It’s Montana vs. Marino Again : AFC playoffs: Statistics give Miami quarterback a slight edge--except for those four Super Bowl rings.

It’s Montana vs. Marino.

It’s arguably the best quarterback at winning Super Bowls vs. the best quarterback never to win one.

In this town, it’s being billed as the mother of all matchups.

True, quarterbacks Joe Montana and Dan Marino are only two of the players activated for today’s first-round playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins at Joe Robbie Stadium. Both clubs can do more than pass, having shown the ability to run effectively and play stifling defense.

No matter.

Montana and Marino are the names on the marquee, the reason this game seems to be drawing the most interest of the four on the opening weekend of the NFL’s annual Super Bowl tournament.

The Miami Herald and the Kansas City Star are even running popularity contests, asking their readers to vote for either Montana or Marino for the title of greatest quarterback of them all.

You could probably guess the results in each city even without an exit poll.

In the top categories for quarterbacks--touchdown passes, attempts, completions and yardage--both men are among the top four ever to play the game, Marino ahead of Montana in each category.

“He’s accomplished a lot more throwing the ball than I have,” Montana said.

But Montana has four things Marino does not: Super Bowl rings.

Despite all these two have already done, today’s meeting could be a key game in their careers, a chance to propel one of them on his way to the only remaining goal each still seeks.

After 14 years and four Super Bowl victories with San Francisco, Montana came to Kansas City last year to resurrect his career after an elbow injury that cost him two years and his starting job with the 49ers. He sat out five games because of injury last season but still led the Chiefs into the AFC championship game, where they lost to the Buffalo Bills.

Before this season, Montana, labeled by some as injury-prone and washed up, set out to prove his doubters wrong. He has sat out only two games because of injury and staged a vintage Montana performance last Saturday at the Coliseum. With the Chiefs facing elimination if they lost, Montana opened the game with a 47-yard touchdown pass to Willie Davis, and Kansas City went on to defeat the Raiders, 19-9, moving the 9-7 Chiefs into the last AFC wild-card slot.

Montana’s quest for a fifth Super Bowl ring, the one that might finally send him into retirement at 38, officially begins today.

Five years younger than Montana, Marino is still seeking his first Super Bowl victory, but he’s happy to be playing after suffering a torn Achilles’ tendon in his right leg last year, ending his season after five games.

Marino also had his share of doubters, who wondered if he was finished.

It has been a slow, painful healing process and, according to Marino, slower than doctors anticipated.

“It’s not much better than it was in July,” he said of the leg.

Imagine what Marino would have done if he had been sound. As it was, he had the highest passer rating in the conference at 89.2 and led the 10-6 Dolphins to the AFC East title.

Both teams again demonstrated last week that they have the key ingredient to keep the pressure off their quarterbacks--a running game.

The Chiefs’ Marcus Allen, who left the Raiders two years ago after his feud with owner Al Davis went public, returned with a vengeance last Saturday, gaining 132 yards against his former teammates. Allen was especially effective at the end when his slashing runs kept the ball out of the Raiders’ hands. It was the first 100-yard game since 1988 for Allen, who was the Chiefs’ leading rusher this season with 709 yards and seven touchdowns.

Bernie Parmalee, who had only 10 carries in his first two seasons, led the Dolphins in rushing this season with 868 yards and six touchdowns, three of those coming last week against the Detroit Lions, when Parmalee outplayed Barry Sanders.

Parmalee’s 150 yards rushing and key carries in overtime enabled Miami to beat the Raiders earlier this season.

Both teams also play solid defense, Kansas City finishing fifth overall in the AFC, Miami 10th--but second against the run.

Still, in the end, it figures to come down to Montana and Marino.

“I think it will be something to look back on,” Marino said, “after our careers are over.”

Especially if these two, who have thrown 601 touchdown passes between them, have any life left in their old arms. So clear the runways, the air show is about to begin.

AFC Notes

Miami receiver Mark Ingram will sit out today’s game because of an ankle injury. Decisions on offensive lineman Ron Heller (shoulder) and linebacker Dwight Hollier (knee) will be made before game time. . . . Kansas City quarterback Joe Montana bruised a knee in last week’s Raider game, but that won’t hold him out today. . . . Montana and Dan Marino have met twice before, Marino, then a rookie, beating Montana and the 49ers, 20-17, in 1983. Montana got his revenge in the Super Bowl in 1985, beating the Dolphins, 38-16, in Marino’s only Super Bowl appearance.