For Golic, Memories Inspire : AFC championship: The nose tackle was on the losing side twice as a member of the Cleveland Browns.

Two weeks ago, defensive end Howie Long withdrew his Super Bowl XVIII ring from a safe-deposit box and brought it to work to show Raider teammate Bob Golic.

OK, Long did more than show it.

“He kept flashing it in front of me,” Golic recalled, “saying, ‘Oh, you never really did get one of these, did you? You were always very close. I always did enjoy those games. They were very good, Bob.’ ”

Yes, they were good--for the Denver Broncos. The games were nightmares for Golic, who suffered through two excruciating championship losses as a nose tackle for the Cleveland Browns. The title games of 1986 and 1987 were dramatic enough to be remembered as the Drive and the Fumble. Two times Golic tasted the Super Bowl. Two times he went home without a ring.

The Browns left Golic unprotected after the 1988 season. They presumed his career over after a pretty nice run. The Raiders, cultivators of rejects, thought otherwise and signed him. Funny how things work out. The Browns swooned to 3-13 this season. Meanwhile Golic, age 33, makes his third run at an AFC title this week when the Raiders face the Buffalo Bills at Rich Stadium on Sunday.

If dreams come true, this game will be remembered as The Nose Tackle and Golic will have expunged all those haunting memories of John “Wayne” Elway and the infamous fumble of Earnest Byner.

Someone suggested that Golic should put aside the disappointments of past championship games before entering this one.

“I’m not going to let it go,” he said. “I’m going to take it out on somebody. I don’t want that to happen any more. It’s happened too many times.”

Golic is not easily subdued. Rather, he is a man of constant motion and non-stop chatter and cheer. Whether he has ever turned down an interview request, it is not known. Long calls Golic the “human sound bite” because of his accessibility to the media.

But if you want to bring a perky man down, simply mention Cleveland-Denver and two games for the ages.

The first was played in Cleveland on Jan. 11, 1987. The Browns lost in overtime, 23-20, after Elway had driven the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays to tie the game in regulation. Denver’s Rich Karlis won the game in overtime with a field goal.

“I remember laying on the field after the game,” Golic said. “And the first thing that came to my mind was that, just to get to this point again, I’ve got to go through training camp, an entire season of games again. You realize what it took to get to that point. It makes it so much more dramatic.”

Golic explained further.

“If you’re a bad team and you know it, and you’re playing bad the entire season, you’re pretty much waiting for the season to be over with,” he said. “It’s, ‘How many more games?’ I’ll get the U-Haul dropped off next week, have it loaded, and after the game I’m gone. You accept it. But the closer you get to that final goal that you’ve always worked for, a loss at that point was devastating.”

Golic wasn’t on the field for much of Elway’s drive because Cleveland had removed him in favor of its pass defense package.

“As they got down to the 20 yard-line going in, they’d driven the whole way in, they said ‘Golic, get back in!’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t really involved with the beginning of this thing.’ But I went out anyway.”

So the loss wasn’t your fault?

“I’ve always said that,” Golic joked.

The Browns would get another chance the next season, Jan. 17, 1988, at Denver. Cleveland rallied from an 18-point halftime deficit and had a chance to take the lead in the final minute when Byner, who had gained 187 passing and receiving yards in the game, fumbled inside the Denver five-yard line. The Broncos won, 38-33.

Golic didn’t play in that game because he had broken his arm in the last regular-season game, against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I was on the sideline getting Gatorade for the other guys,” he said.

But it didn’t make losing any easier. Golic said he would have played in the Super Bowl had the Browns advanced. He had already spoken with a doctor about making a protective mold for his arm.

Golic never got the chance. Cleveland lost again.

“We had such great fan support,” he said. “After the (first) loss, I felt like I let everybody down. I felt like I’d let the city down, the fans down. There’s so much emotion when you get that close. I’m going to do everything I possibly can to not let that happen again.”

Like so many others before him, Golic has found new life with the Raiders. He’s talking about playing three or four more seasons. When the Browns left him unprotected, he had one team in mind.

“There was no other team that has the mystique and tradition that the Raiders do,” he said. “This was the perfect place for me to come.”

Golic also knew this was his last chance.

“Once the Raiders give up on you, it’s done,” he said. “I guess there’s the World of American Football now. But I can see Barcelona saying, ‘Well, the Raiders didn’t want him . . . ‘ “