NFL picks Johnson to replace Vick in Pro Bowl

SAN DIEGO -- The season won't end for Brad Johnson after Sunday.

Johnson was named to the NFC Pro Bowl team Thursday, replacing Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who pulled out due to a foot ailment.

Johnson called the Pro Bowl selection an honor but said the only thing he is focused on is winning the Super Bowl.

"My one goal I wrote down this year was to make the Super Bowl," Johnson said. "I didn't write about percentages. I didn't write about Pro Bowls. It was the Super Bowl. So my dream and my quest have come true. Now to finish it is to win it.

"The Pro Bowl is an honor for the team. It shows how much we improved this year and how well we played as a team and offensively."

Vick is the second NFC quarterback to pull out. The Packers' Brett Favre pulled out with a foot and ankle injury and was replaced by the Eagles' Donovan McNabb. The 49ers' Jeff Garcia will start the game Feb. 2.

It will be Johnson's second Pro Bowl appearance. He was selected in 1999 while with the Redskins.

Johnson passed for 3,049 yards with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in 13 starts this season. In two postseason games, he has passed for 455 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

"We're really happy about that," Bucs coach Jon Gruden said. "It's an honor that's well-deserved."

COACH TALK: Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin has emerged as a possible coaching candidate with the 49ers.

But the 49ers cannot contact Kiffin until after Sunday. The 49ers fired Steve Mariucci two days after a 31-6 playoff loss to the Bucs.

"Clearly, if and when that time comes, we would all endorse, do whatever we could do for Monte to get that if it was the wish of the the 49ers," Bucs general manager Rich McKay said. "The record speaks for itself. The guy has done a great job."

Kiffin's defense led the NFL in yards and points allowed. Although the Bucs have had one of the league's top defenses since Kiffin, 62, arrived in 1996, he has never been interviewed for a head coaching job.

"I think it's because so much of what we do in this business is right place, right time, self-promotion, flash, prettiness," McKay said. "All those things and none of that are important to Monte.

"Monte wants to get into the office real early, leave real late and work on X's and O's. So it's never been his agenda. And plus, the majority of Monte's success as a defensive coordinator has come in the last few years. It didn't come at the front of his career. He moved a lot to different place. (The age) doesn't work for you. It works against you. It doesn't mean it's fair, but it is reality."

COMMON DENOMINATOR: A year ago, Stan Parrish watched the Super Bowl with a keen interest in Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who he worked with for two seasons as quarterbacks coach at Michigan. Now as the Bucs quarterback coach, he has a more vested interest in the play of Johnson, who he said shares many of Brady's best qualities.

"Tom's very much a young Brad," Parrish said. "They're kind of the same wonderful person, unassuming, easy to work with, very willing to learn."

Brady, in San Diego as one of four former Super Bowl MVPs, said he's encouraged about his future in seeing the success of older, seasoned quarterbacks such as Johnson and Oakland's Rich Gannon.

He credited Parrish for most of his progress while at Michigan and said the coach's attention to detail makes his quarterbacks well-prepared when they get on the field.

"Brad gets it done, and he's been getting it done all year," Brady said. "He's had an unbelievable stretch at the end of the year. It's hard to throw touchdown passes in this league, and it's easy to throw picks. So when you can throw 15 touchdowns and only two interceptions, it's obvious he's playing great ball."

HONORS: Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber was named the NFL defensive player of the week. He had a 92-yard interception return for a touchdown to seal a 27-10 victory against Philadelphia.

Barber also had four passes defensed, a sack, forced fumble and three tackles. Oakland's Gannon and Sebastian Janikowski were named offensive and special teams players of the week, respectively.

BETTER DAY: Receiver Joe Jurevicius said his newborn son, Michael, was improving in the neonatal intensive care unit at Tampa General hospital.

"He's doing a little better. That's all we can ask for at this time; that things get progressively better," Jurevicius said. "We're prepared for the long haul, but I'm hoping in the back of my head that it will be shorter rather than longer. It's so hard to say right now."

NEW BUCS BACK?: Cowboys star Emmitt Smith, appearing with a group of former Super Bowl MVPs, lamented that when he won his MVP, he got a Buick instead of the $75,000 Cadillac XLR Sunday's winner will take home.

"Maybe if the Cowboys had released me a month ago, I'd be here with the Bucs or someone like that," Smith said.

Asked if he would be interested in joining the Bucs next season should he be released, he said he would consider all of his options.

"If Gruden wants me to come down to Tampa Bay, I'd definitely look into that opportunity," Smith said.

And as for his allegiance Sunday?

"I'm pulling for Tampa Bay because of Derrick Brooks, who's from Pensacola like me," Smith said. "It'd be nice to see a hometown guy win a Super Bowl."

WHO'S THE MAN?: Two days before the game, one Buc could earn one of the NFL's highest honors. The Walter Payton Man of the Year award is announced today as part of commissioner Paul Tagliabue's annual state-of-the-NFL news conference.

Safety John Lynch is one of 32 finalists, and playing in his hometown, he has a chance to become the Bucs' second winner of the award. Brooks won in 2000.

The John Lynch Foundation honors Tampa area students with scholarships and an annual awards banquet, and if he wins, the NFL will donate $25,000 to his charity. Each finalist receives $1,000 for a charity of their choice.

Two former Bucs are among the finalists, Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer and Rams linebacker Don Davis. Smith also is a finalist.

IN REMEMBRANCE: The fraternity of people who have attended every Super Bowl lost a member last week when longtime Boston Globe writer Will McDonough died. The Professional Football Writers of America will honor McDonough on Sunday by leaving a chair empty in the press box. He also will be remembered with a moment of silence before the game.

McDonough's death leaves 15 people who have attended every Super Bowl. Five are writers: Jerry Green of the Detroit News, Edwin Pope of the Miami Herald, Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star-Ledger, former Star-Ledger writer Dave Klein and Bob Oates of the Los Angeles Times. They are joined by five photographers, three from NFL Films, former NFL public relations director Don Weiss and current Packers public relations director Lee Remmel.

"The commissioner holds a special reception every five years for the survivors," said Remmel, noting the last one was Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa. "(McDonough) was a fixture, and a presence, every year."

NO COMPLAINTS HERE: Rob stands No. 2 in Tampa Bay's Johnson & Johnson pecking order at quarterback, so he probably won't play Sunday unless Brad is injured or ineffective.

That's okay by him.

"It's a situation I picked out," Rob said of joining the Bucs this season, even though Brad beat him out for the starting job in training camp. "I wanted to learn a lot of football from Jon Gruden.

"I wouldn't change a thing. I could have gone to other places, I could have gone back to Buffalo. I'm glad to be here.

"The older you get, the more you realize how few opportunities you get."

Regarding Brad, Rob said: "He's been a very good quarterback in this league and nobody gives him credit."

PULL OVER, PARTNER: Warren Sapp describes Brooks as the highway patrolman because of the way he patrols the field. So what does that make Sapp?

"I'm the bully who runs you off the road with an 18-wheeler," he said.

BUCS BITS: Receiver Keyshawn Johnson is writing a daily diary for ESPN.com. It started Wednesday and continues through a postgame reflection for Monday ... Awkward silence of the week award goes to Sapp, who was asked by a reporter what it's really like to spend time with Keyshawn Johnson. Sapp's response? "I don't know." ... Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka, one of the undefeated '72 Dolphins who will preside over Sunday's coin flip: "We're having a press conference and two practices ... for a coin flip. My how things have changed."