STOP SIGNS

So who, really, is to blame for this blood-curdling, sense-numbing, soul-sapping meat grinder of a Super Bowl matchup?

Az-Zahir Hakim, the St. Louis Ram punt returner, whose muff in the fourth quarter in New Orleans knocked the Rams out of the tournament in the first round, much to the good fortune of the New York Giants?

Al Del Greco, the Tennessee Titan field-goal kicker who might have spared us the Baltimore Ravens, had he only kicked higher and straighter during the AFC divisional playoffs?

No, once again, it’s time to round up the usual suspects . . . and stop as soon as the lineup gets to Al Davis.

Because Davis didn’t shell out for a better backup quarterback than Bobby Hoying, his Oakland Raiders became a welcome-to-Tampa mat for the Ravens as soon as Tony Siragusa belly-flopped on Rich Gannon.

And when Davis ran off a Raider defensive coach named John Fox in 1996, he set in motion a chain of events that would result in Fox joining the Giants as defensive coordinator and coordinating a 41-0 clampdown of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game, turning the Super Bowl into a three-hour blocking-sled drill.

Defense, that creaking relic all but run out of the league by last year’s Rams, is back in black and purple and blue, with the Ravens and the Giants geared to put on a show Sunday certain to thrill zone-blitz fanatics everywhere.

Fox, who spent two seasons as Raider defensive coordinator before quitting after a 1996 exhibition game, has assembled a defense that, while lacking the Ravens’ overheated egomania, is a model of understated efficiency. His unit finished the regular season ranked second in the NFL against the run, behind Baltimore, and fifth in total defense, yielding an average of fewer than 285 yards a game.

More impressive, the Giant defense has held half of its 18 opponents to 10 points or fewer--including a 20-10 playoff victory over Philadelphia and the shutout of the Vikings.

Suddenly, the run-and-gun is out, smash-mouth is in and Fox spent much of Super Bowl media day at Raymond James Stadium dodging questions about rumored job interviews in Buffalo and Cleveland, where the Bills and the Browns have head-coaching vacancies.

It has been quite a 4 1/2-year run for Fox, who walked away from the Raiders after one too many altercations with Davis. Fox won’t get into specifics, but the last straw reportedly was a postgame critique of Fox’s defense after a 1996 exhibition game. Fed up, Fox resigned, with no immediate job in the offing.

“It was one of those things in coaching where, you know, things just don’t work out philosophically,” Fox said. “Coaches get fired. Coaches leave. Coaches change jobs. . . .

“Life brings different things. At that time, I just didn’t see that working out and I had to move on. You know, Al does own the team, so when you don’t see eye to eye, being the kind of person I am, I needed to move on.”

A Bay Area reporter mentioned a rumor that has been circulating around Oakland since Fox’s departure--that Fox keeps a voodoo doll representing Davis in his refrigerator, pulling it out every so often to perform acupuncture.

“No,” said Fox, grinning sheepishly, “I’d say that’s just a rumor.”

Pressed again, Fox kept smiling, but held his ground.

“No. No. I’ve heard that [said] about other people, but not myself.”

The middle of the exhibition season is not the best time for a football coach to begin job hunting. The Rams offered Fox a consulting position and he took it, spending the 1996 season breaking down game film and evaluating talent around the league for then-St. Louis Coach Rich Brooks.

“A good four months,” Fox called it. “It was a chance to be with my family. I didn’t coach at all. I wasn’t on the field coaching. It was basically a sabbatical. A nice rest. This job can be pretty demanding and it was nice to take a break after 15 years.”

After the 1996 season, Jim Fassel replaced Dan Reeves as the Giants’ head coach. Fassel had worked with Fox on the Raiders, serving as the team’s quarterback coach in 1995. Finding himself in need of a defensive coordinator, Fassel gave Fox a call.

In Fox’s first season with the Giants, 1997, his unit led the league in interceptions with 27 and set a club record for takeaways with 44. It was a smashing debut: New York finished 10-5-1 and won the NFC East title before losing by a point, 23-22, to Minnesota in the divisional playoffs.

The next two seasons were a U-turn, the Giants slumping to 8-8 and 7-9 as Fassel played dial-a-quarterback--Danny Kanell, Kent Graham, Kerry Collins--to little effect.

In 1999, an overtaxed Giant defense gave up 358 points--nearly 100 more than it had in 1997. Fassel and Fox realized the real problem lay elsewhere, so while the team’s offense was given a make-over, the defense added only a few spare parts, signing free-agent linebacker Micheal Barrow and cornerback Dave Thomas from Jacksonville.

“We’ve pretty much kept the core of this bunch together,” Fox said. “We had a good season in “97, in ’98 [cornerback Jason] Sehorn was hurt and in ‘99, our secondary was decimated by injuries. This is the first time since ’97 that we’ve stayed healthy on defense.”

It is a formidable unit, the lifeblood of the Giants’ Super Bowl run, yet most of the people tuning in Sunday know this much and this much only about the Giants’ defense: Their right cornerback, that Sehorn guy, appears in that funny commercial with Shannon Sharpe. He’s also engaged to Angie Harmon. He’s having one hell of a year.

Fox maintains this is fine by him.

“We’ve been overlooked a lot of this season because we’re not No. 1 in this, we’re not No. 1 in that, we’re not real flashy here, we’re not really flashy there,” he said. “But the one thing I think I can say is, you know, our team plays hard, they play tough and we played relatively smart all season. We do the things that are necessary to win in the National Football League.”

And now, Fox’s defense is the last remaining defense against a Baltimore Raven championship, the pro football equivalent of a total eclipse of the sun.

Davis’ Raiders couldn’t get it done. Sunday, a Raider castaway hooks up his headset and readies for the last stand.

*

T.J. SIMERS

Shannon Sharpe talks like someone is paying him

by the word. D2

NEW LOOK

CBS will introduce a “matrix-style” replay system for the big game. D8

NICE RESUME

Ravens’ Marvin Lewis is the hot man for head coaching jobs. D12