff.

“But I don’t think anyone after the Super Bowl blamed it on the Three Amigos, because we didn’t have a bad game.”

Optimism returned to the Broncos by the start of this season. But not for long.

Jackson caught 2 touchdown passes in his first 2 games and caught 6 passes for 136 yards, but he finished that second game, played at Mile High Stadium against the San Diego Chargers, on his back after breaking a collarbone.

Gone was the momentum he had built up in last year’s playoffs, in which he finished as Denver’s leading postseason receiver with 8 catches for 210 yards, an average of 26.8 yards a catch.

Jackson, now in his third year, has become known as a big-play performer, but never more so than in postseason play.

Two years ago, when Elway mounted The Drive, that unforgettable 98-yard march that broke the backs of the Cleveland Browns in the AFC championship game, it was Jackson who applied the coup de grace by diving for the 5-yard touchdown pass that finished off the march.

And last year, the most memorable play in Denver’s victory in the title game rematch with Cleveland was Jackson’s 80-yard scoring play. This time, he caught a short toss from Elway near the sidelines and then eluded two tacklers in a dash to the end zone.

“John will scramble and Mark will come up with the big play,” said Raider Coach Mike Shanahan, formerly an assistant with the Broncos. “It’s been that way ever since he’s been there.”

After suffering the injury earlier this season, Jackson sat out four games. But with the entire Denver offense, Elway included, misfiring game after game, this hasn’t been much of a year to be an Amigo anyway.

Which brings us to last Sunday against the Rams. Jackson, getting his first start because of an injury to Nattiel, looked as if he was back to postseason form.

Elway suddenly had his act together, too, looking like the second coming of . . . well, John Elway. And his enthusiasm and effectiveness naturally were passed on to his receivers.

Jackson made 6 catches for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns, the best game of his career.

That gives him 27 receptions for the season for 503 yards, an average of 18.6 yards per catch, with 5 touchdowns. In his first 2 seasons, Jackson caught a total of only 3 touchdown passes.

Johnson also caught a touchdown pass last Sunday. The return to form of two of the Amigos sparked the resurfacing of their battle cry.

“I think The Three Amigos is the best thing that happened to us last year,” Jackson said. “Maybe we need to do that this year to get some excitement around here, some emotion. Football is a game that is played on emotion.”

Does that mean the old posters are coming back? Are there still any old posters around?

“I saw three on sale at a special price, but that was in Tucson,” said Jackson with a laugh. “I haven’t seen any around here (Denver).

“After we beat the Raiders, maybe we can start the presses rolling again.”

Ole !