One of the few survivors from that era Shannon Sharpe looked on in

One of the few survivors from that era, Shannon Sharpe, looked on in disbelief.”We did absolutely nothing today,” said the Denver tight end. “I don’t know if I ever, in 14 years of playing, felt the way I felt today.” After a stellar career, Sharpe is now pondering retirement. Manning fired an 87-yard touchdown to Stokley as Denver’s defense stood and stared; the Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer was intercepted twice and lost a fumble, and even the normally reliable kicker Jason Elam had a field goal blocked.It was all a far cry from the late 1990s, when Denver won two consecutive Super Bowls under the guidance of the legendary quarterback, John Elway. He was surrounded by three Bronco defenders, but none of them touched him to conclude the play. Instead, all three argued among themselves as Harrison raced incredulously into the end zone.After that, the visitors seemed to lose all hope. The Broncos fell behind early, and never recovered.In truth, they only had themselves to blame.

One play at the end of the first quarter summed up Denver’s ineptitude. With his side leading 7-3, Manning completed a pass at midfield to Harrison. Then again, sometimes it is simply best to ignore everything.
Two weeks ago, the Denver Broncos thrashed the Indianapolis Colts 31-17, a scoreline which barely reflected their overall superiority. The Colts exacted their revenge, prevailing 41-10, and it could have been even more.The Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, who had never won a play-off game in three previous attempts, was close to perfection, completing 22 of 26 passes for 377 yards and five touchdowns, two each for Marvin Harrison and Brandon Stokley and one for Reggie Wayne. On Sunday, same teams, same venue, but a totally different outcome.

Sometimes, what happens in the regular NFL season can provide a good pointer to what to expect when the play-offs begin. Idowu, second at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, behind Edwards, was out of action with injury throughout last summer.The long jumpers Nathan Morgan and Chris Tomlinson, the British record holder, also make the trip accompanied by Jonathan Moore, who is expected to trouble both his elder rivals having recovered from a serious knee injury.. A camp such as this definitely serves a purpose.”Britain should have another competitor in the heptathlon now that the qualifying standard has been lowered, and is now also within reach of Kelly Sotheron.The Commonwealth and European triple jump champion Ashia Hansen, who will be one of the brightest hopes for an Athens medal, is making the trip after recovering from the Achilles operation that caused her to miss last summer’s World Championships.Other hopefuls include Dean Macey, who has not contested a decathlon since placing third in the 2001 World Championships, and Phillips Idowu, who is expected to be the natural successor to the only other track and field title-winner in Sydney, Jonathan Edwards. They have to get away from their normal environment and the day-to-day distractions of home to focus on the business of preparing to their full ability. Denise Lewis, the Olympic heptathlon champion, is among several British medal hopefuls who have begun serious preparations for this year’s Athens Games at a warm-weather training camp in South Africa.
Lewis, who flew south on Friday, is again working under the direction of Charles van Commenee, the Dutchman who guided her to the gold medal in Sydney four years ago.

She spent the first half of her winter programme working with him, making full use of the state-of-the-art High Performance Centre in Birmingham since returning to the Midlands to live and prepare for the defence of her title.Van Commenee, the UK Athletics technical director for combined events, travelled with Lewis and fellow athletes to what he considers a very important part of their build-up to the start of the Games in August.Van Commenee explained that while athletes benefit greatly from using the “wonderfully warm High Performance Centres” in this country, “they have to hone their preparations for Athens in high temperatures and in similar circumstances to those they will meet at the Games People have to get accustomed to heat and humidity. The top two-year-old tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol, administered to treat mucus in the lungs of Roger Charlton’s colt.If Three Valleys is stripped of his win it would result in the promotion to first place of Balmont, trained by Jeremy Noseda and ridden that day by the now-retired Pat Eddery. The veteran would gain an extra Group One success to add to his long roll of achievements and statisticians and quiz compilers everywhere would gain a valuable snippet with which to confound the rest of us.. However, if the urine sample shows an alcohol level below that of drink driving, but is still a positive in our book, then the protocol for a first offence recommends a caution.”Also on Thursday some equine urine will come under scrutiny: that of Three Valleys taken after his win in the Middle Park Stakes, a race he will now lose. Fanning failed a breathalyser, also at Redcar, on 3 November.Maxse said: “The penalties are largely decided upon by the level of alcohol in the urine There are two tiers. If the urine sample shows an alcohol level above the drink-driving limit, then they are looking at a suspension of up to a month. Two checks revealed he had tested above the permitted alcohol threshold.