Ron Kantowski explains why Mike Metzger is doing back flips as he prepares for Thursday’s assault on Caesars

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

Unsuccesful

Unsuccessful

Successful

???

Injuries, if any, to be determined

When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday

Tickets: Free.

TV: Live on ESPN

Call it the $64,000 question, or whatever they go for these days.

"What's the worst that could happen?" I asked Mike Metzger, the X Games freestyle motocross legend who will become the fourth man to attempt to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace late Thursday afternoon -- and the first to attempt a back flip while doing it.

"The worst that could happen is that I could lose my life," said Metzger matter-of-factly. "But I'm married with a beautiful wife (Mandi) and two beautiful kids (Michaela and Myrie), and I believe in Jesus Christ."

In other words, Metzger doesn't have a death wish. Unless you count wanting to cheat it.

So far, all three men who have preceded him in this act of bravado and lunacy have managed to accomplish that. But two just barely.

So why is he doing this?

Is it the money?

Metzger won't say how much he is getting or who is signing the check, although ESPN, which has built a live one-hour show around the jump, is almost certainly involved.

He did give a reason for what possessed him to take a flying leap, and it has nothing to do with money.

"I'm just stoked to be the guy who has the first chance to go out and do this," Metzger said. "I look at this as a chance to step up the sport of freestyle motocross."

And to add his name to those who have gone before him.

The first, of course, was the daredevil's daredevil. Or at least his Evel twin.

On Jan. 1, 1968 , Evel Knievel, in town to watch Dick Tiger fight for the middleweight title, figured that, what the heck, while he was here he might as well try to jump the fountains at Caesars. Maybe "Wide World of Sports" would purchase the video rights in case there wasn't a barrel-jumping contest or demolition derby on tap.

Knievel came up a few feet short, striking the landing ramp at an acute angle that ripped the handlebars out of his hands and launched him into the Dunes parking lot. He crushed his pelvis, broke his hip, wrist and both ankles and suffered a concussion that kept him in a coma for 30 days .

ABC bought the video.

It was 13 years before somebody was brave/foolish enough to toss three more coins - and additional body parts - into the fountains. On Sept. 15, 1980, Gary Wells attempted to go where no man had gone before and instead wound up going to the same place Knievel had. He was hospitalized with fractures of the pelvis, thigh and lower leg. And a ruptured aorta, which is never good.

Finally, on April 14, 1989, Robbie Knievel, Evel's son, showed that with a motorcycle between your legs and a rabbit's foot in your pocket, anything is possible. He topped his famous old man by becoming the first to clear the fountains and land safely on the other side.

So while it is evident that not every man can jump the fountains at Caesars Palace, one man did. Which explains why Metzger will add a degree of difficulty to his jump that would make even a French figure skating judge blush.

He plans to do a back flip right smack in the middle of it.

His attempt is being called "The Impossible Jump," not because it is (Metzger has been practicing it successfully in a foam rubber pit in the back yard of his home near Menifee, Calif.) but because it is being billed as a companion event to the release of "Mission: Impossible III," the movie that will be appearing at a theater near you starting Friday.

Forget about having a baby with Katie Holmes. If Tom Cruise really wanted to impress somebody, he'd just climb on the back of Metzger's bike.

"I had been doing back flips and some other big things (in competition) ... when ESPN put it straight to me: Could anybody do this?" Metzger said about the process that brought him to the brinks of fame and disaster.

It was the same place that Knievel stood nearly 40 years ago.

Metzger, 30, wasn't even born when Knievel nearly became Caesars salad. But you could hear the pride in his voice when he recounted a telephone conversation he had with the living (somehow) legend.

"It was April 20," Metzger said, marking the date in the manner that most X Games types do upon meeting him. "It filled me with a lot of wisdom, knowing what he's been through."

In researching this column, I came across an old publicity shot of Knievel and one of Metzger in which they are posed at virtually an identical angle, looking back over their left shoulder. But that's where the similarity ends.

The scariest thing about Knievel's picture is the square footage of his collar. Metzger, with his array of tattoos and a sneer that would frighten Billy Idol, looks like he just came from the mosh pit at an Iron Maiden concert.

Which is just one more reason you can't judge a book by its cover.

The soft-spoken Metzger called me by name and asked me questions after he was through answering mine. I was surprised to learn that he likes to paint. While his appearance is not unusual in a sport for and about free spirits, when he wondered why corporate America hasn't embraced him, he came across as thoughtful and sincere, not rebellious.

"Do you think it's the tattoos?" he said.

"Yeah, Mike," I told him, being sincere in return. "It's probably the tattoos."

Metzger has so many tattoos that he has run out of real estate on which to put them. So he had the word "PAIN" tattooed on the inside of his mouth.

He has broken his back three times, his kneecap once and his wrists and legs too many times to count. You know that expression about giving your left ... for something you love? Well, Metzger did last year, when he landed wrong on a jump.

The goal, of course, is to jump the fountains without breaking any more body parts (vital or otherwise), to bring his sport some additional publicity and to shake some hands and sign some autographs at the big supercross race at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday.

"It should be a really big weekend for supercross, and freestyle is an extension of that," he said.

"I just hope I'm around to be part of it."

Injuries, if any, to be determined.