Rivals Again -- In NFL Bright Lights, Bledsoe, Brunell Defien Stakes For Young Superstars

FOXBORO, MASS. - Though he is only a victory shy of the Super Bowl, Drew Bledsoe's fondest memory as a quarterback has nothing to do with New England's sparkling postseason run, a tight spiral to sensational rookie Terry Glenn or, gasp, a rare smile thrown his way from Coach Bill Parcells.

Rather, Bledsoe recalls a blizzard-torn December game in 1992 when he paced Washington State to a stunning 42-23 upset of archrival Washington and its madly dashing playmaker, quarterback Mark Brunell.

"It probably is still, to this point, my favorite game I ever played," Bledsoe said. "We beat them in the snow when they came over to our place. That day, Mark didn't get to use his athletic ability because it was so slippery in the snow. We really used that to our advantage because his team had a great amount of speed, but they weren't able to utilize that because of the slippery conditions."

Bledsoe, then as now a standard pocket passer, ignored the icy conditions to complete 18 of 30 throws for 260 yards, spurring a 29-point third quarter with two touchdown passes. Brunell, in the closing weeks of an injury-plagued career with the Huskies, rushed for 60 yards, but connected on just 11 of 25 passes for 122 yards.

Today at 1 p.m., the stakes will be much higher, and the weather markedly better, when Bledsoe's New England Patriots and Brunell's Jacksonville Jaguars meet at Foxboro Stadium here for the AFC championship. The forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, gusty winds and temperatures dipping into the low 20s as the game progresses into the evening.

Bledsoe, more educated than most about Brunell's ability, surveys the forecast and frowns. Where's a blizzard when you really need one?

"He's not going to be as fast if it's sloppy and messy," said the New England quarterback who was battling a cold yesterday. "It would bring everybody, including Mark, down to my speed if it's sloppy and messy."

Today, both men are on the fast track to superstardom, with Bledsoe this season becoming the youngest quarterback to reach 14,000 yards passing, and Brunell, after two seasons as an understudy at Green Bay, bursting onto the scene in Jacksonville as the top two-way threat in football.

Their disparate journeys can be traced back seven years, when Bledsoe, then a slender high-school senior out of Walla Walla, was chaperoned by Brunell on a recruiting trip to Seattle. Bledsoe took a long, pleasant look around, saw the multitalented Brunell and the gifted Billy Joe Hobert standing in his way, and promptly punted the Huskies out of his plans in favor of Washington State.

"He was a great host; we had a good time," Bledsoe said.

"But at the same time, they had Mark and then they had Billy Joe and both guys ended up being drafted in the NFL. Here I am from Walla Walla, didn't know if I had any talent, and to see those two guys there was pretty imposing.

"If I had gone there, I probably wouldn't have played until my junior or senior year, so that was part of the reason I didn't go there."

Said Brunell, laughing: "Apparently, I'm not a very good host. But that's all right. I didn't want him coming to Washington, anyway. He probably would have taken my job."

Instead, Brunell hopes today to steal a share of the bold headlines that Bledsoe has compiled in a four-year career with the Patriots, which has included two Pro Bowl selections and a pair of postseason berths. This year, Bledsoe's golden arm has carried New England to its first home playoff victory, a 28-3 decision over defending AFC champion Pittsburgh a week ago, and its first host role in an AFC title game.

Today, Bledsoe boasts a seven-year, $42 million contract, a sprawling suburban home less than a half hour from Foxboro Stadium, a getaway spread in Montana and a new wife, Mara, a Portland native whom he courted while at Washington State. Only 24, he is young and rich, and probably hasn't reached his prime on the field.

For the playoff-frenzied community, which stretches from Boston to Providence, R.I., and beyond, Bledsoe has become a celebrity. The weight of it has become staggering.

"When I was in college and had an old car and no money, nobody gave you anything," Bledsoe said last week. "When a guy needs an apple, nobody offers him one. Once he has enough money to buy an apple orchard, they send him free apples. It's kind of funny the way things work."

It's a life lesson that Brunell is now tackling. The deeply religious 26-year-old, whose improvising style has befuddled opponents, and sometimes his coaches, has almost single-handedly carted the 2-year-old Jaguars to two victories short of one of professional sports' most startling success stories. Jacksonville, which at one point this season was 3-6, has won seven straight.

The left-hander, a third-stringer at Green Bay behind Brett Favre and Ty Detmer, threw for a league-high 4,367 yards during the regular season, connecting for 19 touchdowns in sparking the league's top-rated passing attack. He also has scrambled for more than 400 yards this year.

"He's probably right now the single most important player to his team because of what he can do with his legs and what he can do in throwing on the run," Bledsoe said of his counterpart. "What he can do with his legs and arm is amazing."

Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin says Brunell, like Bledsoe, "will be measured by the playoffs, just as all quarterbacks are." Indeed, as Parcells said, you "judge a quarterback by his jewelry."

Few doubt that both men will earn their share in coming years. In fact, both take great pride in helping erase recent criticism of some of the league's young signal-callers.

"It might be good for the NFL knowing that for a while, there are quarterbacks who are young and talented and are going to be in the league for a while," Brunell said. "I think it is pretty exciting."

Added Bledsoe: "There is some vindication for some guys playing quarterback in the league who are my age and younger. You hear all of the stories all along: What is wrong with young quarterbacks these days? Why can't these guys be successful? What is the problem?"

He laughed. "Now you have Brett Favre who is the oldest quarterback still alive in the playoffs," he said of the Packer star who is 27.

While Bledsoe's promise was recognized in 1993 when he was selected by the Patriots with the top pick, the 6-foot Brunell, slammed by scouts for his height, tumbled to the fifth round, where he was selected with the 117th pick by the Packers.

"It is a surprise to a lot of people," Bledsoe said of Brunell's emergence, "but Mark was a guy who . . . had great arm strength and great athletic ability. What happens is, a lot of times in the NFL, people say maybe he is not tall enough and they put him into a group and decide that maybe he shouldn't be drafted high. But the talent has been there all along and he is great."

Bledsoe came to his opinion some time back, in college against Brunell. In the first meeting, in 1990, Brunell paced Washington to a 55-10 victory, throwing for 138 yards and three touchdowns. Bledsoe threw for 295 yards but was sacked seven times and suffered three interceptions.

Brunell was used sparingly in Washington's 1991 victory over the Cougars when Hobert started for the Huskies. But in his third Apple Cup in 1992, Bledsoe got revenge in the snow-blitzed affair at Pullman.

After that, the quarterbacks did not meet again until Sept. 22 of this season, when Brunell, who had been acquired by the Jaguars in a 1995 trade, threw for 432 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-25 overtime loss. Brunell engineered a rally from a 22-0 deficit, connecting on two Hail Mary passes, one for a touchdown and the other to the 1-yard line as time ran out in regulation.

"That was something else," Brunell said. "I don't know if I ever played in a game like that."

Neither he nor Bledsoe have played in a game like today's. It will serve as a renewal of a friendly rivalry, and further establish one as the league's quarterback of the future.

"I'm not sure what he sees when he looks at me," Bledsoe said of Brunell, "but when I look at him, what would I give to have that kind of athletic ability and be able to run around like he does. He just does some things for his team with his feet. I don't know if there is a quarterback in the league who runs and makes plays on the run as well as he does. And he doesn't make mistakes."

Whatever the result, Bledsoe said: "It is great for me to see Mark having success because he is a great guy, a very classy individual. He deserves all the credit he is getting."

Unless, of course, it's the credit he would get from taking away Bledsoe's Super Bowl.

------------------- Bledsoe vs. Brunell -------------------

Drew Bledsoe Mark Brunell

Attempts: 623 Attempts: 557 -----------------------------------------------. Completions: 373 Completions: 353 . Com. pct.: 59.9 Com. pct.: 63.4 . Yards: 4,086 Yards: 4,367 . Yards per att.: 6.56 Yards per att.: 7.84 . Touchdowns: 27 Touchdowns: 19 . TD pct.: 4.3 TD pct.: 3.4 . Interceptions: 15 Interceptions: 20 . Int. pct.: 2.4 Int. pct.: 3.6 . Longest pass: 84td Longest pass: 62 . QB rating: 83.7 QB rating: 84.0 .

Rushing Rushing -----------------------------------------------. Attempts: 24 Attempts: 80 . Yards: 27 Yards: 396 . Yards per att.: 1.1 Yards per att.: 5.0 . Longest run: 8 Longest run: 33 . Touchdowns: 0 Touchdowns: 3 .

Miscellaneous Miscellaneous -----------------------------------------------. Fumbles: 9 Fumbles: 14 . Fumbel recov.: 1 Fumble recov.: 5 .