The wrong read

He is the prototype. When scouts dream of the best and brightest attributes for an ideal pro quarterback, he is the guy they imagine. He is just tall enough and big enough, and his arm is more than strong enough and his release properly quick enough and his accuracy right on and his vision and toughness are pretty near ideal. If you want someone perfectly suited to play the position, Troy Aikman is the man.

He is a "franchise" quarterback who has exceeded even the outlandish expectations placed on him coming out of college. He has three Super Bowl rings that attest to the quality of his performance. He has a $50 million contract, an elite status in one of the most fanatical pro football cities in existence and an almost automatic annual ticket to the Pro Bowl. At 29, he lives a life too special to be true.

About the only thing Troy Aikman lacks is a proper place in history. Because of a combination of his playing style--what I call the pizazz factor--and the role he fills within the Cowboys' offense, I'm convinced he never will be ranked--as he should be--among the handful of greatest stars who have played his position.

He'll make the Hall of Fame of that I am sure. There he will join, for now, 18 other modern-era quarterbacks already inducted and three more--Joe Montana, Dan Marino and John Elway--who are headed for inclusion. And when you look at that trio and the legends already sharing space in Canton--Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach, Sonny Jurgensen, Joe Namath, Otto Graham, Sammy Baugh, Norm Van Brocklin, Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Fran Tarkenton--does Aikman belong in the top five, along with Montana, Unitas, Marino and Jurgensen? He should based on a combination of his ability to win championships and his individual skills.

Instead he'll be unfairly pigeonholed into a category reserved for quarterbacks who are "winners." There, he will join Starr, Griese and Bradshaw, all leaders of dominant teams and multiyear champions who carry with them a question mark: Was their success because of their special abilities or was it more attributable to the talent surrounding them? But Aikman, a career 62.8 percent passer on a team that goes downfield a lot, is more physically talented than Starr (57.4 percent) or Griese (56.2 percent) and much more disciplined and consistent than Bradshaw (51.9 percent), who had only two more touchdown passes than interceptions in his career.

"Griese and Starr comparable," says Tom Braatz, the Dolphins director of college scouting who began his 32-year career as an NFL personnel man when Unitas was king. "Griese and Starr played smart, were very accurate, had good releases, made good decisions. Aikman does all those things, too, but his arm strength separates him from them. He has a big-league arm and throws the ball with incredible accuracy. I'm not sure anyone else with similar arm strength has ever been this accurate."

Let's put Aikman's percentage in perspective. Completing more than 60 percent once was almost a fantasy among great quarterbacks; none of the retired immortals, save for Montana (second at 63.2), ranks among the top 10 in career completion percentage. And Montana, unlike Aikman (No. 3), benefited from the short-passing emphasis of the so-called West Coast offense.

Undoubtedly, the accuracy of all recent quarterbacks has been lifted by liberalized passing rules. But because of Aikman's ability to put the ball where he wants when he wants, he would have excelled in any generation.

"You can find faults in other people, but when you look at Troy, he has none," says Jurgensen. "You see how a quarterback is supposed to play. He is quick with his setup, he throws with perfect form, he makes the difficult passes look easy he makes great decisions. It is obvious he has great football intelligence. And I am impressed with the way he carries himself. The bottom line to me is, he makes the Cowboys better because he is exceptional."

Yet even within his own era, Aikman has an identity crisis. In a preseason poll of league personnel experts, THE SPORTING NEWS asked, "Who is the best quarterback in the NFL?" Aikman finished with 38 points, far, far ahead of Steve Young (21) and Brett Favre (20). Marino (4) and Jim Kelly (1) trailed badly. And Elway was shut out. But this kind of reverence, bordering on passion, that scouts hold for Aikman is not reflected in postseason awards. In his first seven years, he was not named the NFL's most valuable player or made consensus All-Pro. At 35, Marino remains the dominant quarterback persona of this decade. And Favre is the current glamour boy even though his Packers have yet to win anything substantial.

This is a particularly timely moment to consider Aikman's career because it gives us a chance to examine his abilities under less than ideal circumstances. In a most troubled of early seasons, playing until this past game without his two favorite receivers--Jay Novacek and Michael Irvin--and with a cornerback serving as his main target, he has been asked to make the passing game effective enough to relieve pressure from Emmitt Smith's runs. Considering that the continuity of the Cowboys' pass offense, which is based on timing patterns, has been destroyed with the loss of Irvin and Novacek, it is a thoroughly frustrating assignment. Despite these problems, I am certain he will produce some of his finest moments, though his goal of another Super Bowl appearance will not be reached because of the team's glaring defensive weaknesses.