STILL ROARING : Lions’ Quarterback Joe Ferguson Is a Throwback to Another Era

Joe Ferguson is a throwback to another era when football was played for something more than money.

Ferguson, 36, is in his 14th season. He’ll be 37 before he starts his 15th campaign, but he still has things he wants to do in this increasingly rough sport. Things young quarterbacks, with their briefcases and stock portfolios, might not understand.

“Money doesn’t have that much to do with it,” Ferguson said, gently rubbing a red gash across the bridge of his nose, a Thanksgiving Day gift from the Green Bay Packers. “I enjoy it. I enjoy the fact that I’m still able to do it.

“This is my 14th year. If I’m lucky enough to get another one that would be 15. That would be a good round number to really think hard about it and maybe get out. But not now.”

Ferguson, who has never been to the Super Bowl, labored his first 12 years in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills. The past two seasons, he’s been a backup for the Detroit Lions. It’s not a role he cherishes, but he’s not complaining about it, either.

“A couple of years ago, at Buffalo, I kind of knew that sooner or later it was going to happen, that I wasn’t going to be playing, so I kind of mentally got myself ready for it,” Ferguson said. “I figured if it did happen, I wasn’t going to stand in the corner and pout, because it happens.”

With the Lions, Ferguson played well enough in 1985 and ’86 preseason exhibition games to be considered for the starting job, but on each occasion Coach Darryl Rogers played a younger Eric Hipple.

Both seasons, however, Hipple has been injured and Ferguson has filled in admirably.

Ferguson, who is likely to start his fourth straight game Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, has thrown six touchdown passes and the Lions have won two of the three games he’s started. In the only defeat, to the Packers, Ferguson produced 40 points but his receivers dropped two passes in the end zone and the Lions’ special teams allowed a last-minute punt return for the winning score.

“Age doesn’t mean you can’t play,” said Lions’ wide receiver Leonard Thompson, himself an NFL veteran at 34. “The bottom line is winning. Joe’s credentials speak for themselves. He played with O.J. Simpson.

“Joe and I both play football for the love of the game. The chance to go one-on-one is hard to explain. You have to be a very competitive person by nature. Joe certainly is.”

Ferguson, one of the highest paid Lions, has become almost a playing coach for the Detroit, even coaching the coach at times.

“There were some aspects of the NFL that were foreign to me,” said Rogers, who came to the Lions last season after a 10-year collegiate coaching career. Having Joe around was a big plus. He brought veteran stability, experience and quite a bit of ability to this team.”

Ferguson has some goals left that are going to be hard to reach unless he receives more playing time, and with Iowa All-American Chuck Long waiting for his shot at quarterback, that could be a problem.

Ferguson, who has passed for 28,648 yards, wants to surpass 30,000 yards before he retires.

“If you look through the top quarterbacks, not many of them have 30,000,” Ferguson said. “I just kind of set that as a number. I figure if I get that high, my name will be there for a while.