another reactionary tirade, but on our 24-hour-sports network up here, steve christie was asked if he had to win ONE game... dan marino or brett favre? naturally, he picked... dan marino.

leave it to a buffalo bill to take marino to win ONE game.

for those of you who don't remember steve christie, he helped the bills lose four straight superbowls in the early 1990s. actually, he didn't even help lose ALL of them. he was brought in when buffalo drummed scott norwood outta town. & helped the bills get their collective asses handed to them by troy aikman & his cowboys (best TEAM ever?) two straight years. the only time in nfl history that one team beat another team in the superbowl in back-to-back years.

but here's MY take on the issue. if i've gotta win ONE game... i'm gonna go with the quarterback who's won a superbowl. more than once. which isn't marino. & isn't jim kelly. & isn't donovan mcnabb or michael vick or peyton manning either...

& with a tip of the hat to montana & bradshaw & aikman & theisman & young & rypien & brady & starr, i'm gonna arbitrarily proclaim that from this moment on, the best quarterback ever title is held by... john elway.

as far as i'm concerned... an nfl quarterback has two jobs. throw passes & win championships. & whether or not favre can get his packers to the playoffs, he should end this season being the only player in nfl history with 5000 completions. & that's remarkable.

but... at the moment, favre has only won championship. his packers took drew bledsoe & his upstart patriots out behind the woodshed & gave them an old-school hiding in xxxi... the lessons mike holmgren learned with the 49ers were not lost on the packers, nor the patriots, nor on the seahawks.

& then, it was favre vs elway. the next gonna-be looking for a second ring to join the immortals & the three-time loser looking for one last shot at redemption. but elway had the ORIGINAL ladanian tomlinson behind him in the person of terrell davis. 157 yards on the ground & a superbowl record 3 touchdowns later, t.d. the mvp gave elway & the denver franchise their first-ever championship.

suddenly, the denver broncos were a real little team... with championships & heroes & everything!!

& rather than retire a winner, john elway came back to try & do it again. & the next year... they did it again! with elway himself leading the team as they shit-stomped the upstart atlanta falcons. & with championshipS now under his belt... john elway retired the greatest quarterback of them all.

want proof?

he was the 2nd passer EVER to reach 40 000 yards passing & 3000 yards rushing. & unlike near every other mobile quarterback you could name... he's won superbowls.

he holds a gretzky of his own... being the only man close to surpassing 3000 yds passing AND 200 yds rushing in the same year for a staggering SEVEN consecutive years!!

manning & brady have never rushed for more than 150 yards in a season. favre hit the target totals for TWO of his... 14 years? aikman rushed for over 300 yards in his rookie year, but passed for less than 2000... & then never came close to 200 yds rushing again (once he had an offensive line in front of him). montana hit the targets twice, but not consecutively. bradshaw only passed for 3000 yards twice.

a second elway gretzky? how about his 47... FORTY-SEVEN... 4th quarter comeback drives? he marched his team down the field to win or tie forty-seven games in the fourth quarter.

joe montana, referred to on nfl.com as "the master of come-from-behind victories"... playing in san fransisco?... huhuhuhuhuh... has 31.

& then there's... "the drive". one of those playoffs moments that get a name. in the 1986 afc championship game, elway led his broncos 98-yards through the cleveland browns to send the game into overtime, where the broncos won.

general football consensus holds that a drive would need to wrap up a conference-championship game or superbowl AND cause a comeback win (even if in overtime later...) AND run longer than 98 yards. that's why, for instance, joe montana leading the 49ers 92 yards through the bengals (breaking my young heart) in the superbowl isn't known as "the drive".

more? sure... how 'bout his 9 pro bowl appearances. montana's got 8... young's got 7. my charger dan fouts (the 3rd man to pass for 40 000 yards) got 6. aikman, 6. kelly, 5.

mvp in 1987, afc offensive player of the year in 1993. superbowl mvp xxxiii.

& we'll wrap it up with one final stat: he was responsible for 82% of the points the broncos franchise scored during his 16-year run.

& nowadays... since his retirement... the broncos just can't get any respect as a legitimate playoff team.