Honolulu – There was more to the potential season-altering play than cornerback Champ Bailey missing the interception.
Flash back to the Broncos’ nightmare that was the AFC championship game, the fifth play by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bailey wasn’t just covering Steelers receiver Hines Ward, he was wearing him like an overcoat.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw to Ward anyway. The pass was so bad it seemed to startle Bailey, who allowed the ball to get in on his pads.
Instead of picking off the pass with nothing but luscious Invesco Field at Mile High grass between him and the end zone, Bailey saw the ball bounce away. There’s one whammy.
Ward followed the deflection and caught it for a 7-yard gain. Double-whammy. Then Broncos safety John Lynch charged in and laid out Ward with a ferocious lick. Only now for the untold portion of the story: Lynch suffered a severe charley horse on his inside left quadriceps, just above the knee.
The bruise ballooned instantly and left Lynch to finish the game in an ineffective limp. Triple-whammy. How many times was a blitzing Lynch closing in on Roethlisberger just as the quarterback got rid of the ball for another third-down completion?
Talk about a series of unfortunate events, all on one play.
“It was a problem, but that’s football,” Lynch, at the Pro Bowl, said of his injury. “Could I have gotten there? I don’t know. He was throwing so quick, too.”
Instead of Bailey giving the Broncos a 7-0 lead, instead of a healthy Lynch helping the Broncos overcome that missed opportunity, the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl and send 13-year running back Jerome Bettis off into ecstatic retirement.
Lynch, who was selected 72 picks behind Bettis in the 1993 draft, would have to settle for his seventh Pro Bowl selection and a career that is not finished 13 years later.
“It makes you sick. But, hey, they beat us,” said Lynch, who still was sporting a nasty bruise Wednesday before the AFC team’s Pro Bowl practice. “Now we’re here, and life is good again.”
Lynch will be back for a 14th season, his third with the Broncos. He turns 35 in September.
“I think he’s got a lot more in him,” said Ronde Barber, Lynch’s longtime defensive backfield teammate with Tampa Bay. “It’s not that John can’t do anything else, but football’s in his blood. I think he’s one of those guys who based on what he’s accomplished and the fact he’s become so established, he’ll be like Jerome in that he’ll go out on his own terms.”
As a concession to the relatively advanced age of not only Lynch, but safety partner Nick Ferguson, who turns 32 in November, the Broncos may use one of their two first-round draft picks this April on a safety. But even if this possibility becomes a reality, the rookie safety shouldn’t develop a case of first- round ego.
The plan is for Lynch to start and play just about every down in 2006 while the kid safety gets at least a year, if not two, to develop through watching.
“You evaluate this game year by year and right now, the evaluation on John is he’s playing at a high level,” Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
