It’s Three ACES and a WILD CARD

Coaches like to remind everyone that quarterbacks draw too much praise and too much criticism. Bunk.

Quarterbacks are the game.

They make the NFC and AFC championship games today a football fan’s blockbuster delight, and their survival at this point in the year suggests once again that if Vinny Testaverde or Craig Whelihan is your starting quarterback, you will not be ending the season in the Super Bowl.

Today, three aces of the league: Denver’s John Elway, Green Bay’s Brett Favre and San Francisco’s Steve Young, all bound for the Hall of Fame, come together for a winner-take-all shootout.

“Just wonderful possibilities,” says Bill Walsh, who knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. “The makings of great theater.”

Specifically, that would be Kordell Stewart’s cue, the wild card in this group. He has the Pittsburgh potential to trump the great ones with athletic ability that cannot be corralled, or flop around like the inexperienced quarterback that he is supposed to be.

“His rookie year with the Steelers he used to call me all the time,” said Les Steckel, Tennessee Oiler offensive coordinator, who while coaching at the University of Colorado recruited Stewart. “He told me they wanted to change his number, make him wear an 80-number and become a wide receiver and he wanted to know what he should do.

“I told him to refuse to wear the number, tell them politely, but remind them in a nice way that they drafted him as a quarterback. I wasn’t too happy saying that, because we’re in the same division and I knew what kind of quarterback he would become, but I really like this kid. He’s going to be something very special in this league.”

Known two years ago as “Slash,” because of the punctuation used in describing his position: quarterback/wide receiver/running back, Stewart ended his second season with the Steelers as a backup quarterback, throwing 10 consecutive incomplete passes against New England in a playoff loss.

Despite such a disastrous finish, Coach Bill Cowher anointed Stewart his starting quarterback this year, and then in a radio interview, Stewart proclaimed, “I will be a Pro Bowl quarterback, and I will go to the Hall of Fame one day. It’s just a matter of staying healthy, keeping the offense going and doing what I need to do. As long as I prepare I’ll be fine.”

Wouldn’t it have been interesting to see the look on the faces of Favre, Elway and Young upon hearing those remarks?

“Where was Favre the first two or three years of his career in comparison to Kordell?” Steckel said.

(Parked on the bench in Atlanta.)

“As I remember, Young wasn’t too hot either,” Steckel said.

(Losing regularly in Tampa Bay.)

“And Elway started slowly too,” Steckel said.

(Lining up behind a guard, thinking it was the center, in a game in San Diego.)

“Everybody’s always asking me, ‘Can this guy really play?’ ” Steckel said. “Well, in the Big Eight, which had Barry Sanders and Gale Sayers, the all-time Big Eight total offense leader is Kordell Stewart, and he didn’t do it running the ball.

“He broke the University of Colorado school record for total offense in one half of a game--his first start at quarterback. And with that being said, in his second game against Baylor, ranked as one of the top teams in the country at the time in defense, he completed 16 of 17 passes in the first half, before hurting a foot. And he would tell you today, the best pass he threw that day, was the one he threw away to avoid a sack.”

Steckel, now tutoring Steve McNair, who has shown flashes of future fame, had the task of converting Stewart, an option quarterback, into a drop-back, pro-style player.

“He was scared, but there were no bad habits to break because he had never been taught how to drop back as a passer--never done it,” Steckel said. “After the first two weeks I wasn’t sure if he would ever complete a pass, but then he began to show signs of what a good player he could be, and he beat out a senior, Vance Joseph, to become our starter.

“I nicknamed him ‘Sweetheart,’ because you see this kid smile, and he’s always giggling or smiling and everyone just wants to be around him. I think he’s going to be a great quarterback in this league; the sky’s the limit.”

Elway, Favre & Young are already up there, motivated now to further define their careers by the number of championships they can win.

Favre has his Super Bowl win, Young his own as a starting quarterback, and now Elway tries again--after making it to three Super Bowls and losing them all.

“I think universally everyone wants him to win a Super Bowl,” Walsh said. “What a great quarterback.”

But is Elway good enough to carry the Broncos past the Steelers? And who gets the edge in the Favre-Young showdown?

“I think the Pittsburgh-Denver game is too tough to call because you don’t know what Stewart’s going to do,” Walsh said.

“But I definitely lean to San Francisco over Green Bay, something like 31-17. I think bad weather conditions will hurt Green Bay’s front four on defense. They are so big, almost ponderous, and the 49ers’ guards will be able to stop them and give Young all the time he wants to pass. I think Young will also rush for 50 to 60 yards because the Packers’ front four is slow. And in the second half their big guys up front will get tired.

“Everyone believes Favre is the MVP, and he’s a great player, but compared to Young, Young is the superior player. He runs better, is more agile in the pocket, more accurate and stays within the system better. I see Young clearly being better than Favre.”

Carolina defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said the final outcome in the NFC game probably will rest on the number of defenders required to stop the opposition’s running game.

“These quarterbacks make you pay for using extra people to stop the running game, so the team that can use the fewer people up front to shut down the run has the best chance of winning,” Fangio said. “How does San Francisco contend with Dorsey Levens? Can the 49ers run?

“It will be interesting to see, too, how San Francisco’s big receivers, Terrell Owens and J.J. Stokes, handle Green Bay’s defensive pressure and bump at the line of scrimmage because they’ve had their problems with that.

“Young and Favre are the two best quarterbacks in the league, very similar and playing in very similar offenses. Favre has the bigger arm and takes more chances, but Young is more accurate. San Francisco has run more to protect Young since he got hurt early in the season, and if San Francisco loses Young, they are in deep trouble.”

Bud Carson, St. Louis defensive coordinator, thinks the soggy grass at 3Com Park will favor the defenses and take the edge off the great athletic ability of Favre and Young.

“It’s harder to scramble on grass,” Carson said. “You get these guys on AstroTurf and they scare you to death. I can show you the numbers: There’s a significant difference in how well offenses function on grass and artificial turf, and I think a grass field will be a big advantage to teams using man-to-man defense, which Green Bay likes to do a lot on third downs.”

As for Pittsburgh and Denver, “Elway has always been one of my favorites,” Carson said. “He’s got as solid an arm as I’ve ever seen.

“But Stewart brings a lot of problems you don’t have every other week and forces you to prepare so much more. I don’t know if you can get all that done in one week . . . now two weeks to get ready for a Super Bowl, that would be better.”

Walsh, who had a scrambler in Joe Montana, said, “Stewart will be fine so long as the game is tied, which will allow him to run for first downs and control the game. But if Pittsburgh falls behind, then he will have to pass and his passing is not up to the standards of the other quarterbacks.

“It would be fun to coach a guy like that; he could be another Young or Montana. But he has to learn to throw the ball better in the pocket and become more consistent.

“As for Elway, he probably still carries too much of the load on his shoulders. His shortcoming is the short passing game; he wastes a lot of passes down field, and so his team has a lot of three-and-outs and the offense lacks continuity. They just don’t move the ball as consistently as they should. But John still has that marvelous knack for making the big play, and that might be enough.”

Unlike baseball, great pitching in today’s games should produce lots of scoring, and therefore the potential for memorable football.

“Sitting around the TV ought to be a lot of fun,” said Ron Wolf, Packer general manager. “But you know what, everybody wants to anoint the guy, who has played under center for 10 years, as a great player. I don’t think greatness should be defined only in longevity and the statistics compiled, but instead in championships won.

“Right now Elway is going to be remembered for never winning a Super Bowl. That’s the only mark against him. I don’t think there’s any problem with him making it into the Hall of Fame, but this game is all about winning championships.”

And with rare exception, teams don’t win championships without a great quarterback.

“You just can’t compete and win Super Bowls without good quarterback play,” Fangio said. “You can look at the all the Super Bowl winners, and even teams with supposedly stellar defenses like Chicago and the New York Giants got career years from Jim McMahon and Phil Simms.

“It all comes down to that guy with the ball in his hands, and looking at the guys we’ll be watching in these games, what more could you ask for?”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NFL PLAYOFFS

AFC

DENVER at PITTSBURGH

9:30 a.m. today

Channel 4

NFC

GREEN BAY at SAN FRANCISCO

1 p.m. today

Channel 11

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John Elway All the Way?

* Bill Plaschke discovers the Denver quarterback has become the sentimental favorite of the playoffs. C2

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Compare

How the starting quarterbacks in the conference championship games compare: CAREER POSTSEASON PASSER RATINGS *--*

Quarterback Games Rating Att Comp Yards Pct TD Int Brett Favre 11 91.7 345 209 2,620 60.6 19 9 Steve Young 19 90.7 364 228 2,605 62.6 16 7 John Elway 17 79.4 512 280 3,940 54.7 22 18 Kordell Stewart 3 35.3 42 15 134 35.7 0 1

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RECORD IN FIRST YEAR AS REGULAR STARTER*--*

Quarterback, Team Record Rating Att Comp Yards Pct TD Int Stewart, 1997 Pitt. 11-5 75.2 440 236 3,020 53.6 21 17 Elway, 1983 Denver 6-4 54.9 259 123 1,663 47.5 7 14 Favre, 1992 Green Bay 8-5 85.3 471 302 3,227 64.1 18 13 Young, 1984 L.A. (USFL) 6-6 80.6 310 179 2,361 57.7 10 9

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