SUPER BOWL XXIV : DENVER BRONCOS vs. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS : A Crack in the Armor : Broncos: Bobby Humphrey’s injury could keep him out of game, which would hurt Denver even more.

Better ribs than Bobby Humphrey’s can be found almost anywhere in this city. On Sammy Winder. On John Elway. On any plate in any restaurant, blackened or barbecued, spare or short.

Humphrey’s are broken. Cracked, if you’re from Denver, because the sound is supposedly softer on Bronco ears. But a crack is an incomplete break and an incomplete break doesn’t hurt any less than any other classification.

They’re broken.

Humphrey and the Broncos have been doing their damnedest to deny it, because they’re damned if they don’t. Doctors have told Humphrey he’d be best waiting another five or six weeks before exposing those ribs to Ronnie Lott, but the Super Bowl comes only once a year and this year’s happens Sunday.

No, Humphrey and the Broncos have no chance. It’s a simple play book. Before Humphrey, Denver tried Tony Dorsett, Steve Sewell and Winder at running back and went 8-8. After Humphrey, and including his 1,153 rookie rushing yards, the Broncos are back in the Super Bowl, for better or for worse, whatever it may get them against the San Francisco 49ers.

Humphrey has tried to talk his way into the starting lineup this week, but the platform is getting weaker by the day.

Humphrey on Tuesday: “We’re gonna wrap it up, patch it up, tape it up, whatever it takes for me to play. It’ll take 10 bodybuilders to tie me up and hold me down to get me out of this game.”

Denver Coach Dan Reeves on Wednesday: “In watching Humphrey practice, if he is not 100% by the end of the week, he will not play. I don’t think you can go into a game of this caliber with someone worrying about pain with the ribs while running the ball.”

Humphrey on Wednesday: “If I can’t go my whole, I don’t think I should be out there. If the ribs won’t let me perform the way I want to perform, I feel like I should be on the sidelines watching.”

Ten bodybuilders were not present when he said it.

That little helmet transplant Cleveland cornerback Hanford Dixon attempted on Humphrey two Sundays ago has proven a real pain to Denver. Humphrey was on his way down after a second-quarter carry, bracing himself for the fall, when Dixon buried his head into Humphrey’s side, an orange bullet.

Humphrey was left with two cracked ribs. Soon after, he left the game, not to return, and Winder took his place and took the Broncos to the end zone twice.

That makes it easier for Humphrey to say the right thing when questioned about the possibility of not playing Sunday.

“I have no doubt in mind that if I can’t go, Sammy Winder can go in and have a great game, like he did against Cleveland,” he says.

But who, aside from maybe Winder, and then only maybe, actually believes that?

The Broncos have tried it this way before. In the 1988 Super Bowl against Washington, Winder had as many rushes as any Denver back--eight--and ended up with 30 yards. In the 1987 Super Bowl against the New York Giants, Winder carried the ball four times . . . for zero yards.

The Broncos’ leading rusher in that 39-20 loss? Elway, with 27 yards.

With no running game, Elway had no way out in either game. So he passed against defenses that knew he had to pass--38 times against the Redskins, 37 times against the Giants. And the Broncos ended up losing those games by margins of 32 and 19 points.

If Humphrey is out, or ineffective, what’s to stop it from happening again?

And consider: Neither Washington nor New York had Joe Montana.

Elway is a realist.

“If Bobby isn’t in there, we’ll probably have to throw the ball more and change things a little offensively,” he says. “We’re just hoping Bobby will be there.”

And if not?

“I don’t think, consciously, I’ll put any more weight on my shoulders,” Elway says. “There’s already enough there.”

Rocky Mountain-sized.

Humphrey says: “I’m not going to say I’m the key factor in the ballgame or that I’m the guy who’s going to win the game for us, but as a group, the guys want me in there. They want me to play. I’m one of those missing links that’s going to hurt.”

So Humphrey tapes his rib cage tightly, dons a flak jacket and gives it a go in practice. Wednesday marked the first time he had taken a hit since the AFC final. More practices and more hits will have to be sampled before Reeves and Humphrey determine how much Humphrey, and how much of Humphrey, will fly come Sunday.

Humphrey has played in pain before. He broke his left foot twice at the University of Alabama in 1988 and still finished third on the team in rushing. He has played with a hip pointer.

But never with broken ribs.

At first, Humphrey said it hurt him to breathe. Now, he says it only hurts when he makes “a sharp movement”--like cutting inside or outside or shifting gears to avoid a 49er lineman.

Something as basic as cradling the football now becomes a problem. Does Humphrey carry it right side only? And how to deal with the extra bulk provided by the heavy flak jacket?

“Hanging onto the ball, that’s going to be a very important (challenge),” Humphrey says. “Wearing something bulky like that, you can’t get a real feel for the ball. You can’t really sense the ball.”

Against San Francisco, one Denver fumble could be one too many.

At any rate, the Broncos will play without a fully equipped running attack. Either Humphrey plays with an amount of apprehension or he doesn’t play at all.

Either way, Denver’s chances don’t look good. If not broken, at the very least, they’re cracked.