(2 of 3)
Williams was the 17th player drafted in the first round of 1978 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is not a meaningless slot to the 6-ft. 4-in., 220- lb. man from Grambling, a dabbler in numerology who wears the number 17 and beat the Vikings on January 17, 17-10. But his has not been a lucky career. In Williams' first full season as the Bucs' starter in 1979, he lifted the league's most woeful team to a 10-6 record and a playoff upset over Philadelphia. Still, he was ridiculed as a rocket launcher without temper or touch who "could overthrow the Ayatullah."
In 1983, the awful year Williams' wife died suddenly of a brain tumor just three months after giving birth to their daughter, he fled to the Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League. When the U.S.F.L. folded after the 1985 season, only the Redskins indicated any interest in him, and then only as a backup. He attempted one pass in all of 1986. It was incomplete.
The quarterback whom Williams understudied, last year's young pro bowler Jay Schroeder, 26, was demoted, reinstated and then finally shelved this season in one of the most dramatic reversals of form in league history. Reports that the Redskin players were muttering for Williams on the sidelines have been denied, but he does say, "I've had a lot of encouragement from the guys on this team, white, black or whatever. They respect me." His completion percentage against the Vikings was ghastly (nine of 26), but as the citizens of Denver will agree, the result is what counts.
Not only were the Broncos outshone by the Browns in their 38-33 shoot-out, but Denver's sublime John Elway also looked to be only the second-best quarterback on the field. Doing his awkward and wonderful impression of Johnny Unitas, Bernie Kosar was blithely leading the Browns back from a 21-3 half- time deficit when Runner Earnest Byner dropped the season on the three-yard ! line. In the locker room afterward, the Broncos players were unusually quiet, and not only because of the nature of their victory. They remembered last year.
Most of the preliminaries to Super Bowl XXI were spent godding-up Elway; then Phil Simms of the New York Giants was the one who quarterbacked an impeccable game. "Last year was Alice in Wonderland," says Owner Pat Bowlen. This year the Broncos have a keener sense of purpose. Counting the days he played and assisted in Dallas, it will be the eleventh title game for Coach Dan Reeves, 45, who once tried to motivate the Broncos by stacking greenbacks on a table. This time he is exhibiting his championship rings.
Working on their third center and third right guard, the Broncos have a casualty list that ranges from the brutal to the baroque. During the Cleveland game, surgical pins started oozing out of Strong Safety Dennis Smith's broken hand; he kept playing. On top of that, consider the fact that three defensive stalwarts -- Cornerback Louis Wright, Linebacker Tom Jackson and Safety Steve Foley -- retired after last year. Nobody can say how the defense was able to repeat, but everyone knows venerable Assistant Coach Joe Collier had much to do with it.