Hot Corner

Jason Sehorn proposed to television actress Angie Harmon on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” He got down on his knee, then knelt and knelt and knelt. It took the stunned Harmon, who stars on “Law and Order,” nearly 30 seconds to say yes. It was wonderful.

In that same span of time Sunday, Sehorn knows that something terrible could happen. Sehorn, 29, a cornerback for the New York Giants, could be turned inside out, left spinning in his cleats, deposited red-faced and embarrassed on his backside, while the best young wide receiver in the game, Randy Moss, adds to his highlight film.

“You think about being embarrassed,” Sehorn says. “You really do when it’s Randy Moss.”

Until Sehorn added to his own highlight film Sunday with a spectacular interception--lying on the ground, he batted the football twice into the air, caught it, got up and ran 32 yards for a touchdown--no one thought he would have a chance against Moss.

But now, when the Giants play the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game at Giants Stadium, Sehorn will spend a large part of the afternoon defending against Moss. He won’t do it alone, he hopes. He knows that Moss will make a big play or two.

“He always seems to,” Sehorn says.

But now, after his spectacular interception, it seems Sehorn has proved to the football world and to himself that he is sound again.

Sehorn, who came into his own as a cornerback at USC, ripped up his right knee returning a kickoff in an exhibition game 2 1/2 years ago. He tore both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. He sat out all of the 1998 season.

When he returned to the Giants in 1999, he had gained more than 15 pounds. It was mostly muscle, but it also seemed to slow him down. Then he strained his hamstring during training camp and sat out the first two games of last season. Then he broke the smaller bone in his lower left leg and sat out the last four games.

This graceful, speedy, acrobatic cornerback with Hollywood looks and a Southern California sweetness and glibness that made him a popular TV guest--”Oprah,” “The View”--and gave him a lucrative endorsement income, became a troublesome talisman to his teammates.

Some resented his presence on magazine covers and in TV commercials. Some wondered if his outside pursuits were cutting into rehab and workout time. Sehorn doubted himself too.

“Would I ever be as fast as I was?” he says. “Would I ever get everything back?”

It seems Sehorn has gotten most everything back. Everything was back on the interception, the one that put the Giants ahead of the Eagles, 17-0; the one that showcased all of Sehorn’s skills--his good eyes, his balance, his speed, his juggling prowess.

“What I did was mostly instinct,” he says. “You see the ball in the air, your instinct is to bat it up and catch it. You could call it a lucky play, even. I was lucky the ball hung in the air so long.”

Sehorn will need some more of that athletic luck against Moss and Minnesota’s other Pro Bowl receiver, Cris Carter.

In Minnesota’s 34-16 victory over New Orleans on Saturday, Moss caught two passes. One went for 53 yards and a touchdown, the second for 68 yards and a touchdown. On both, Moss showed off his speed, splitting the defense or sailing through the line of scrimmage, an arc of electricity brightening the football field.

“You see that happen to everybody else,” Sehorn says. “You know it’s probably going to happen again. So the key is to keep it from happening too often.

“That second pass against the Saints, it was just a quick one-yard passing play and Randy turns it into a 68-yard touchdown. I’ve studied Randy a little bit. There is no trick here. He is just better than people. He’s not doing different things. He’s just, plain and simple, better than people. That can be discouraging.”

Up until his first knee injury, it seemed Sehorn had led a charmed life. He was blessed with great athletic talent, a great personality and a great face.

Maybe that was what grated on those who criticized Sehorn after his injury. But life had not been easy for Sehorn. He was raised by a single mother. Sehorn, his mother and younger brother moved from apartment to apartment all over Northern California. Money was scarce, stability scarcer.

When Giant officials gently told Sehorn that all his extracurricular publicity might be offensive to teammates, he gently pointed out that a pro athlete has a short time to make large earnings. He had no plans to return to poverty, or to let his mother return there.

When he was injured, Sehorn’s first marriage to a former University of Virginia volleyball player ended.

“It was a tough period for me, physically and emotionally,” Sehorn says. “It took awhile to believe the marriage was over and until I could do that, it was hard for me to focus on football.”

His focus is back on football. He is happily looking forward to marriage with Harmon this summer. His speed is back. His stamina is back. His playmaking ability is back.

In the Giants’ regular-season finale against Jacksonville, when New York needed the victory to clinch home-field advantage through the playoffs, Sehorn returned an onside kick for a touchdown. That’s two touchdowns in two games for the defender.

“I guess people will say me going against Randy will be the big matchup, but you can never break it down like that,” Sehorn says. “It will be a team effort to stop Randy. It won’t be just me.”

But don’t be surprised if the highlights Sunday night feature a whole lot of Sehorn and a whole lot of Moss. One way or another.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.

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El Segundo to None

As the second Southern California city in two years watches its former team march toward the Super Bowl, there is precious little interest in the Raiders, who are not remembered as good neighbors while headquartered there from 1982 to 1995. D4

Comings and Goings

Bill Parcells, left, quits as director of football operations of the Jets, Matt Millen takes over as Lion president (and is trying to bring Barry Sanders back to the team), and Norv Turner goes to the Chargers as Mike Riley’s offensive coordinator. D4