John Elway highlighted his magnificent 16-year career by leading his Denver Broncos to a 34-19 rout of the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami on Sunday night.

The great Denver quarterback threw for 336 yards with an 80yard touchdown pass and a twoyard touchdown run to propel his team to a second successive Super Bowl victory.

Elway, who nearly retired after last season but decided to come back to defend the title, was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player. The Broncos became the seventh team to successfully defend a Super Bowl title and the first AFC team to accomplish the feat since since the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1979-80. No team has ever won three in a row, leaving Elway tempted to come back for one more try at football history.

Atlanta coach Dan Reeves lost three Super Bowls with Elway while with Denver and had been the sentimental favourite after returning from quadruple bypass heart surgery to lead the Falcons to their first Super Bowl in the team's 33-year history.

The Denver defence did a superb job of keeping Atlanta out of the end zone until the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach.

Denver picked off Atlanta quarterback Chris Chandler three times to end Atlanta's scoring threats and set up two Bronco touchdowns. Darrien Gordon had two of the interceptions, returning them for a Super Bowl record 108 yards.

Compared to Chandler's travails, Elway was the picture of efficiency, engineering six scoring drives - four touchowns and two Jason Elam field goals.

He completed 18-of-29 passes for 336 yards - third most in Super Bowl history - and did it even though his favourite receiver, tight end Shannon Sharpe, was sidelined for most of the game with a knee injury.

Denver's superstar running back Terrell Davis, last year's Super Bowl MVP, rushed for 102 yards on 25 carries, his seventh consecutive post-season game of more than 100 yards.

Fullback Howard Griffith, who scored no rushing touchdowns in the regular season, had a pair of one-yard touchdown runs for Denver.

But with Atlanta's defence concentrating on stopping Denver's vaunted running attack, the Broncos went to the air behind the Hall of Fame arm of John Elway.