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John Elway says it's nice to get a chance to thank the fans.
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DENVER -- He was not going to leave this place a loser.

Not for the last time. Not without a fight.

	John Elway will start in the Super Bowl for the fifth time -- a record for quarterbacks.

Not John Elway.

After wrestling with his emotions and questions about retirement all week, then being buffeted by swirling winds and the Jets defense for a half, Elway turned as tough as the weather. He led the Broncos on four consecutive scoring drives in a 12-minute stretch of the third quarter Sunday to manufacture a 23-10 victory in the AFC Championship.

Neither the comeback nor the stats were vintage Elway -- the first came way too early, the second were not worthy of a passer who has established himself as perhaps the NFL's best during the last 16 seasons. But by the end, retirement was still a question and not a demand.

"My main focus is to finish this year," Elway said, "before l figure out the next one."

Judged by deed instead of word, he has most likely played his last game in Denver. He took a victory lap at the end of this one, rare for a player who treats praise the same way he does defensive lineman -- by scrambling.

"It was kind of unusual for him," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "I had to encourage him to do it."

For most of the day, it looked like Elway wasn't going anywhere. Instead, he now goes on to Miami and the Super Bowl to face an Atlanta team coached by Dan Reeves. The same Dan Reeves who used to coach in Denver and fired Shanahan as his quarterback coach because, Reeves said, Shanahan and Elway were usurping his authority behind his back.

If so, neither one would say anything even mildly critical that would find its way back to him -- particularly on this day.

"At times," Shanahan said, "we were best friends."

"He's a great football coach," Elway said.

A moment later, someone asked Elway whether he hoped this would be the last time the Reeves-revenge angle is mentioned.

"I don't wish for things that are not going to happen," he said.

All things considered, though, the questions could have been worse.

	"	My main focus is to finish this year before l figure out the next one.  "
		-  John Elway

Much worse.

Elway had sentiment going for him at the start Sunday and not much else. He was 0-for-his-first five throws. His receivers were dropping balls, and the Jets defenders were knocking them down at the line of scrimmage. Even more dangerous, Elway's ineptitude spread through the rest of the offense like an infection.

The Broncos fumbled twice in the opening half. And they failed to punch it over the goal line on two runs late in the first quarter, first from the 6-yard line and then from the 1, just before Elway's pass on fourth down was knocked down by New York's Mo Lewis.

Things hardly improved in the second quarter. Elway was 4-for-14 at the half for 25 net yards. The Jets' defensive schemes and winds that gusted to 32 mph and played havoc with his tosses weren't the only reasons for his funk.

"There were a lot of things going on the whole week and maybe that's part of the reason why we came out slow," he said. "There was a lot of talk about everything but the football game."

Elway's relationship with this town is no longer one of love-hate. After last season's Super Bowl win, he owns it, but Elway has certainly come in for his share of scrutiny. When he first arrived in Denver, newspapers breathlessly reported most of his comings and goings -- things like what and where he ate, how much, and how big a tip he left. They even reported what kind of candy the Elways handed out at Halloween.

It got so bad into his third season that while Elway's wife, Janet, was sitting in the stands not long after giving birth to their first child, a fan screamed, "You can get your ... wife pregnant, but you can't ... do anything else, you bum."

She slapped him, and the family has managed to hold its own ever since.

Elway, though, couldn't get a grip on this game until after the Jets went ahead 10-0 and the Broncos took over after the ensuing kickoff at their own 36.

They came out of the huddle in a run formation, hoping the Jets safeties would bite on a play-action fake so Elway could throw a long post pattern to Rod Smith. The only people who seemed confused, though, were Smith and tandem receiver Ed McCaffrey. Both lined up on the wrong side.

"Somehow," Elway said, "they got word to each other and switched assignments."

He blushed, then added:

"They're bright guys, even though they came out of the huddle the wrong way."

No matter. Elway completed a 47-yard bomb to McCaffrey, and after Terrell Davis softened the Jets up by slashing for 6 yards, Elway drilled a pass to Howard Griffith slanting across the New York secondary for 11 yards and a touchdown.

All of a sudden, Denver had its groove back. That drive consumed three plays and 1:38. None of the next three Denver scores, a touchdown and two Jason Elam line-drive field goals that bored through the wind, required more than eight plays or 3:14 to complete.

There wasn't much talk on the sideline up to that point about winning this one for Elway. Which is not to say that the Broncos didn't breathe easier.

"Awwww, we knew it wasn't going to be his last game," teammate Derek Loville said. "His last game just had to be in Miami.

"And after that one," he added, "we're going to try and talk him out of it."