Miami ? Were he not able to keep everything in proper perspective, former University of Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi might feel he’s the least welcome player at Super Bowl XLI.

“I’m the guy nobody wants to see play,” he joked this week.

Indeed, if Sorgi is on the field Sunday it means just one thing: Peyton Manning isn’t on it, and there isn’t a Colts jersey-wearing fanatic anywhere who wants to see that happen.

In case you didn’t figure it out, Sorgi has the enviable/

unenviable task of backing up the National Football League’s most prolific passer. Were it not for Brett Favre, Manning would have the most consecutive regular-season starts by a quarterback in NFL history with 144.

This season, Sorgi, the only other quarterback on the Colts’ roster, played in just one game, and that was as a substitute holder in Week 2. Not only did Manning take every snap during the Colts’ journey to the Super Bowl this season, he took every snap with the No. 1 offense during practice.

Sorgi is there, just in case.

“It’s the greatest job in the world until Peyton comes off the field and you think his thumb might be broken and there’s 8 minutes left in the AFC Championship Game, and you’re down by 3 to New England and you haven’t taken a snap all year,” Sorgi said. “Yeah, it’s a great job until that point.

“Then you’re, like, ‘Man, this could go really good or really bad.’ There’s not a lot of pressure all day, every day, but when that moment comes, if it comes, there will be a lot.”

Sorgi almost was in that position against the Patriots when Manning came off the field after banging his thumb on left tackle Tarik Glenn’s helmet and told his backup, “Be ready.” It would have been an opportunity of a lifetime for a kid who came to Wisconsin in the fall of 2000 weighing 155 pounds and left with just one full year of starting experience under his belt. But it would have been an opportunity for which hardly anyone could expect him to be prepared.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS QUARTERBACK JIM SORGI HUGS KICKER ADAM VINATIERI during Media Day at Dolphin Stadium on Tuesday in Miami. Sorgi is an unknown entity for many NFL fans who are used to seeing Peyton Manning take all the snaps behind center.

In three years as Manning’s backup, he has completed 59 of 90 passes for 619 yards and five touchdowns with one interception, good for a passer rating of 99.3. But most of his action has come in mop-up time, although last year he came in after Manning made a token appearance in the last two games with home-field advantage in the playoffs wrapped up and put up solid numbers in a loss to Seattle and a victory over Arizona.

“Jim is a very smart guy,” quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell said. “He’s a guy that can function without having to take a lot of reps. Peyton is a guy that loves to take reps, so ‘Sorg’ doesn’t get very many.

“Last year at the end of the year, he did not get a lot of practice reps, yet he was called upon to come in and play a significant amount, and played well.”