Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis Is in the Building

That loud noise you hear is booing in Kansas City.

“He’ll be back next season, and he is the quarterback of the future of the Kansas City Chiefs,” Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “I believe in Elvis Grbac. I think he can be a winning quarterback in this league.”

The Broncos have played four poor games in a row, losing the last two, and while most teams are thinking about resting the final week, Denver needs to find itself before going into the playoffs.

“The edge sometimes is so thin, that if you lose that edge, then all of a sudden you get embarrassed,” Coach Mike Shanahan said. “It’s a tough situation. It’s a fine line. People are human. You lose that edge a little bit when you do have home-field advantage and when you do have the division sewed up. You talk about going in there and giving it that extra effort, but we haven’t played with the consistency that we have to to win those games.”

Tight end Shannon Sharpe said: “We don’t want to go into the playoffs like this. We are 10 or 14 points better than that football team [the Dolphins]. We need to shore this ship up before we go into the playoffs.”

Or the Jets will be in the Super Bowl.

CENTRAL / Wherever He Goes, Neil Becomes the Heel

Anyone want Neil O’Donnell? Didn’t think so. O’Donnell left the Steelers for the Jets, then went to Cincinnati and now the Bengals don’t appear all that interested in keeping him.

“I don’t know what my status is,” said O’Donnell, who broke his throwing hand in early December. “I’m going to go home [to New Jersey], get better and see what happens.” Get better? Oh, the hand.

Bengal owner Mike Brown said recently he wasn’t sure whether O’Donnell, who signed a four-year, $17.25-million contract in July, would be brought back for 1999.

“It was a long season. Nothing I ever expected,” O’Donnell said. “It was frustrating. I think there’s a lot of people who were frustrated. We just didn’t find ways to win. And then we were at a point in the season where we started hearing, ‘Here we go again.’ ”

A few weeks ago, the Jaguars were a lock to be the AFC’s second-seeded team in the playoffs, looking ahead to a rematch with Denver, but after losing quarterback Mark Brunell because of an ankle injury, their season collapsed. They backed into the Central Division title because the Steelers faltered, and now aim to turn it on again in the playoffs with the hopeful return of Brunell.

“I can see the title [headline] right now, ‘Brunell promises return,’ ” Brunell said. “I don’t want to say that, because I can’t say that. I couldn’t give a definite yes right now, but it’s coming along great.”

Brunell has been sidelined since Dec. 6 and is still limping--just like the Jaguars.

EAST / When Parcells Does Math, It Adds Up to 12

Do you think the Jets will take it easy, now that they have clinched the No. 2 seeding in the AFC, against Bill Parcells’ former team, the Patriots?

“Don’t ever talk to me about that kind of thing,” Parcells said when asked if he might rest his starters, “because I have no interest in it.

“I don’t have a philosophy on it, except I’m trying to win the game. So I’m not playing anybody I don’t think gives us the best chance to win. We can win 12 instead of 11. That’s improving it.”

Parcells then said as much to his players.

“It was pointed out that teams that rested on the fact they had established their playoff position and then just took it easy the last couple of games have been eliminated in the early stages,” tight end Kyle Brady said. “That’s not something we want to do.”