Kickoff: 6:18 p.m. Sunday Where: Pro Player Stadium, Miami TV-Radio: WTTG-5, WBFF-45, WTEM-980 Line: Broncos by 7½

By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 29, 1999; Page D1

MIAMI, Jan. 28 – His teammate and fellow Denver Broncos linebacker John Mobley likes to call Bill Romanowski a "bird from a different flock." But Romanowski also would like the world to know that he is no dirty bird, as more than a few opponents have suggested in recent years.

"I sometimes get caught up in the heat of battle," Romanowski said several times this week, "but I'm not a dirty player."

Never mind that infamous spitting incident during the 1997 season, when Romanowski, in full view of a national television audience, unloaded on 49ers wide receiver J.J. Stokes and paid $7,500 for the transgression. Forget about all the trash talking he did to get into the head of Pittsburgh quarterback Kordell Stewart in the '97 playoffs, or the blow that broke the jaw of then-Carolina quarterback Kerry Collins in the '97 preseason, a shot that cost him $20,000 in a fine by the league.

Romanowski said this week that the spitting incident was something of a soggy wake-up call for him. His teammate, outspoken tight end Shannon Sharpe, said at the time he thought the fine would have been heavier if a black player had done the spitting, adding a racial twist to the mix.

Romanowski said he was deeply embarrassed by all the attention and mortified by the controversy. He offered a very public apology at the time. His teammates, including Sharpe, eventually rallied around him after quarterback John Elway stood up in a meeting and said it was time to close ranks. Romanowski has since vowed that nothing of the sort would happen again.

"Because of what happened last year, I think I'm a better person and a better player than I was," said Romanowski, 32 and looking for his fourth Super Bowl ring, after earning two with the 49ers and one last year with the Broncos. "I tried to learn from my mistakes. I made a big one, probably the biggest one of my career. I vowed to myself and to my family that it would never happen again. When emotion is high, logic is low. I let emotion hurt me in that game" against Stokes and the 49ers.

Romanowski clearly plays the game at a fever pitch from his outside linebacker position (often on the tight end's side), wandering all over the field to make plays. Coach Mike Shanahan calls him the best-conditioned player he has ever seen, and his streak of never missing a game because of injury is at 197 since entering the league as a third-round draft choice out of Boston College in 1988.

Since earning a starting spot with the 49ers in 1990, he has started 158 of his last 159 games, including two years in Philadelphia before joining the Broncos in '96. His only nonstart was in a game when the Eagles opened with five defensive backs, but he was on the field for most of the action.

This year may have been Romanowski's best, and earned him a second trip to the Pro Bowl. He likes to call himself a third-down player, meaning that he is never replaced on passing downs and plays every snap. Over his 11-year career, he has 23 sacks, 12 interceptions, 51 passes defensed, 13 fumble recoveries and 15 forced fumbles.

This season, he had a career high 7½ sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He has been the Broncos' leading tackler in the playoffs, forcing one fumble and recovering another against the Jets in the AFC title game. He also was knocked woozy in that game: A terrible crash into running back Curtis Martin left him with wobbly legs and a slight headache.

"I knew that hit didn't look good," he said. "But I was fine. I was able to get my balance back."

On Sunday, he will spend a good portion of his day either covering Atlanta tight end O.J. Santiago or keying on 234-pound running back Jamal Anderson, the NFC's leading rusher and a man Romanowski believes will be the key to shutting down the Falcons' offense.

"Our whole focus all week has been getting a lot of bodies on him," Romanowski said. "We have to get two and three guys to him on every play. You somehow have to get that [stiff] arm away from him, whether it's grabbing it or going low on him. He also has a low center of gravity. That's why it's so important to get a lot of bodies on him because of his ability to break tackles. He's strong enough to run over you, elusive enough to make you miss, and fast enough to run away from you."

Romanowski also admitted this week that he will not be above a touch of trash talking, if that's what it takes to get any sort of advantage on an opponent.

"You try to do whatever you can do to get a player out of his zone, out of his game," Romanowski said. "I tend to push the envelope on that. If I can get in someone's head, I'll try to do it. . . . I don't focus on that. Once in a while during the heat of battle I'll say things, but for the most part my concentration is playing technique and playing great football. It just seems like it's getting blown out of proportion because of the things that have happened to me."

Still, Shanahan remains one of Romanowski's biggest boosters.

"I think his personality is contagious to the rest of the team," he said. "Not just how he plays or handles himself during the season, but the way he goes through preparation in the offseason. He works 365 days a year. After this game, he'll have a workout. He wants to be the best he possibly can be at his position, and he's a student of the game. I had a chance to see that as an assistant coach at San Francisco. I saw how he handled himself and how he worked. After he went to Philadelphia, and when his contract was up and he wasn't re-signed, I wanted to do everything in my power to re-sign him."

Said Mobley: "He's the true meaning of Jekyll and Hyde. Off the field, the guy will do anything for you. Come game day, this guy is stone-faced and doesn't say a word to anybody. He's totally focused. He's out there yelling and screaming and cussing. It's not the same Bill Romanowski you see during the week."

Romanowski is a doting father of two children, Dalton, 4, and Alexandra, 1, with pictures plastered all over his locker in Denver. His wife, Julie, insists her husband is a closet romantic who took her out to a dreamy birthday dinner with an ocean view last summer, accompanied by a diamond necklace and a dozen roses.

Mostly though, Romanowski admits he loves hearing people describe him as a throwback to the days when football players considered blood stains on their jerseys and a mouth full of cracked teeth to be badges of honor.

"When I think of a throwback player, he's a guy who goes out there and whatever he can do to dominate his opponent, he'll do that," he said. "I'm a guy who plays every play like it's his last. . . . They say if you love what you do, you don't have to work a day in your life. I've had a hell of a ride."