By ERNIE PALLADINO
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

The folks who run football got just what they wanted this year in the AFC. Fifteen weeks gone, two teams down. Everybody else - unless the math is wrong, that means 14 teams - head into the season's penultimate weekend with a chance at a postseason berth.

Folks in Buffalo and Baltimore, whose teams were both left for dead at the beginning of the season, are all excited because their 7-7 teams are still alive. Fans in Oakland and Miami, each 9-5, and Pittsburgh (8-5-1) will sweat out these last two weeks because (guess what?) there's still time to blow it all despite division-leading records.

The scenarios are so complicated, one can't even begin to put them into a comprehendible story. But what the heck? Everybody's in it. Everybody's excited.

And a week after the Super Bowl, everybody will forget this season, where parity hit the NFL as hard as Jerome Bettis hits tacklers. That's the downside of this whole business. No matter how the AFC scenarios turn out, it will not send a great team to the Super Bowl. Parity eliminates greatness.

In any walk of life, when everyone is equal, it's usually not because they're all standing on the top rung of achievement, but rather because they're all clustered in that middle area.

The NFC isn't much better off, of course. Nobody's about to place Brett Favre's Green Bay Packers in the upper echelon just because they stood as a colossus among the dwarfs of the North. The Philadelphia Eagles are good, but they're just soaring above the crows of the East.

Going down the line of both conferences, there isn't a single team that stands out as hands-down great. Not even a unit. No Doomsday or Steel Curtain defense, no Greatest Show on Earth offense, no Montana or Elway. Even that great Baltimore defense that shut down the New York Giants two years ago is long gone, reduced to nothing more than an above-average unit.

Such is the drawback of a here-and-now league. It's a lot of fun for everyone - well, maybe not Cincinnati - while it's happening. But in the end, there is nothing memorable about it. There is nothing for a father to put his arm around his son and say, "Son, no matter how this game turns out, you're going to see something special today."

Parity eliminates greatness, supposedly for the greater good. It has served that, especially in the AFC. But the memories of 2002 will be scarce.

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Southern trash talk: This isn't the first time Tampa Bay defensive end Warren Sapp got on a defender from elsewhere. But it is probably the loudest.

The man who told Giants defensive end Michael Strahan he should have given back Favre's final-game flop that gave him the single-season sack record in 2001 went at it with Pittsburgh's Lee Flowers. The outspoken safety had called the Bucs "paper champions" after the Steelers upset the Bucs last year. Anticipating Monday night's matchup, where the winner clinches its division, Sapp had his say.

"Listen, man, Lee Flowers is a guy from Georgia," the University of Miami product said. "Florida boys walk around with chips on their shoulders all the time. We talk more stuff than anybody. He doesn't have any credentials to talk stuff. You'd never know the man unless you get in front of the television and they put his name under his face."

Flowers answered that he's from South Carolina, and only attended school in Georgia. Besides, "I haven't checked the last time somebody got a degree from Miami, anyway," he said.

Ouch.

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Priest out: Priest Holmes' team is still in the playoff hunt, and he's four rushing touchdowns shy of Emmitt Smith's 1995 record of 25. But it looks like he'll challenge for neither the playoffs nor the record, thanks to the hip injury he suffered in last week's loss to Denver. The Kansas City running back probably won't play again this season.

An MRI this week determined that at least it isn't career threatening. But coach Dick Vermeil said he'll be careful with it, knowing full well that hips can be tricky things. It was a hip injury that cut off blood flow to the bone which ended Raiders running back Bo Jackson's career.

"We're just not going to fool around," Vermeil said. "I don't think he wants to risk further damage to any area that's vital to his movement skills."

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Woodson returning: With the No. 1 seed in the AFC on the line, Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson isn't about to let a little crack in his leg bone sideline him. Woodson said he fully intends to be out there Sunday against the Broncos despite X-rays that say he should hang out elsewhere.

Maybe it's because he's already missed six games with a bad shoulder. But he wants to be part of the stretch run.

"I'm just going out there like nothing ever happened," Woodson said.

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Retiring Green: Classy Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, stepping down next week after 20 years in the league, may have his No. 28 retired at some point next season. If it happens, Green would become only the second Redskin to have his number officially retired, joining quarterback Sammy Baugh.

"Whatever they'd do would mean a lot to me," Green said. "I'm not out to honor myself in a prideful way, but I'm honored. I have a strong bond with this community. I would be happy if they're happy."

Green is one of the most active Redskins as far as community relations go, with a foundation and learning center targeted for inner-city youths. The Redskins plan to honor him in a farewell ceremony before the season finale against Dallas next week.

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Ernie Palladino covers the Giants for The Journal News. He can be reached at epalladi@thejournalnews.com

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