Chandler’s the one who isn’t getting all the attention over whether or not this will be his last professional game. He’s the one that isn’t going to the Hall of Fame.CHRIS Chandler isn’t a pretty quarterback. He doesn’t have John Elway’s golden blond hair or beaver teeth. He doesn’t stand in the pocket like Dan Marino, nor does he have the arm of a Randall Cunningham.
If someone did a commercial to characterize his career, it would be for Motel 6 instead of The Four Seasons. The first four teams he played on eventually decided they had no further need of his services. Then he hooked up with Dan Reeves.
“When we signed him, I told him we were going to stick our neck out signing him because I thought he could win a Super Bowl for us,” Reeves said of Chandler. “Now he’s one game away from doing that.”
Chandler, 33, is the other quarterback in Super Bowl XXXIII. The one that will lead the surprising Falcons against Elway and the Broncos for pro football’s ultimate prize, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. He’s the one who isn’t getting all the attention over whether or not this will be his last professional game. He’s the one that isn’t going to the Hall of Fame.
That’s why if you’re a regular hard-working guy, who had to claw your way to the top and overcome the skeptics in the process, you give Chandler more credit for making it to Miami than Elway. Simply put, Chandler is more important to the Falcons than Elway is to the Broncos.
If Elway weren’t the Broncos quarterback, there’s still a good chance Denver would have made it back to their second straight Super Bowl. They would still have Terrell Davis and that excellent offensive line. They would still have Shannon Sharpe and Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey. They would still have that underrated defense that is as physical as any. And they would still have Mike Shanahan on the sideline.
Without Chandler, the Falcons never would have gotten into the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl. With all due respect to Jamal Anderson and his club record 1,846 yards rushing, Chandler is the reason why the Dirty Birds have flown South. He missed just two games this season due to injury, the first was Oct. 25 against the Jets in the Meadowlands. Without Chandler, the Falcons suffered a 28-3 defeat. It’s the last game they have lost this season, winning 11 straight since.
“He’s a good quarterback,” said tight end O.J. Santiago. “We know that in Atlanta. If the rest of the country doesn’t know it, maybe they will after [the playoffs].”
It would be a mistake for the Broncos to talk too much about stopping Anderson and not pay proper respect to Chandler and the Falcons passing game. The Vikings made that mistake before the NFC Championship Game, creating a chip that Chandler and his receivers carried into Minneapolis.
“We wanted to show them we had a passing game and that they couldn’t just stop Jamal and beat us.,” Chandler said. The result was Chandler completing 27 of 43 for 340 yards and three touchdowns in the Falcons’ 30-27 overtime win.
It was a game in which Chandler went from journeyman quarterback to one of the game’s elite players. He orchestrated an epic, eight-play 71-yard drive for a game-tying touchdown at the end of regulation. Then he pieced together a 10-play 70-yard march that positioned Morten Andersen for the game-winning 38-yard field goal.
It was the drive at the end of regulation that won’t soon be forgotten in Atlanta. He completed 4 of 6 passes for 56 yards in the drive that lasted 1:18. He also had a 9-yard scramble that left him briefly hobbled. The tying touchdown came when Chandler rifled a 16-yarder to Terance Mathis in the end zone.
That drive was compared to THE Drive in the 1987 AFC Championship Game at Cleveland where Elway drove the Broncos 98 yards to force overtime against the Browns.
“It was a do-or-die thing,” Chandler said. “You don’t have to worry about it being third down or fourth down, you just try to make plays. We nickeled and dimed our way down the field. I scrambled around a little bit and then threw a hard one to Terance.”
Reeves gushed about Chandler’s poise with the noise of the Metrodome making it as difficult as possible. “I told Chris after he took us down there and scored that it ranks up there with all of the big-time quarterbacks,” Reeves said. “He’s done it with the pressure on him and made some big-time throws.”
It has been a special couple of weeks for Chandler. Not only did he lead the Falcons to the NFC title and a spot in the Super Bowl, but his wife, Diane, gave birth to their third daughter last week. The couple’s other daughters are Ryann Mae, 3, and Skye, 2.
“It’s just awesome,” Chandler said.
After bouncing from Indianapolis to Tampa Bay to Phoenix to Los Angeles and then to Houston, Chandler has found a home in Atlanta. He has a four-year contract worth $25 million, two straight Pro Bowl appearances and a chance to win a Super Bowl.
“I had to overcome a lot and I never gave up,” Chandler said. “Now, I find myself in a good situation and it’s very rewarding.”