Three-Peat?

MIAMI —  And so, we will witness the final game of the best street-ball quarterback in history, the master of improvisation and of the late-game comeback.

Or will we?

The lure of possibly winning a second straight Super Bowl proved so irresistible to John Elway that he put off his retirement plans after last year’s victory.

If he wins championship No. 2 today, he’ll face the tantalizing prospect of a three-peat, even though those close to him believe he will probably leave the game.

“You’d always love to go out as a winner, to have your last game be the Super Bowl and be able to play well,” the Denver Broncos quarterback said. “That would be great.

“Then, again, no one’s ever done it three times in a row. If we get a win here, it would throw a little kink into my thinking. It would give me something to think about.”

That’s the competitor in Elway speaking, not the realist.

Crawling painfully out of bed most mornings, requiring massages to relieve enough of the soreness to be able to practice--that has been Elway’s life for the past few seasons as his body has begun to betray him.

He can still escape a sack, but without the nimbleness he once had. He can still scramble for a first down, but without the halfback speed he once displayed. Only his fastball remains hard and true.

“I think I can still play,” the 38-year-old Elway said. “I’m not the scrambler and I can’t run around and do those types of things that I used to do.

“But I think that mentally I’m a lot better now. And I think I’m throwing the football probably better than I ever have. I don’t think I’ve lost any arm strength.

“I can’t make the big plays, but I think I’m probably a better quarterback. So the diminished physical skills, I don’t think those are a big enough factor to make me retire. The talent we have on this team, that makes up for a lot of my weaknesses.”

Weaknesses?

For most of his career, there were no weaknesses, except for his impetuousness and impatience, qualities that frustrated his first coach, Dan Reeves, but made him a daring gunslinger and darling of Denver fans.

But quarterbacks can’t play forever, not even 45-year-old Steve DeBerg, the Atlanta Falcons backup.

Elway recognizes that he probably would have been gone from the game by now if not for running back Terrell Davis, who has helped prolong his career. No longer required to carry his team as he did through the 1980s and early ‘90s, Elway made a bold, once unthinkable admission this season: “My job is to hand off to Terrell now.”

He does it well, while still retaining some of his flamboyance. Elway had the best passer rating of his career this season (93.0), and he engineered two more game-saving drives, raising his NFL-record total to 47.

He joined Dan Marino as the only NFL players with 50,000 yards passing, and he threw his 300th touchdown pass.

Most important, for someone who is unimpressed by statistics, he remained the winningest quarterback in NFL history with 148 victories.

But he also missed all or parts of six games this season with hamstring, back and rib injuries, another concession to the ravages of time.

He has hedged on his statement last summer that he was 99.9 percent certain this would be his last season. But Elway gave a hint of his intentions when, at the urging of coach Mike Shanahan, he took an uncharacteristic tour of Mile High Stadium after the AFC championship victory two weeks ago, holding the trophy aloft to his fans and saying, “I love you.”

Beyond that telling gesture, his coaches and teammates insist he has given them few clues about his pending decision.

“I really don’t know,” tight end Shannon Sharpe said. “But I do know this: John would rather go out knowing that he had one more year left than stay and know that he should have left. It’s going to be his decision, but obviously the guy can still play.”

Elway himself has said his mind has been on football and he won’t make a decision about his future until after the season, when he has time to discuss the matter with his family, friends and coaches.

“This is what I came back for, to get in this position to play for another championship,” he said. “I don’t want to take the focus off what we’re doing to prepare for this game. I’m going to enjoy this now and cross that bridge when the season’s over. I’ve got plenty of time to make that decision in the offseason.”

The ultimate decision might be his alone this year.

Elway admitted that he, his wife and four children voted last year on whether he should return for the 1998 season. The vote was 5-1, with his being the lone dissenting vote, so he yielded to the majority. He might ignore a similar mandate this time.

Shanahan has tried to prepare for the worst.

“Chances are, this will be John’s last game,” he said. “That’s my gut feeling. But you never know, he could come back.

“If he does retire, we’re going to miss him dearly.”