“If [Reeves] wants to bring up dirty laundry, there’s nothing I can do about it.”MIKE SHANAHAN

MIAMI – The subplots for Super Bowl XXXIII rage with more passion than one of those juicy, acrimonious episodes of “Dallas” or “Dynasty” back in the ’80s.

We’re a week away from kickoff as we sit in anticipation today, but there are many compelling issues involving the Broncos and Falconsstill to be examined as the week of Super hype begins.

*There’s Dan Reeves’ disdain for his former assistant, Mike Shanahan, who’s now coaching Reeves’ former team against Reeves’ current team, the Falcons, for next Sunday’s Super Bowl title.

*There’s the rocky, mountainous history between Reeves and his former quarterback, John Elway.

*There’s the fact that this is certain to be the last game of Elway’s marvelous, historic 16-year NFL career.

*And there’s Reeves, barely a month and change removed from quadruple-bypass open heart surgery, trying to win his first Super Bowl as a coach.

What more could you want from the biggest event in American sport?

After an amicable beginning to the two-week Super Bowl hype period that started with Shanahan’s Broncos beating the Jets for the AFC title and Reeves’ Falcons beating the Vikings for the NFC title, all hell has broken loose, with political correctness and decorum taking a back seat to lingering anger and bitterness.

“I didn’t think he had my best interests in mind at the time,” Reeves said of Shanahan, whom he fired as his offensive coordinator in 1992. “If John Elway had a problem with me, and you’re coaching that position, why did I not know that prior to reading it in the paper?

“If you were the position coach and you’re that close to the quarterback, why didn’t I know that? Hey, this is something you ought to sit down and talk about, that this is a problem.”

In 1990, during a miserable 5-11 season, Elway, quoted in a Denver Post column written by the late Dick Connor, said he and Reeves had stopped communicating and that their relationship was “the worst.”

Reeves was reportedly so angered by the comments that he barged into Shanahan’s office and threw the newspaper at him.

Asked earlier this week about the situation, Shanahan said, “How am I supposed to know how John felt about Dan? I thought I did a great job of keeping that relationship intact for seven years. He came to me and was very upset about it. I said, ‘What are you talking to me for? John said it. Go talk to John.’

“I went down to the weight room and got John and brought him up to Dan’s office. I said, ‘John, you tell Dan why you don’t like him, and Dan, you tell John why you don’t like him. I’m tired of being in the middle of this stuff.’ So they both did.”

Reeves this week accused Shanahan of violating his confidence by telling Elway things that were said in coaches’ meetings. He also said Shanahan scripted plays behind his back during the 1991 season, and he went as far as to say that Shanahan wanted his job all along, and would have accepted it immediately after Reeves’ firing if Shanahan hadn’t been so concerned about how it would look publicly.

When Reeves’ straight-forward comments were let loose this week, Shanahan, who claimed after beating the Jets last Sunday that he and Reeves were sometimes “best friends” during their time together in Denver, was taken aback.

“I’m really surprised that this has been brought up,” Shanahan said. “I can’t believe he’s going into past scenarios. If he wants to bring up dirty laundry, there’s nothing I can do about it. I thought we both were going to take the high road going into this game.”

Shanahan denied telling Elway about any private conversations during coaches’ meetings. He also said he didn’t script plays behind Reeves’ back, which prompted Reeves to use the word “insubordination” after Shanahan’s firing in January of 1992.

Reeves said this week that he had no documented proof of any of his allegations against Shanahan.

Shanahan’s response to that: “For a guy who doesn’t have proof of something, he sure didn’t help my reputation. To not have any proof, but to say somebody is insubordinate, that’s one of the reasons why I’ve had such a tough time with this. That’s a strong word not to have any proof.”

Shanahan said he believes Reeves was intimidated by his presence.

“Dan wanted to run the offense, and he wanted complete control,” Shanahan said. “He really didn’t want somebody with my type of personality around.”

Reeves said of the mess: “I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the full situation. I don’t know that Mike will ever get over that, what it caused his wife and his children. Same thing with me. It caused a lot of pain for my wife and my children. It’s something that won’t ever go away. It’s going to be there.”

It’ll be there this week as the two teams ready themselves for what’s certain to be an emotional explosion on the Pro Player Stadium field Sunday.

All of the parties will be examined and re-examined all week until kickoff.

The funny thing is that this week began with an innocent call from Reeves to the Broncos to congratulate them. During the call, Reeves profusely congratulated Denver owner Pat Bowlen, with whom he reportedly had differences, too.

In turn, Bowlen couldn’t have been more complimentary of the remarkable job Reeves has done in Atlanta.

“I congratulated him on a great job,” Bowlen said. “I said to him, ‘I’m personally very impressed by the job you’ve done there, taking a team that wasn’t going anywhere two years ago and now you’re in the Super Bowl.’ I was sort of amused that all I kept hearing about was what a great coach [Bill] Parcells is, blah, blah, blah.

“Well, guess who’s playing in the Super Bowl after two years? With a team that was just as rotten as the Jets when he came in? Dan Reeves. And he beat a hell of a team [the Vikings] to get there. In hostile territory. In a dome. I mean, come on. That, to me, is impressive. Nobody was paying attention to what he did with the Falcons because all the attention was going to Parcells.”

Bowlen said all parties are expecting the Super Bowl onslaught, with repeated questions about why Reeves and Elway had their clashes and why Reeves fired Shanahan, etc.

“My approach to all this controversy is that we know we’re going to get it, but that’s behind us,” Bowlen said.

“There’s a lot of memories and a lot of feelings and I like to think in a lot of ways, those feelings have matured and there’s a positive spin to it rather than the negative spin that everybody will try to put on it.”

As it turned out, the parties involved didn’t need any outsiders to put a negative spin on the relationships. The cannons began firing days ago.

Now, if only the game matches up to the pre-game fireworks, it could be a classic.