Expect Bronco Fans to Send Elway Off With Loud Goodbye

They have sold out Mile High Stadium 231 consecutive times, packed orange to orange, stomping their feet and raising the specter for the uninitiated that at any moment the whole structure might collapse.

It is wild, it is intimidating, but at no time in all its glorious existence might it be louder than for today’s AFC championship game--most likely the last opportunity for the people of Denver to yell for John Elway.

This is what awaits the New York Jets, a team used to yelling because it’s coached by Bill Parcells, but inexperienced in postseason fervor, playing in its first conference title game in 16 years.

There will be airplanes and helicopters overhead to mark the occasion. The anticipation has been whipped by a week of fond remembrances. The fans in the South Stands, the most rowdy, will be the first to spot Elway running from the team’s locker room for pregame introductions and their cheer will electrify everyone else.

Like a surprised Wade Phillips a few years ago, who jumped in fright after being startled by the cannon in San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, if the Jets are not aware of Elway’s entrance they will be rocked by the wave of emotion.

This is what awaits the Jets, a team that cannot afford to get overwhelmed by the moment, fainting under the pressure, the thin air, the aura of Mile High.

The Broncos, who haven’t lost a regular-season home game the past three seasons, feed off this atmosphere, pouncing quickly on their stunned foe and outscoring the opposition this year in Mile High in the first quarter, 93-38. By halftime, it has been even worse, outscoring their foes, 213-74.

Denver has won 18 consecutive games in Mile High Stadium, and going back to 1974, the Broncos have the best home record in the NFL--147-45-1--winning 76% of their games.

In Mile High this year, running back Terrell Davis scored 19 touchdowns; on the road Davis scored six. Elway passed for 14 touchdowns in the rarefied air, nine on the road, but more significantly, Elway had only one pass intercepted at home this season--six away from Mile High.

This is what awaits the Jets.

“We have played some tough games on the road, but I don’t think those teams were anything like Denver,” Jet wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson said. “Denver is a hell of a team. You’ve got an offensive explosion right there.

“I watched Denver’s game [against Miami] and for a minute there, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to play them.’ ”

The Jets, told what to think by Parcells, have been advised to take on the role of underdog against Denver with the idea of breeding overconfidence in the Broncos.

“That’s not going to work, not with Mike Shanahan,” said Pat Bowlen, owner of the Broncos. “I was in New York earlier this week reading the newspapers and reading all that stuff about how Denver is overlooking the Jets, but that’s Parcells. Mike Shanahan is the best there is at getting his team focused, and after losing to Jacksonville here in the playoffs two years ago, there’s no way this bunch is going to look past anyone.”

On the back page of a New York newspaper earlier this week, Johnson announced in headlines: “This is our Super Bowl.”

In Denver, tight end Shannon Sharpe replied, “It’s not ours.”

The Broncos are defending Super Bowl champions, and aside from wanting to send Elway out a winner, they know the difficulty surmounting the roadblock put before them: A Bill Parcells-coached team has never lost a championship game.

“I know what Bill has done and what a great football coach he is and what he’s accomplished with a couple of Super Bowl rings, as well as his staff,” Shanahan said. “But this is what you look forward to--why you’re a coach in this game.”

No contest. Three years ago Shanahan matched wits with Parcells’ New England Patriots and whipped them, 37-3. OK, so Parcells didn’t have his ace defensive coordinator with him, Bill Belichick, but a year later, Shanahan went up against Parcells and Belichick in New England and humiliated them, 34-8. New England went on to the Super Bowl that year.

“We went on the road last year to get to the Super Bowl and won,” Sharpe said. “Then we won the Super Bowl and started out 13-0 this year. That’s going to give you a lot of confidence. Some people might construe that as being cocky, but when we take the field we know we’re the favorite team and they have to try and beat us.”

The Jets, runner-up to Denver’s 501 points in the AFC with 416, will try to hog the ball, using running back Curtis Martin, who topped the 100-yard mark eight times this season, to keep the Broncos’ offense off the field.

Quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who threw for 338 yards with four touchdowns and one interception against the Broncos two years ago while playing for Baltimore, finished as the AFC’s top-rated passer primarily because Parcells didn’t require him to go out and win the game.

“He’s always been in a situation where the pressure was on him to win the game,” said teammate and fullback-tight end Keith Byars. “In this offense we’re not asking him to do that. Just drive the bus.”

It’s up to Belichick, considered one of the best defensive coaches in the league, not to allow the game to become a shootout. The Jets will make a commitment early to stack their defense to stymie Davis, but the Broncos have a counter plan: Put eight defensive men up front and Elway throws; put seven and Davis runs.

The Broncos think they can win if they stop Martin. The Jets believe they will triumph if they stop Davis. Ultimately, it just might come down to Testaverde and Elway, which based on history doesn’t seem like a fair fight.

“I really don’t look on history as helping us in this game just because circumstances are so different, especially for Vinny,” said Elway, 102-25 in 16 years as a starter in Mile High. “Vinny’s playing great in a situation that’s right for him. He’s going to make it tough.”

Vinny Testaverde ending John Elway’s career with a loss in Mile High Stadium?

“No one would want John to go out like that,” Sharpe said. “The electricity is gonna be something, and while everyone’s playing for themselves, and while this might be his last game in Mile High, we’re all going to be playing to make sure it’s not the last game of his career.”

That would be in two weeks--in the Super Bowl.

TODAY’S GAMES: N.Y. JETS at DENVER; 1 p.m., Ch. 2