This Old Bird of Pray Has a Lot to Squawk About

Enemy No. 1 for Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe in Sunday’s Super Bowl game will be whichever Atlanta linebacker lines up opposite him. On media day here Tuesday, his target was the only Falcon player he considers a rival as an interview subject.

“He doesn’t want to get into a jawing match with me because he knows that’s a match he can’t win,” Sharpe said of Atlanta free safety Eugene Robinson. “He can’t out-talk me and he can’t cover me.

“Just because he went to Colgate doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t have a degree from Harvard, but I can count to a million.”

Robinson laughed when he read Sharpe’s comments in the newspaper Wednesday morning.

“Shannon probably is a little smarter than I am,” he said. “But tell him that Colgate is a very, very good school.”

Sharpe no doubt was wishing for more scintillating repartee to interrupt the tedium of daily media sessions. Robinson, however, has spent so much time over the last 14 years defending himself that he’s not defensive anymore.

He has defied the odds, as well as the scouts who make their living by telling teams that players like Robinson can’t play in the NFL. Players like Robinson prove that the draft is an inexact science.

Undrafted out of Colgate in 1985, he signed as a free agent with the Seattle Seahawks and started for them in 10 of the next 11 seasons, going to the Pro Bowl in 1992 and ’93.

He was traded in 1996 to Green Bay and started every game during the next two seasons, including both Super Bowls. When last season ended, he had more interceptions, 49, than any other active player.

Yet, after examining reasons that the Packers had not repeated as champions, their coaches and management identified Robinson as one of them. A free agent, he was offered a one-year contract that would have resulted in a substantial pay cut and told he would be the third safety.

“I’m not a backup,” he told them.

What he thought he might be was a television commentator. He was negotiating with CBS until the Falcons called and offered him a two-year, $3.55-million contract to start at free safety and, more important, to become their spiritual leader.

They meant that literally. He has Scripture memorized for seemingly every situation and leads the team in prayer, including his own unorthodox closing that replaces “Amen” with “Whoop, there it is!”

They also meant it figuratively. Of four Falcons who have Super Bowl experience, Robinson is the only one with a ring.

That ring from the Packers’ 1997 Super Bowl victory over New England was the only thing impressive about the 35-year-old Robinson when Atlanta coaches first started watching him during training camp. All those deficiencies that opposing coaches see in films, making them believe that Robinson is an easy mark, the Falcon coaches saw in person.

“If you want a 4.3 40 and a 40-inch vertical leap, I’m not your guy,” Robinson said Wednesday. “But if you want to get an interception, I can do that. If you want me to bust somebody in the mouth, I can do that.

“That’s football. All that other stuff is just gymnastics. I’m not Nadia Comaneci.”

He is a Pro Bowl player, again.

Three plays during this postseason are all the evidence you need to know that he deserves it.

One of them occurred during a game he watched on television from three time zones away. In the NFC wild-card game at San Francisco, the Packers appeared to have the 49ers beaten until the final play, a touchdown pass through the teeth of the secondary from Steve Young to Terrell Owens.

Packer free safety Darren Sharper should have been in position to prevent it. Robinson would have been.

“I don’t want to dog my boy,” said Robinson, who did such an outstanding job tutoring Sharper that he lost his job to him. “I will tell you this: That play will never, ever happen to Darren Sharper again. I guarantee you. Experience is the best teacher.”

The next week, Robinson intercepted a pass by Young in the NFC divisional playoff at Atlanta and returned it 77 yards to set up a field goal in a game the Falcons won, 20-18.

Then, eight days later in the NFC championship game at Minnesota, Robinson made a game-saving play in overtime of the Falcons’ 30-27 victory. Viking quarterback Randall Cunningham had receiver Randy Moss open behind the Falcon secondary but threw the ball short. When Moss tried to come back for it, the way he had done so often during the season, Robinson was there to knock the ball down.

“A lot of balls he’s caught have been underthrown,” Robinson said of Moss. “He gets to them because the cornerbacks and safeties are playing him instead of the ball. I let the corner play him, and I played the ball. I got there first.”

Robinson, teaming with cornerbacks Ray Buchanan and Michael Booker, was crucial to the Falcons’ defensive strategy against Moss, who caught one pass for four yards in the second half.

“Everybody said, ‘Randy Moss is Superman, Randy Moss is Superman,’ ” Robinson said. “He ain’t Superman. I refuse to be mesmerized by anyone’s talent.

“It’s like the Bible says, ‘The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happeneth to them all.’ Ecclesiastes 9:11.”

Whoop, there it is!

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com