It was the morning of Jan. 29, 1996, less than 10 hours after Larry Brown had sealed victory in Super Bowl XXX with two interceptions of Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O'Donnell, and in the lobby of the hotel where the Dallas Cowboys cornerback was to collect the booty which accompanied his most valuable player award, a good-natured but spirited debate was taking place.

The combatants: Agent Scott Casterline, who represented Brown, just days shy of becoming an unrestricted free agent. And Vito Stellino, the longtime NFL reporter, and still one of the deans of league scribes.

The debate revolved around how much money Brown, hardly regarded as a top-shelf cover man, might be worth in the free agent market. Stellino noted that Brown was never seen as anything more than an average defender, and Casterline countered that his client's Super Bowl performance translated into big money on the open market, along with potential endorsement deals.

	Dexter Jackson intercepted two passes in the Super Bowl.

Less than four weeks later, on Feb. 24, Casterline won the battle, hammering out a five-year, $12 million contract for Brown with the Oakland Raiders, a deal that included a signing bonus of $3.5 million. And fewer than three full years after that, Stellino claimed the war, when Brown was drummed out of the league for good.

We are reminded of the Larry Brown story because of something we just finished reading in one account detailing the Tampa Bay Bucs' day-after celebration with their local fans. In the story, Bucs free safety and Super Bowl XXXVII most valuable player Dexter Jackson, who like Brown had two interceptions in his team's dominating victory, is quoted as saying that his agent told him he could "name my price now" in the free agent market that commences on March 4.

Chances are that Dexter Jackson and his agent, LaMont Smith, are correct in assuming that the four-year veteran is about to dramatically improve on his financial fortunes, after a 2002 season in which he played for a base salary of just $563,000.

But when bidding for Jackson begins, assuming he doesn't sign a contract extension before the flag drops on free agency, he would be wise to heed the parable of Larry Brown, fellow MVP. Because, whether Browns chooses to believe it or not, there are some corollaries between their situations.

Two guys pretty much deemed defensive afterthoughts -- Jackson wasn't even among the players from Sunday's two teams who had signed deals with Disney in the event they won the most valuable player honor -- trying to cash in on one high-profile performance.

Here's what happened to Brown after signing the lucrative Raiders deal: He played in eight games in 1996 and had one interception. He played only four games in '97, had no pickoffs, and was released after the season. Brown then signed a two-year contract with Minnesota in the spring of 1998 and he was released in training camp. In December of that year, with their secondary crippled by injuries, the Cowboys signed him in an emergency because he knew the defensive system. He appeared, nondescriptly, in four games.

And then, poof, Larry Brown was gone. For good.

In three seasons following his tour de force Super Bowl performance, he appeared in 16 games, and Brown collected one measly interception. He had experienced, in Warholian fashion, his 15 minutes of fame. Oh, sure, he had fortune, because Casterline had secured that with the $3.5 million bonus. But in the end, Larry Brown never again was the Larry Brown that he was on the night Super Bowl XXX was contested at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

Here was a guy, who even at his best during most regular seasons, was just an ordinary cornerback. Brown played well in zone schemes, was perhaps a cut above average when deployed in "off-man" coverages, but could never be confused with, say, a Deion Sanders.

Suddenly thrust into an Oakland defense where a premium has always been on man-to-man cover skills -- why the Raiders coaches and pro personnel people ever felt he could make the transition remains, to this day, a mystery -- Brown was an abysmal failure. He collected less than half the $12 million in his Raiders contract, Oakland coaches finally realized he couldn't cover, and that was it.

None of this is to suggest Dexter Jackson, 25, doesn't have his best football ahead of him, because he almost certainly does. His improved range and his ability to break on the ball has permitted Tampa Bay coaches to camouflage the slippage of strong safety John Lynch and to be a little bolder in using more than just the Bucs' trademark "Cover 2" scheme in 2002.

But let's be honest here: No one is ready to proclaim Jackson, only a two-year starter in his career, one of the league's best free safeties. He may be a player in ascent, and even that is debatable in some quarters, but he still has a way to go before he enters elite company at the position.

On the biggest one-day athletic stage there is, Jackson made plays, no doubt. But he made them, in part, because of the brilliant scheme in which he was placed. Ever hear players talk about how their coaches have put them into a position to make plays? Well, the Tampa Bay coaches certainly do that, and when players suggest that, it's just not hollow lip service.

So what Dexter Jackson and the other pending unrestricted free agents on the Tampa Bay roster must ask themselves -- pay attention, here, linebackers Shelton Quarles and Alshermond Singleton -- is if they will be better players on another roster. Actually, they must ascertain if they will even be as good somewhere else as they are as role players in the Tampa Bay defense.

Remember, this is a defense that has made productive players out of guys who have failed in other precincts. Left end Greg Spires, a big hit Sunday night but a bust in previous stints at New England and Cleveland, leaps to mind. As a Tampa Bay personnel man noted to me once earlier this year, the Bucs evaluate players differently than do most teams. Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin demands speed, quickness, smarts.

Yeah, so does every other team in the league, you say? Maybe so. But it sure seems the Bucs and Kiffin find better ways to use those components.

Dexter Jackson, who even cited the case of Larry Brown in proclaiming to some teammates on Saturday that he might surprise people and steal off with the most valuable player award, would do well to remember that not every team has a Monte Kiffin or five Pro Bowl-caliber players with which to surround him every week.

Taking nothing away from Jackson but, as he tools around Tampa in his new Cadillac Escalade, he might think about what happened to Larry Brown once the cheering stopped. Certainly the money will be a lot greener once the free agency period begins.

But the grass might not be.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. To send Len a question for possible use on ESPNEWS, click here.