NOTEBOOK : Broncos Might Use Real Secret Weapon

Consider all the super players who never got to a Super Bowl.

Now, consider Paul Green.

Could a player’s first pro football game be the NFL championship game?

It could for Green, the Denver Broncos’ rookie tight end from USC.

With Clarence Kay still listed as “questionable” with a thigh injury, Green, who has spent the entire season on the developmental squad, might play Sunday in Super Bowl XXIV.

Orson Mobley and Pat Kelly are the backup tight ends, but Green said Thursday, “Our goal-line offense includes three tight ends, so you do the mathematics.

“On third-and-goal from the two, look for Paul Green in the corner of the end zone. He’ll be open. None of the San Francisco 49ers know who Denver’s No. 86 is.”

Green, an eighth-round draft choice, caught only 13 passes in his senior season at USC but missed six games with injuries. He caught 31 the year before, plus seven in the 1988 Rose Bowl game against Michigan State.

Waived by the Broncos on Sept. 4, he was re-signed two days later to the developmental squad. He has yet to play an NFL down.

Suddenly he’s a newsmaker, a trend setter--a player who could be making his pro debut in the Super Bowl.

“I’m handling (the attention) OK because I played for USC in three Rose Bowls and know what it’s like,” Green said. “If I was some guy from North Dakota, I’d have gone under already.”

Denver injury update: Running back Bobby Humphrey again practiced with a flak jacket protecting his injured ribs.

“It hurt like hell,” Humphrey said. “My biggest problem is getting used to the flak jacket and holding the ball tightly so I don’t fumble.”

He, too, is listed as questionable. Coach Dan Reeves said Humphrey won’t play unless he’s 100% healthy, but that may have been for San Francisco’s benefit. Humphrey said: “I didn’t come down here not to play.”

When the Raiders played in Super Bowl XV in this city, they were based in Oakland. Where will they be based next time a Super Bowl is played in this city?

Earl Leggett, defensive line coach for the Denver Broncos, who held a similar position with Al Davis’ Raiders in 1980-88, said Thursday: “If Al had his druthers, he’d stay in Los Angeles.”

Just don’t stay in the Coliseum, Leggett advises.

“The Coliseum is the worst football stadium I’ve ever been in,” he said. “Everyone is just too far away from the game.

“And the other thing is that parking situation. They need to get a buffer zone for that terrible area around the Coliseum.”

Leggett’s son attends USC. “The other night, his roommate went out on Exposition Boulevard for a short walk and got mugged. That’ll give you some idea of what it’s like around the Coliseum.”

As the New Yorker magazine would say: Block That Metaphor!

Denver quarterback John Elway, discussing a defeat in Super Bowl XXII: “Against Washington, it was like the floodgates opened and we couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

Dick Jorgensen, 22-year veteran of NFL officiating, was assigned as referee for Sunday’s game. He will be making his first title-game appearance. Other crew officials are umpire Hendi Ancich, head linesman Earnie Frantz, line judge Ron Blum, back judge Al Jury, side judge Gerry Austin and field judge Don Orr, four of whom are working their first Super Bowl.

May Olde Acquaintances Be Forgot: Two 49ers, Spencer Tillman and Larry Roberts, ran into two Broncos, Steve Sewell and Bobby Humphrey, who were old friends from college days, at a restaurant. Tillman and Roberts tried to say hello. Sewell and Humphrey did not hello them back.

“I don’t know if it was just that (Denver Coach) Dan Reeves told them to have that attitude or what, but they wanted to be left alone,” Roberts said. “They made their point, and I took it. I left.

Tillman and Sewell were teammates at Oklahoma; Roberts and Humphrey were teammates at Alabama. Sewell wouldn’t speak to Tillman. When Roberts tried to buy Humphrey a beer, other Bronco players, seated at a nearby table, started shouting at their teammate: “Buy your own beer!”

Tillman said of the encounter: “They’re all fired up and ready to play, right there in the restaurant. I didn’t feel like that was a good attitude to have. We’re all still players. We can all be cordial, at least speak to each other.”

Super Bull:

--Jerry Rice, 49er receiver, on cocky talk by Bronco defensive back Dennis Smith: “If I was going to win the game by talking, I’d go hire Jesse Jackson.”

--Roger Craig, 49er running back, on not being a so-called superstar: “Herschel Walker, Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Eric Dickerson, they’d all love to be in my shoes right now. But I don’t want to be in theirs.”

--Clarence Kay, Bronco tight end, on the pregame hassles: “If I had my way, I’d fly in Saturday night, play the game on Sunday and go back home.”

--Bubba Paris, 340-pound 49er offensive lineman, on what he’d do if he ever found the fan who hit him in the eye with a snowball several years ago in Denver: “I’d eat him.”