NO LOSERS IN DECISION FOR BREES, RIVERS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ NFL 

The question that seemed to occupy football minds in SanDiego all offseason was this: Did the Chargers make a mistake letting Drew Brees leave and turning their high-flying offense over to Philip Rivers?

It was a question that divided not only fans but the Chargers themselves.

LaDainian Tomlinson lobbied to keep Brees, a fellow Texan, while the team's other star, Antonio Gates, was eager to work with the guy with the aw-shucks drawl whose locker sat next to his.

Meanwhile, Marty Schotten- heimer made no secret of his preference to keep the reliable, efficient and experienced Brees, while general manager A.J.Smith wanted the fourth overall pick in the 2004 draft.

Their difference of opinion only deepened the rift between coach and front office.

So, with three months of empirical evidence available, it's clear that the winner is. ... everyone.

Any concerns about Brees' surgically repaired shoulder, the pretext Smith used for not giving him a long-term deal -- one that also scared off the Dolphins -- have long since disappeared. Brees is making an argument for being the NFL's best quarterback this season, leading the league in passer rating (101.2), yardage (4,033) and touchdown passes (25) on an offense that leads the league in total yards (410.6 per game).

His role in the Saints' remarkable turnaround has built a strong case for him to challenge Tomlinson for league MVP honors.

Likewise, any concerns about Rivers being the hand brake on the Chargers offense have long since vanished.

With Rivers at the controls, the Chargers are simply the NFL's highest scoring offense (32.7 per game) and -- something that is sure to make Schottenheimer misty-eyed -- he's thrown just six interceptions, fewest among regular starters in the league.

The way both quarterbacks have played, leading as graceful a coexistence in separate conferences as they did in the same locker room, the question of whom the Chargers should have kept hasn't inspired hand-wringing or elicited I-told-you-sos. Rather, the debate has been of the you-say-tomayto-I-say-tomahto sort.

At least for now.

Suddenly, after Sunday, it looks like the matter could be raised again as a slightly more public referendum.

That is, the Super Bowl.

The Chargers, building an 11-2 record and a seven-game winning streak, have been busy burnishing their Super Bowl credentials, and after their 48-20 demolition of the Broncos and the recent demise of the Colts and Patriots, they have established themselves as the class of the AFC.

Meanwhile, the Saints, heretofore extolled as a nice, inspiring story of the Little Team That Could, went into Dallas and watched Brees shoot more holes in the Cowboys than a Sam Peckinpah western. Sure there's the Bears, but if the Cowboys with Tony Romo were the team that looked to have Super Bowl chops, then what of the Saints after their 42-17 whipping of Dallas?

While it's still no sure thing -- let's face it, Schottenheimer and a fleur-de-lis are the heads and tails on the coin of playoff futility -- the possibility of Rivers and Brees meeting in Miami is at least a real possibility.

This isn't how it's supposed to work.

When veterans are cast aside to make room for the young up-and-comer, it's supposed to work one way or the other. When Norm Nixon was sent to the Clippers to make room for Byron Scott, Showtime rolled on. When Steve Garvey was ushered toward San Diego to make room for Greg Brock, the reviews were not so kind.

Even when it's good for both parties, these are mostly neighborhood matters, particularly in the NFL.

Steve McNair can return to Tennessee, rally his new team, the Ravens, to a dramatic victory over the Titans' sparkling protege, Vince Young, as he did last month and it's a nice story in those burghs.

Rarely, though, is it played out on a national stage.

When the 49ers finally made a choice between Steve Young and Joe Montana -- sending the latter to the Chiefs in 1993 7/8 both quarterbacks took their teams to conference championship games that season. But all that did was reveal to Kansas City fans that Montana was a mere mortal and confirmed the long-held suspicion by SanFanatico fans that Young was no Montana.

When Craig Morton, jettisoned by the Cowboys several years earlier in favor of Roger Staubach, took Denver to the Super Bowl in 1977, all he did against his old team was confirm that Tom Landry made the right decision, throwing fourinterceptions by halftime.

To find a situation that's worked out as well as where Brees and Rivers are headed, you have to go all the way to where this one started. In 1962, San Diego sent quarterback Jack Kemp, who had taken the Chargers to two AFL Championship games, to Buffalo, clearing the way for promising rookie John Hadl.

It would be several years before Hadl secured the starting job, but the Chargers won the AFL title the next season. In 1964 and 1965, Kemp led the Bills over the Chargers for the championship.

The move also opened a door in politics for Kemp, who served in Congress and launched a presidential bid from western New York. Hadl would become one of the AFL's best quarterbacks and later coach the Los Angeles Express in the USFL.

Might history be repeating itself?

Considering the goodwill he's contributed to the city of New Orleans, it's not too hard to imagine ``Senator Brees.'' And as for Rivers, the son of a high school coach, perhaps by the time he's ready to pick up a whistle and clipboard, there will be a team in L.A.

Elsewhere around the league in Week 14:

The Eagles, dead and buried after losing Donovan McNabb for the season, are not only alive and flapping with resurrected Jeff Garcia (8 TDs, 0 INTs) -- they control their destiny. It's no small chore, but if the Eagles, sitting a game behind Dallas, win their final three -- at New York, at Dallas, Atlanta -- they'll win the NFC East.

The Lions and Raiders, both in desperate need of a quarterback, have settled into a neck-and-neck race for the top draft pick, but I wonder if Brady Quinn is the solution. With pro prospects at tight end and both receiver spots -- and the best play-caller at any level -- Quinn looked awfully ordinary against the three good defenses he faced: USC, UCLA and Michigan.

On the bright side, after Vince Young's dash through the Texans' defense, at least Houston coach Gary Kubiak won't have to answer questions about why his team passed on Reggie Bush.

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