While Maddox was voted the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year, McNair's long, tortured road to the playoffs left him deserving the honor -- if he had ever gone anywhere in the first place, that is.

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McNair, who is the only one of these eight quarterbacks to play in the ultimate game, may have come up about a yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV of being the only one to own a ring.

His ribs -- some say they were broken -- have been bothering him since a 13-12 loss at Baltimore. His back has always been a problem. But when McNair returned to practice after his 41-day hiatus on the second day of the new year, he looked good.

"My timing's still there," McNair said, "and it's going to get better."

This pretty much describes the career arc of Maddox; he's still there and, somehow he's getting better.

After getting released by the Giants and Falcons in training camps in 1996 and 1997, Maddox started his own business. It wasn't until 2000 that he found himself starting for the New Jersey Red Dogs of the Arena Football League. His numbers -- 64 touchdowns vs. only 15 interceptions -- got him a gig with the Los Angeles Xtreme of the short-lived XFL. That MVP performance got him a backup job with the Steelers in 2001.

The Steelers were struggling with Kordell Stewart under center, when head coach Bill Cowher went to Maddox. He was 4-1-1 as a starter, but when he got hit in the Nov. 17 game at Nashville and was temporarily paralyzed, he sat on the sidelines for three weeks. Maddox came back in an embarrassing loss to the Houston Texans, but directed last week's amazing comeback against the Cleveland Browns.

	Maddox

	McNair

Maddox, who threw 2 first-half interceptions in his first NFL playoff start, addressed his teammates on the field before the second half.

"I felt like people were looking at me to see how we were going to come out and play," Maddox said later. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you everything that was said. Basically, I told them, 'If anybody doesn't think we can win, just go back to the locker room. We are going to find a way to win this game.' "

And so they did. With Maddox throwing 3 second-half touchdown passes, the Steelers went on to score 22 fourth-quarter points and erase a 17-point deficit to win 36-33.

"That is part of being a quarterback," Maddox said. "I wanted them to see it in my eyes that I believed we still had a chance to win."

And now on Saturday, in a dramatic turn of events, Maddox faces the very team that nearly crippled him, on the very same field.

The numbers
Steve McNair: 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, 29 years old, 8th season with Titans/Oilers … Drafted No. 3 overall in 1995 out of Alcorn State … Considered by many, considering his toughness, to be the league's MVP over Gannon and Green Bay's Brett Favre … Completed 301 of 492 passes (61.2 percent) for 3,387 yards, 22 TDs and 15 INT, 84.0 passer rating.

Tommy Maddox: 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, 31 years old, 6th NFL season, 4th NFL team (Broncos, Rams, Giants, Steelers) … Drafted No. 25 overall in 1992 out of UCLA … Started 11 games for the Steelers -- vs. 4 previous NFL career starts -- completing 234 of 377 passes (62.1 percent) for 2,836 yards, 20 TDs and 6 INT, 85.2 passer rating. In playoffs against Cleveland, completed 30 of 48 passes for 367 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INT. Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.