Dogged veteran gets just reward

Scheduled to play an international match many years ago, the Irish golfer Eddie Dunne arrived at the first tee and was introduced to his American opponent, John Brodie. Tanned and handsome, Brodie had quarterbacked for the San Francisco 49ers for 17 years, and in his second career would eventually play several more on the PGA Senior Tour. The two exchanged pleasantries, and as they made small talk before their game was called, were somewhat surprised to discover that they were precisely the same age.

"Eddie," Brodie looked Dunne up and down with mock solemnity, "you must have led a very hard life!"

Brodie might have made the same humorous comparison about the quarterbacks who will lead their respective teams in Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami on Sunday evening. Denver's John Elway, playing what will almost certainly be his last competitive game, has at the age of 38 retained his youthful looks. Though nearly half a dozen years younger, the Falcons' Chris Chandler is a balding and creaky-legged veteran who was released or traded by five NFL teams before he landed in Atlanta.

Chandler has indeed led a hard life. And he also happens to be John Brodie's son-in-law.

In his elder-statesman status, Elway has become an American icon, a sentimental favourite, but the empirical evidence suggests that at this stage of their careers, Chandler may be the better quarterback.

Elway's Broncos are favourites in Sunday's game. When Chandler was asked if he were comfortable with the underdog role, he replied: "Are you kidding? I'm happy with any role!"

Chandler's NFL odyssey had already taken him through Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Los Angeles, and Houston before Falcons' coach Dan Reeves acquired him for, essentially, a pittance (fourth and sixth-round draft choices) two years ago.

When he arrived in Atlanta, Reeves, who had been fired by the New York Giants (and before that, by the Broncos) knew he had to find a quarterback around whom to build his team, but economic constraints made the notion of bidding for a big-name star on the open market an untenable alternative.

"Getting Chris Chandler was a key," Reeves recalled this week. "We could trade for a quarterback, live with his contract, and still use our available money to make the necessary defensive improvements. I liked Chris and what I'd seen on film. Rennie Simmons, who is on our staff, had been with him in Houston and really liked him as a player. The only thing he warned us about was that he would probably miss some games with injuries."

Chandler did indeed miss all or part of eight games with injuries over the past two seasons, and the Falcons lost seven of them. But with a healthy Chandler at quarterback, the Falcons won 19 of the past 22 games he started to reach Sunday's championship game.

"He's more important to his team than any quarterback in the league," says running back Jamal Anderson.

Chandler was well on his way to a forgettable career as an NFL journeyman when he met Diane Brodie at a charity golf tournament in 1993. Within months the two were planning marriage, and when the couple visited her parents in California for the first time that autumn, instead of asking him if his intentions were honourable, Brodie pere took Chandler to a nearby football field for some on-hands tutoring.

Brodie told his prospective son-in-law that he had always admired him as a player, but then suggested some minor adjustments in his drop-back and throwing motions. More importantly, he instilled in the floundering quarterback a newfound confidence, as well as a sense of family that had been missing since Chandler's own parents died.

And, oh yes, Brodie, who was nearly 60 at the time, also began taking Chandler out on the golf course, where he regularly beat him silly in order, or so he claimed, to hone his competitive edge.

That apparently worked too. Chandler, who played to a six handicap when he met Diane Brodie, now plays off scratch.

"John really helped out with the lack of confidence I had in myself," recalls Chandler, who married Diane in the summer of 1994. "J B really made me feel like I was a top-notch quarterback. He had been telling me that for two or three years. Maybe he just pounded it into my head and I started to believe it."

The vagabond quarterback became a starter in Houston, but in Atlanta he became a star. Even Reeves, who had dealt for his services, was pleasantly surprised.

"I had no idea Chris was this good," said Reeves this week. "I'd love to say I knew all along, but I didn't. He's as accurate a passer as I've ever been around."

And Reeves, remember, coached Elway for his first nine professional seasons.

In the 1998 regular season the heretofore anonymous Chandler threw for more yards than Elway, and threw more touchdown passes as well, as he led the upstart Falcons into Sunday's match with the defending champions. But he dismisses the suggestion that he may be the better signal-caller on display Sunday.

"I think it's crazy to say something like that," said Chandler. "I've been playing really well, but to say that I'm the better quarterback? I find it amusing."

Elway was the first draft choice in the US when he came out of Stanford in 1983, and has enjoyed the luxury of playing his entire career with one team.

"My career was probably just the opposite of what John went through," reflected Chandler. "I think I'm feeling now what he's had his whole career, and it's wonderful, believe me."

Chandler, a man who was acquired for economic reasons, has been provided with a four-year, $25 million contract extension. His perseverance would seem to have been rewarded at last.

"As the years went by, I thought maybe that would never be the case for me," Chandler can now confess. "Sometimes people are wrong on the decisions they make about players. I got on a pretty good roll of playing for a lot of people who were wrong!"

His father-in-law, says Chandler, never had any doubts. "(Brodie) always told me this day was going to come," said the quarterback. "When he went to work on me three or four years ago, he told me I was as good as anybody and that I'd be in the Super Bowl."

Last week Diane gave birth to the couple's third child, a daughter. They named her Brynn Brodie Chandler.