SUPER BOWL XXXIII NOTEBOOK : BIG PLAY RAY IS NO ORDINARY JOE.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

The most famous Super Bowl line ever was uttered less than a mile from where he was sitting Monday night and yet Ray Buchanan - for all his attempt at boast and bravado on the championship stage - proved nothing but a pale imitation of the past.

They call him Big Play Ray, but he's no Broadway Joe.

One man's history is but another guy's hype.

``It was just a fun thing, it wasn't meant as a slap at Denver,'' the Atlanta Falcons Pro Bowl cornerback said of his nationally televised victory prediction five days ago.

After some prompting during an interview last Thursday on HBO's ``Inside the NFL,'' Buchanan - shrugging off the fact his Falcons are 7-point underdogs to the Denver Broncos in Sunday's Super Bowl XXXIII - said he ``guaranteed'' an Atlanta victory.

Now, as you stood next to him at the Falcons' team hotel and heard him backpedal on his promise, it was as you expected. His words had none of the anger, the gall or the conviction that Joe Namath did when he was goaded into dropping his famed Super Bowl bombshell 30 years ago.

It was a few days before the powerful, Don Shula-coached Baltimore Colts were to meet Weeb Ewbank's New York Jets - upstarts from the American Football League and 19-point underdogs - in Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl.

Namath, the Jets' 25-year-old quarterback, was being honored by the Miami Touchdown Club at a gathering in Miami Springs and that's when a heckler in the back of the room began yelling how the Jets would be trounced by the NFL Colts.

Grabbing the microphone and pointing to the heckler, Namath said, ``The Jets are going to beat the Baltimore Colts and win the championship of all of football. I guarantee it.''

Just smile n' say yes

In an NFL version of ``don't ask, don't tell,'' Broncos coach Mike Shanahan discussed his team's first practice during Super Bowl week and other mundane matters, while assiduously avoiding any touchy-feely issues.

Such as you-know-what.

Scared off by Shanahan's testy responses the day before to questions about his rocky relationship with Atlanta coach Dan Reeves, the media asked only two questions pertaining to Reeves during the evening media session.

One was in reference to whether his team could take advantage of any personality traits of Reeves in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

``We concern ourselves more about our football team,'' Shanahan said. ``We're not a team that puts stuff on the bulletin board, we don't talk about the other team. We look at film and we talk about the strengths of the opponent.

``But I'm more concerned about our team. If we take more pride in how we execute rather than all the other things about the other team, then I think we have a much better chance at success.''

It's a plane no-issue

The Falcons insist that ``Plane-Gate'' won't be a distraction at their first Super Bowl.

Buchanan said the players had discussed the complaints made a day earlier by receiver Terance Mathis, who didn't think it was appropriate for Pro Bowlers and 10-year veterans to depart the team's chartered jet before everyone else after landing in Miami.

``We squashed it,'' Buchanan said. ``We're not going to let it affect us. Some guys were mumbling this, some guys were mumbling that. Some of it was petty. But it was just personal feelings.''

Reeves set the departure pecking order, apparently in a sign of respect for the team's older players and top performers. Even Reeves and his coaching staff waited for those players to leave the plane.

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PHOTO Did Dan Reeves bring up old feuds to deflect media pressure away from his players? Maybe.

Ric Feld/Associated Press