Jaguars Can Wad Up This Story

DENVER — Pro football players make hundreds of thousands, sometimes million of dollars. Their fortunes, their reputations and their endorsement possibilities depend on the success of their teams. A trip to the Super Bowl can make a career.

So it is truly amazing that, time after time, players will point to a newspaper article as their source of inspiration for a big game.

Such was again the case Saturday. When Denver Post columnist Woody Paige referred to the Jacksonville Jaguars as the “Jagwads,” it became a battle cry for the team. The story was posted on the bulletin board in the team’s Mile High Stadium locker room and seven or eight players mentioned the column after Saturday’s 30-27 victory over the Denver Broncos as a major rallying point.

“Everybody reads the paper,” Jacksonville defensive tackle John Jurkovic said. “We all went to college, so at least the capability is there.”

Said running back Natrone Means: “They stuck it in our face. Now they are going to have to live with it.”

Good thing for Jacksonville that Paige wrote what he did. Otherwise, the Jaguars, despite playing for a slot in the AFC title game in only their second year, apparently would have come into Saturday’s game uninspired.

*

Denver quarterback John Elway, who has lost three Super Bowls, was asked if Saturday’s defeat was his toughest in the postseason.

“It is, maybe, because it’s now,” he said. “This is what we worked for.”

No argument from his coach, Mike Shanahan.

“Without a question, this is the toughest loss I’ve ever faced,” Shanahan said.

But despite the team’s 13-3 regular-season record and its impressive personnel, Elway wasn’t about to call this his best Bronco team.

“No, those other teams went to the Super Bowl,” he said, “and this one couldn’t get through the first game.”

*

Who will be favored in the AFC title game? It figures to be the winner of today’s Pittsburgh Steeler-New England Patriot game. And that’s fine with Jacksonville receiver Keenan McCardell.

“Why not?” he said. “We’ve been the underdogs through the whole playoffs. Don’t change now.”

*

Elway was asked if Jaguar quarterback Mark Brunell was a left-handed version of himself.

“He’s faster,” Elway said.

Brunell’s teammates are impressed by him.

“That’s guy’s awesome,” Jaguar defensive end Jeff Lageman said. “I watch him on the big screen and I’m sitting on the bench.”

“Mark Brunell will be a household name,” Jacksonville receiver Jimmy Smith said.

*

When Clyde Simmons blocked Jason Elam’s conversion kick in the first quarter, it marked the third time this season and 11th time in the 11-year veteran’s career that he has blocked a kick. . . . Jacksonville had only 28 yards of offense in the first quarter, but 415 in the remaining three quarters. . . . The game was turnover free, the first time in its 20-game playoff history that Denver has played a postseason game without committing a turnover.