Performance a Knockout for Gordon

Vindication drives cornerback Darrien Gordon.

Vindication for the way he was dropped by the San Diego Chargers.

Vindication for the way the Denver Bronco secondary has been underestimated.

Vindication for the whispers behind his back that he has speed but not much else in the way of football talent.

When he first joined the Chargers, Gordon was being compared to Deion Sanders. When he left, it was more Dionne Warwick in terms of football talent.

Bad joke, but Gordon wasn’t laughing.

“If they were not able to keep me, why couldn’t they at least say that I was a good player,” Gordon said, “a two-position player, a player who could turn around a game at any time. Because if they said that, how could they justify letting me go?

“The first couple of years there, I was the next Deion Sanders. But when they felt they didn’t need me, they went from Deion to ‘Oh, he just a punt returner.’ ”

Gordon, who joined the Broncos before the 1997 season as an unrestricted free agent after four years with the Chargers, certainly knows how to plead his case. He picked football’s biggest showcase, the Super Bowl, to exhibit his skills.

Gordon intercepted two Chris Chandler passes in the second half Sunday to help seal the Denver Broncos’ 34-19 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Gordon returned the interceptions 108 yards, giving him the most interception return yards in a Super Bowl game.

Add the two interceptions for 48 yards in the Broncos’ 23-10 victory over the New York Jets in the AFC championship game, and Gordon would seem to have all the vindication he needs.

He almost didn’t get a chance to get two interceptions Sunday. In the first half, attempting to stop the Falcons’ bruising running back Jamal Anderson, Gordon got a knee in the helmet that knocked him out.

“It seemed like I was out for hours,” he said, “but it was probably for two seconds. But I heard a ringing in my ears.”

When he returned in the second half, Gordon got a hand on his first interception from defensive tackle Keith Traylor.

Although they had dominated the Falcons, the Broncos couldn’t quite ground the Dirty Birds. Twice the Broncos had attempted to add to their 17-6 halftime lead and twice kicker Jason Elam had missed field goals in the third quarter.

Back Chandler and the Falcons had come, driving to the Bronco 21-yard line. On first and 10, Chandler put up a pass that Traylor tipped, the ball coming down in Gordon’s hands.

“He did a great job of tipping it,” Gordon said, “and I caught a break.”

But then, much to Gordon’s chagrin, he was caught by Chandler after racing 58 yards.

“My legs gave out on me,” Gordon said. “I saw the daylight, but I guess the heat and the humidity and the shot I took from Jamal Anderson in the second quarter caused my legs to go out from under me.

“It’s a sad night when the quarterback catches you. The quarterback should never make the tackle. I can’t makes excuses, but my family won’t let me forget that.”

The Broncos weren’t complaining. They scored on the possession following the Gordon interception to take a comfortable 24-6 lead.

Atlanta got to the Denver 26 on its next possession, and Chandler again put the ball into Gordon’s hands.

“I think that second interception really did it,” Gordon said. “I think that really took the life out of them.”

And Gordon hopes, put new life in a secondary that has been maligned.

“We took a lot of criticism all year,” Gordon said, “but the bottom line is that we don’t give up many points. Our defense is based on stopping the run with eight or nine guys in the box. It’s just that our offense is so high-powered that teams have to pass because we are usually up by thirty or forty points in the fourth quarter.”

Said cornerback Darrius Johnson, who got the other Bronco interception: “We won two Super Bowls with this secondary so you can’t say too much bad about it.”

Vindication can be so sweet.