PARALLEL LIVES; FOR JUST THE SECOND TIME, ELWAY MEETS MARINO ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The best rivalries are played out purely in our imaginations: Ali vs. Louis, McGwire vs. Ruth, Clinton vs. Nixon, separated by time but linked by a million barroom debates. Pick a side; you'll never be proved wrong.

John Elway and Dan Marino are like that, in what both acknowledge is a weird way.

They're contemporaries right down to sharing a rookie season, yet considering how rarely they've collided, they might as well have played in different centuries. The two quarterbacks' careers have been less overlapping than parallel.

They've faced each other precisely once in an NFL game that counted, and that was so long ago, and that 30-26 victory by Marino's Miami Dolphins over Elway's Denver Broncos early in the 1985 season seemed so insignificant then, it might as well have never happened.

For practical purposes, when the Broncos visit the Dolphins Monday night, it will be the consumation of 20 years of comparison and contrast.

As Elway said, ``I think that comparison has been there since we were in the same year in high school.''

That is when it started, when Elway was at Granada Hills High and Marino at Central Catholic High in Pittsburgh, both top college recruits in both football and baseball, Elway ending up at Stanford and Marino at Pitt.

When they entered the NFL, they were part of the 1983 draft that included six quarterbacks in the first round, Elway going first and Marino 27th.

Then, for as long as it took for Jim Kelly, Ken O'Brien, Tony Eason and Todd Blackledge to fade away, Elway and Marino were connected by their common failure to win a Super Bowl, the certificate of quarterbacking greatness.

All that separates them now is style - Marino the stiff-kneed pocket passer and Elway the scrambler - and the Super Bowl that Elway finally won in January.

They've run into each other frequently enough off the field - at offseason dinners, golf tournaments, promotional functions - to become friends.

But they haven't gone head-to-head on the field since that sub-freezing afternoon at Mile High Stadium that neither claims to recall much about.

To refresh their memories: Marino passed for three touchdowns and 365 yards even though Mark Duper missed the game with a broken leg and Mark Clayton missed the second half with a sprained ankle. Elway had a subpar day - 18 for 37, 250 yards, no TDs and one interception - but led the Broncos to three leads in the game.

``It's amazing that in 16 years we've faced each other only one time,'' Elway said this week in one of the conference calls set up by the NFL to promote Monday's showdown, which lost some of its allure when the Broncos' winning streak ended with a loss to the New York Giants on Sunday. ``It'll be nice to be on the same field.''

``It's almost impossible,'' Marino said of the fact Miami and Denver have met only once since 1975.

Blame bad luck and the NFL scheduling system.

Or thank them. If this were a twice-a-year thing, we might forget how special it is to have the only 50,000-yard passers in league history in the same game.

At this stage of their careers, Elway at 38 and Marino at 37, appreciation is a big part of their Sundays.

``As you get older, you try to enjoy things about the game, because you can see the end of the tunnel,'' Elway said.

One thing each appreciates is the other. Elway would love to have Marino's quick release. Marino would love to have Elway's ``playmaking ability'' and flair for comebacks.

When they first matched throwing arms 13 years ago, Elway was trying to live up to the No. 1-pick hype and Marino was coming off an incredible 5,000-yard season.

``I followed his career pretty closely,'' admitted Elway, who said he identifies with Marino more than with any other opponent. ``I came to a team that was 2-7 the (strike) year before, whereas he went to a team that was great. He kind of hit the ground running. It made it tough on me.''

Things evened out.

Then Elway went way ahead when he and the Broncos beat the Packers in the Super Bowl last January. In the only stat that counts for some people, it's 1-0.

``Seeing his face, holding that trophy up, that had to be a very special feeling for him,'' Marino said this week.

The Dolphins lost Marino's only Super Bowl to the 49ers following the 1984 season, his second.

``If you'd asked me early in my career, `Would you rather have one Super Bowl (winner's) ring and play two seasons, or have (a 16-year) career. . ..,' I'd rather have the career I've had,'' Marino said.

Sure. That's what Elway used to say.

``It's hard to miss something you don't know anything about,'' Elway said. ``You don't know what it's like to win one.''

Elway said that if the Broncos don't win the Super Bowl Jan. 31 in Miami, he hopes the Dolphins do, but ``he's going to have to go through us.''

Could be. Denver (13-1) has clinched the AFC West title. Miami (9-5) is a game behind the Jets in the AFC East but would go to the playoffs as a wild card if the season ended now.

But neither team is going to the Super Bowl playing the way it has the past couple of weeks. Which, by the way, is what each quarterback wanted to talk about on the phone, the need for the team to turn it around on Monday.

For the rest of us, Monday is about Elway and Marino, together again for what seems like the first time.

LONG ARMS

Comparing the career statistics of Denver's John Elway and Miami's Dan Marino:

Statistic Elway Marino

Seasons 16 16

Passes 7,178 7,915

Percent complete 56.9 59.6

Yards 50,986 58,238

Yards per pass 7.1 7.4

TD passes 296 403

Intercepted 232 224

Yards rushing 3,360 96

MVP awards 1 ('87) 1 ('84)

W-L record 147-81-1141-86-0

Super Bowls 4 1

Super Bowl wins 1 0

Note: Stats are current going into Monday night's Denver-Miami game.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--2--Color) John Elway

(3--Color) Dan Marino

BOX: LONG ARMS (see text)