Shields isn’t doing anything all that special to commemorate his 11th trip to football’s all-star weekend in paradise. Oh, sure, he’s having a good time, enjoying the fellowship with the game’s top players. But he isn’t documenting every moment, and he’s not measuring his words when asked about the possibility of retirement.

“I’ll know in a couple of weeks, maybe by March 3. Isn’t that the first day of free-agency?” Shields said to me early Friday evening at the Pro Bowl team hotel. “It all depends on my knees and back.”

The popular thinking among the players in Honolulu is that the Chiefs, with Herm Edwards pushing the buttons, are the non-playoff team most likely to make a 2007 Super Bowl run.

“This team is going to be good regardless of whether I come back or not,” Shields said. “We’re right on the cusp of greatness. You don’t know what it’s going to take to push us over the edge. It might be one guy doing something a little different, something extra. It might be a group of guys. It might be me.”