AN UNDERDOG HAS HIS DAY

By David E. Thigpen

When pigskin pundits debate how the Patriots turned their rattletrap 6-10 record last year into a first-class ticket to New Orleans this year, the name Terry Glenn usually pops up. The rookie receiver's six touchdowns and 90 regular-season catches (a rookie record) helped turn quarterback Drew Bledsoe's airborne attack into one of the deadliest in the league and led the Pats to an impressive reversal of fortune. This season the team finished 11-5, first in the A.F.C. East.

Ever since he first pulled on Patriots colors last summer, Glenn has been causing more than a few defensive backs to consider other lines of work. His hands are as sticky as a bank teller's. He has an acrobat's balance and explosive acceleration to boot, making him all but impossible to run down when he snags the ball. He also has a way of rising to an occasion: during the Pats' playoff-clinching 34-10 victory over the Jets last December he made seven catches. If all this sounds more like a mature player than a rookie, it's because Glenn has had to do a lot of growing up in his 22 years. When he was 13 and living in Columbus, Ohio, his mother Denetta was beaten to death. He had never seen his father, so for months he was passed around among aunts and uncles until the parents of a schoolmate finally took him in. He was given a curfew, a newspaper route--and a new life. "They settled me down," Glenn says. "I just wanted a home foundation." In high school he starred at football, but coaches at Ohio State told him that at 5 ft. 10 in. and 180 lbs. he was too small for the Big 10. Glenn disagreed, so he showed up at practice one day and earned a spot as a walk-on. That led to a starting position, then stardom, and in 1996 the Patriots made him their pick in the first round of the N.F.L. draft.

But things still didn't come easy. Glenn was the personal choice of Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, who had overruled the team's hard-nosed coach, Bill Parcells. (The coach wanted to use the draft choice to sign a defensive lineman.) So when Glenn strained a hamstring and sat out training camp and preseason, Parcells was asked about the prognosis for his young receiver. "She's doing O.K.," he sniped. Glenn, who has overcome plenty more than mere ankle biting, shrugged it off. "There are worse things," he said. Now on the threshold of his first Super Bowl, Glenn has even brought around Parcells, who recently compared Glenn's game to that of Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield. Lots of professional ballplayers overcome adversity, but precious few have it for lunch the way Terry Glenn has.

--By David E. Thigpen