LAS VEGAS -- Finally, the AFC has a champion favored to win the Super Bowl.

	Shannon Sharpe and the Broncos are favored to repeat as Super Bowl champs.

Denver's comeback victory Sunday over the New York Jets impressed Las Vegas oddsmakers enough to open the Broncos as an 8½-point favorite to win their second consecutive Super Bowl.

Bettors weren't quite as impressed, though, quickly betting the number down to seven points with some wagers on the Atlanta Falcons even as the final seconds were ticking off of the AFC Championship Game.

"As soon as we hung it out there, we had a $20,000 bet on both sides," said Joe Lupo, sports book manager at the Stardust hotel/casino. "We respected the view of one of the individuals a little more and lowered the number to seven."

It was the first time that an AFC team has been favored to win the Super Bowl since the Buffalo Bills were a touchdown favorite over the New York Giants in 1991.

Of course, the Falcons weren't even supposed to be in the Super Bowl to begin with. When the season opened, bettors could get 60-1 odds on Atlanta winning the Super Bowl.

"I think it's a pretty fair number," said Las Vegas Sports Consultant's Joel Brewster, who sets the odds for most major Las Vegas casinos. "The Broncos are certainly a better team than Atlanta, although the Falcons showed today that they can win a big game."

Brewster put out the initial 8½-point line to sports books with about five minutes remaining in the Denver-New York game. Some put it up immediately, while others waited to see where the number would settle before posting it.

A quick flurry of betting dropped the Broncos to a 7-point favorite, and most book operators said they thought the line would settle in at that point.

"Seven is a pretty solid number," Lupo said. "From what I can see, it's a solid seven around town."

Denver, which was an 11½-point underdog last year to Green Bay, would have been an underdog again this year had the Minnesota Vikings beaten the Falcons for the NFC title. Brewster said he would have probably made the Vikings a 3-point pick over the Broncos.

At the MGM Grand hotel/casino, book director Will Hall waited to see where the point spread would settle before he put up a number.

"I was thinking Denver would be a nine-point favorite, but I wanted to wait to see what other people put up," Hall said.

Last year, bettors wagered a record $77.2 million in Nevada's legal sports book on the game, with untold millions bet elsewhere illegally.

Betting traditionally falls off to almost nothing the day after the championship games and the line remains the same until bettors began putting their money up in the days just before the Super Bowl.

Hall said betting on this year's Super Bowl should be good because of a point spread of about a touchdown, and the fact that fans see Atlanta as a team of destiny. Had the Vikings won, though, he said betting would have been bigger.

"I thought it had the potential to be the first pick 'em Super Bowl," Hall said. "That would have really been something."