Indianapolis Colt vice president Bill Tobin ushered a visitor

into a room adjacent to his office last week. "Look at this," he

said, pointing to a four-foot-high chart on the far wall. "This

is what this National Football League thinks of us." The chart

was headlined 1995 NATIONAL EXPOSURE, and it listed each NFL

team's 1994 record and its national-TV game schedule for 1995,

including preseason appearances.

The Colts, 8-8 a year ago, had one nationally televised game

this season (Dec. 23 against the New England Patriots). The 7-9

Denver Broncos had six, the 7-9 Buffalo Bills six, the 8-8

Arizona Cardinals five. "Nobody wants us but us," said the

jut-jawed Tobin, who rails at slights such as this one but

hasn't let them get in the way of building his

little-engine-that-could team.

That team reached the NFL's Final Four on Sunday with an ugly

but stunning 10-7 defeat of the Kansas City Chiefs, and one of

the happiest guys in a Colt locker room filled with people

saying, "I told you so," was Tobin. "We haven't played a bad

football game all year," he said. "And games like this--hard,

physical, not dirty, not Raider-style--are what made this league

what it is today. It doesn't have to be 41-37 to be a great game."

The Indy defense, prepared brilliantly by Tobin's brother,

Vince, forced four Chief turnovers, a season high by Kansas

City. The Colt running game, led by unlikely hero Lamont Warren,

produced 147 yards and controlled the clock, which is rarely

done against K.C. Indianapolis quarterback Jim Harbaugh? Well,

he's simply one of the best stories in football this year.

The Chiefs had been an equally good tale until they ruined the

ending on Sunday. They had amassed the league's best record

(13-3) by winning the turnover war and by playing stifling

defense. Then quarterback Steve Bono threw three second-half

interceptions, and Kansas City's sturdy defense gave up the only

long touchdown drive that mattered this year. The fact that Lin

Elliott of K.C. missed three field goal attempts certainly

played a critical role in the loss. "Way to screw up a great

opportunity!" one incensed Chief said to his teammates while

walking off the field.

The loss will surely cause a new round of bashing of Kansas City

coach Marty Schottenheimer, though he didn't throw Bono's

knucklers or misdirect Elliott's kicks. This is Schottenheimer's

11th full season as a head coach, the first four of which he

spent running the Cleveland Browns. In 10 of those seasons he

has advanced to the playoffs, a remarkable achievement. But his

record in the playoffs is now 5-9. "People ask me if it bothers

me," he said before the game. "It bothers me we haven't won a

world championship. But this talk about me doesn't bother me."

Schottenheimer was reminded that pro football is a cold,

bottom-line business with fickle fans who pass judgment quickly

and harshly. "So be it," he said, and the shrug could be heard

in his voice. "I think people will look at me in 10 years and

say, 'The guy was a pretty good football coach.'"

This week the world will be talking about Harbaugh and the

no-name Colts. Warren (20 carries, 76 yards) subbed capably for

Marshall Faulk, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left

knee on Jan. 5 but may return for the AFC Championship Game at

Pittsburgh on Sunday. Faulk should take his time. The Colts have

rushed for 309 yards in two games since he reaggravated a knee

cartilage injury on the first carry of the wild-card victory in

San Diego.

Good story, this Warren. He entered the 1994 NFL draft rather

than return for his senior year at Colorado to back up Rashaan

Salaam, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy, and the Colts

took a sixth-round flier on him. "I know it sounds silly,"

Warren says, "but I thought I'd have a better chance to play in

the NFL than to play at Colorado."

Harbaugh didn't think he would be playing much of anything but

clipboard-holder this year after coach Ted Marchibroda picked

former Tampa Bay Buc quarterback Craig Erickson to start for the

Colts in the off-season. Tobin, who wanted an open competition

for the job, told Marchibroda, "I hope you're right, because

your job's riding on it." In September, two mediocre starts into

his Indianapolis career, Erickson was out--and Harbaugh was in.

The rest is serendipitous history. Harbaugh, who edged Green Bay

Packer quarterback Brett Favre to win the NFL's passing

championship, is about as unlikely a hero as the league has ever

produced. Dumped by the Chicago Bears in early 1994 and unwanted

by most teams even as a backup, he landed with the Colts because

the man who drafted him in Chicago, Bill Tobin, thought he was

still a mobile and efficient player. What followed his insertion

into the lineup as a starter this fall was a 17-touchdown,

five-interception season, capped by a Week 17 victory over the

Patriots that put the Colts in the playoffs for the first time

since the 1987 season.

Harbaugh is not the only surprise in Indy. Two years ago the

Colts were last in the NFL in team defense. Then Tobin brought

in brother Vince, who had last worked in the league in 1992, as

Mike Ditka's defensive coordinator with the Bears. Vince has

built the league's fifth-stingiest scoring defense. On Sunday,

Indianapolis was helped by Kansas City's abandonment of the run.

"They put the ball in Bono's hands," said Colt defensive end

Tony Bennett after Indianapolis's win, "and we knew coming in

that if the game came down to him throwing it, we had a great

chance."

That chance was enhanced by an 18-play, 77-yard drive that

Harbaugh engineered with howling Kansas City fans drowning out

the signals he called. "We were just winging it out there,

flying by the seat of our pants," Harbaugh said afterward.

"Forrest Gump should be as fortunate as Jim Harbaugh," says K.C.

tackle Will Wolford. "Harbaugh has been magic this year." It's

about time Harbaugh's luck turned. The week he got waived by the

Bears, he also broke up with his girlfriend and learned that his

month-old golden retriever had only a 10% chance of surviving an

intestinal disease. He said he felt as if he were living the

lyrics of a country-music song. The job, the girl and the dog

...and then came Mel Kiper.

After the Colts signed Harbaugh in April 1994, Harbaugh's

spirits improved a bit. He remembers watching the NFL draft: "We

get Marshall Faulk, and I say to the TV, 'Great pick!' And then

we trade up, and we take Trev Alberts, and I say, 'Wow! What a

great draft we're having.' Then ESPN puts on draft analyst Mel

Kiper, and he rips us and rips me. He says, 'The Colts can't win

with Jim Harbaugh. They should have taken Trent Dilfer.'"

Country-music song update: "My career's reborn in Indianapolis,"

Harbaugh says. "I rekindled with my girlfriend, and we're

getting married; we might do it at the Pro Bowl next month. And

my dog, Wrigley, made a miraculous recovery. So everything

turned out great."

Fiancee Miah Burke is even trying to turn the snuff-dipping

Harbaugh into a man of letters. She gave him a copy of Hamlet

for Christmas. "There's a line in there, 'To thine own self be

true,'" he says. "For a long time I'd watch Joe Montana on tape

and think, That's who I want to be like. I'd think I was going

to be Montana and end up in the Hall of Fame. Then I'd watch

myself on tape and realize I looked nothing like Joe. I don't

have the arm of Troy Aikman. Heck, I don't have the arm of [Colt

third-stringer] Paul Justin or the ability to read defenses the

way Craig Erickson does. I'm an ugly player. But at least now I

know what I am."

Right. It's the middle of January, and Harbaugh's one of four

quarterbacks left standing. Nothing ugly about that.

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN IACONO The Colt D, which held the Chiefs to 129 yards rushing, is no longer a joke, as Marcus Allen learned. [Indianapolis Colts tackling Marcus Allen]