By Bob Markus

Somewhere Ernie Accorsi must be smiling. The retired New York Giants general manager doesn't even have a job in football anymore, but his fingerprints are all over the NFL landscape. Two of the most intriguing matchups of the year will be played on Sunday and, of the four quarterbacks involved, three of them have connections with Accorsi.

Looking stronger by the week, the Giants, who were upset winners over New England in the 2008 Super Bowl, are now the favorites to repeat. Their quarterback: Eli Manning, acquired in a draft day trade by Accorsi, in one of his most daring--and successful moves. The Giants are headed for the desert this week to play the surprising Arizona Cardinals, whose 7-3 record gives them a four-game lead in the NFC West with six games to play. The Cardinals' quarterback: the born-again gunslinger Kurt Warner, who immediately preceded Manning as the Giants' signal caller.

The other signifcant matchup Sunday features the New York Jets against the unbeaten Tennessee Titans in Nashville. The 10-0 Titans, having rallied in the second half in Jacksonville Sunday, now must be conceded at least an outside chance to do what the New England Patriots couldn't do--go undefeated through the regular season and playoffs. It may not be time for the 1972 Dolphins, who so jealously guard their immaculate 17-0 season, to panic, but the fact is that after playing the Jets Sunday, Tennessee's next three games are against Detroit, Cleveland and Houston, losers all. Quarterbacking the Titans: Kerry Collins, whose career Accorsi saved when he signed him in 1999. Collins led the Giants to the Super Bowl in 2000, a watershed year in a career that has had more ups and downs than a cirque d' soleil performer.

The Jets are clinging to a one-game lead in the AFC East over the Patriots and Dolphins, who will meet Sunday in what, in an ordinary week, might well have been the top-billed game. The Jets' quarterback, Brett Favre, has no connection to Ernie Accorsi, but he just happens to be, arguably, the best quarterback in NFL history.

Of the four quarterbacks involved, only Manning is in the prime of his career. There is nothing gaudy about Manning's statistics. He has been labelled by the New York press as "a care taker quarterback." The term is not meant to be pejorative. Manning is in command of a stable of runners who make 300-yard passing games unnecessary. He proved in the Super bowl he can complete passes when he needs to.

Favre, although he had a magical season in 2007 until a fatal interception against the Giants in the NFC title game made it all go up in smoke, no longer seems capable of almost single handedly willing his team into the win column. But, considering where the Jets have been, his bottom line, a 7-3 record and a reasonable shot at the playoffs, does nothing to diminish his legacy.

While Favre and Manning, the two New York quarterbacks are doing what is expected them, Collins and Warner are the twin surprises of the season. Both of them have been to the mountain top and both have plunged to the icy depths of irrelevance. Their dual resurrections are the stuff dreams are made of. Opposites in many ways, they are brothers under the skin.

Collins was a star at Penn State, leading the Nittany Lions to their last unbeaten season in 1994.
He was a first round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers, the fifth player chosen. Warner didn't even break into the starting lineup at Northern Iowa until his senior year. He spent three seasons in the Arena league and one in NFL Europe, before finally getting into one game for the St. Louis Rams in 1998.

By then, Collins had already led the Panthers as far as the NFC title game in 1996 and quickly worn out his welcome. By the time Warner got his first start in 1999, Collins had already been waived by two teams and his career was in tatters. Then came Ernie Accorsi to his rescue. Most of the football cognoscenti were shocked when the Giants' GM gave Collins a $5 million signing bonus as part of a $16.9 million package.

But Accorsi, who early in his career had been an assistant sports information director at Penn State, called on his old contacts and received "a good report on him as a person," Accorsi said at the time. "Once I met with Kerry I immediately trusted him and liked him." One thing Accorsi trusted was Collins' pledge to get help for his admitted alcoholism. In a Super Bowl week interview the following year, Collins bared his soul. "One of the things I had to do in life was to get humble," he said. "I had to admit I can't control alcohol. I got to the point where I knew that alcohol would eventually kill me or I would end up in jail."

He already had ended up in the doghouse with Carolina coach Dom Capers. Collins revealed that, at a party celebrating the end of training camp in 1997, he had gotten roaringly drunk, called teammate Muhshin Muhammad the "N" word, made an ethnic remark to another teammate, Norberto Garrido, and received a punch in the eye for a reward. "I was trying to be a funny guy," he said. After signing with the Giants, Collins went to a rehab facility in Kansas and straightened out his life.

That same year, Kurt Warner was torching the NFL When Trent Green got hurt in an exhibition game, Warner became the starter. He started out by becoming the only passer in NFL history to throw for three touchdowns in each of his first three games. He followed that up with a five touchdown day against the San Francisco 49ers, at the time a perennial NFL power. By the time it was all over, he had thrown 41 touchown passes and been named MVP of both the regular season and Super bowl, which the Rams won. Two years later he won his second MVP award, leading the Rams back to the Super bowl. This time they lost, although Warner threw two touchdown passes to bring them back from a 17-3 deficit. Adam Vinatieri won it for the Patriots on a field goal at the final whistle.

From there, the two quarterbacks ran a parallel course, neither able to recapture the rapture of their Super Bowl seasons. The Giants finally released Collins in 2004 and replaced him with--Kurt Warner. Warner started only nine games for the Giants before Manning, who had been signed that season, was rushed into the breach.

Collins bounced around from the Giants to the Oakland Raiders to the Titans. In Tennessee he was supposed to be the caretaker for Vince Young, but the former University of Texas star was injured in the opener this year and, unless Collins gets hurt, likely will not see action again. Warner meanwhile was signed by Arizona where he was supposed to tutor Heisman trophy winner Matt Leinart. A game against San Francisco in 2007 perhaps best illustrates Warner's performance over the next three years. He threw for a career high 484 yards, then fumbled into the end zone in overtime to lose the game.

The Titans, like the Giants, are a run-oriented team, so Collins is, like Manning, more the director of the show than its star. But, also like Manning, he's proved that he can take over the spotlight when it is necessary. He threw three touchdown passes in the second half Sunday to rally the Titans past Jacksonville.

Warner, on the other hand, still loves to sling the ball around. He is the NFL's top-rated passer and his 395 yard performance in Sunday's victory over Seattle was his franchise-record fourth straight 300-yard game. If MVP voting were held today, Warner would be the favorite to win his third. That would tie him with the only man to win it three times--Brett Favre.