Even at 1-11, He Looks Like a Million : Cowboys: Physically and mentally, Troy Aikman has been just about everything the NFL’s No. 1 draft choice should be.

Troy Aikman doesn’t feel like a rookie. Sure, he has played in only seven NFL games, but he just doesn’t feel like a rookie.

Understand, the Cowboys’ $11-million Wunderkind quarterback from UCLA has been memorizing the playbook and visualizing opposing defenses since April. He has been knocked out of a game with a concussion and knocked out of a month with a broken finger.

He has had the best passing day for a rookie in the history of the league. And he has had some of the worst. During his first four games, his quarterback rating threatened to dip below his age--he just turned 23.

Then he was out five weeks, came back and passed for 638 yards in the next two games, a better two-week total than the ones compiled by Dan Marino (614), Boomer Esiason (608), Jim Everett (600) and Joe Montana (595).

He has heard boos at Texas Stadium and rave reviews by opposing coaches and television commentators.

And the Philadelphia Eagles supposedly put a $500 bounty on his head.

Certainly, all this didn’t happen in the first dozen weeks of his first NFL season? Heck, lots of guys go through whole careers without ever having to worry about bounty hunters.

“It has been a long season so far,” Aikman said, sounding a bit weary. “I don’t know how a rookie is supposed to feel, but I don’t feel like I don’t have any idea what’s going on. I really feel pretty good and I think that stems back to getting in here in April for quarterback school.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I feel like a seasoned veteran and know everything teams are trying to do, because that’s not the truth. But I feel good out there for the most part and I don’t want anyone around me to sense that I’m a rookie. I don’t want to be a liability.”

Liability? The Cowboys made him a multimillionaire because of his assets.

Aikman is sort of the quintessential quarterback of the 1990s. A regular Stepford Quarterback.

He’s just the right size at 6-foot-4 and 216 pounds. He’s quick and can run like a fullback if he has to. He has an efficient release and a strong, accurate arm. He even has a sturdy jaw.

In his first two games after returning from the injury that sidelined him for five weeks, Aikman passed for 379 yards--an NFL rookie record--against Phoenix, and the next week ran for 71 yards to lead the team in rushing against Miami.

And then there’s the mental part of the game. This is where Aikman really excels.

“He has shown signs that he’s going to be an excellent quarterback because not only does he have the physical talent, he has the mental talent as well,” Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson said.

“He has been able to zip in as a rookie and really get a grasp of a complicated offense. He has been able to read defenses, and most of the time he has performed extremely well. I do believe he’s ahead of most quarterbacks coming into this league at this stage.”

It has been a crash course, to be sure, but Aikman already has gone headlong into life in the NFL and come up smiling. He has it all and he has seen it all.

But there is something missing that has kept this season from being the stuff of dreams.

Dallas is 1-11.

And Steve Walsh, the Cowboys’ other rookie quarterback, led the team to the lone victory while Aikman was sidelined with the broken finger.

“Under the circumstances, (with the team) having only won one game, I’m probably enjoying it as much as I can,” Aikman said. “But it’s tough to stay mentally up when you’re having the season we’re having.”

Long before Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer decided to stick with Jamelle Holieway--after Aikman had broken his leg--and called UCLA’s Terry Donahue, saying, “Have I got a quarterback for you,” people were predicting big things for Aikman.

And if you believe half of the glowing praise you hear these days, it looks as though Aikman was a steal at a mere $1.86 million a year.

Hall of Fame quarterback/television analyst Joe Namath describes him with phrases like “one-of-a-kind package” and “a more accurate passer than (Denver’s John) Elway.”

One defensive lineman described Aikman as “tougher’n hell.” His teammates fairly gush.

Aikman doesn’t resort to the quarterback slide, which no doubt sends waves of fear through Johnson every time his quarterback collides head-on with a linebacker.

But no one questions Aikman’s ability to tuck away the football, lower his head and get the job done. On third and fourth downs, he has run for enough yardage to pick up a first down on eight of nine attempts.

Guts and testimonials alone won’t get you into the Hall of Fame, however. So Aikman had better work on his statistics. He has completed just 90 of 179 passes for 1,209 yards and has thrown 12 interceptions while passing for only four touchdowns.

Sure, the Cowboys are young and struggling, but 12 interceptions in seven games? There must be a little rookie in Aikman after all.

“You get so many different looks in the pros as opposed to college,” he said, “and the level of talent is so much better. Therefore, the margin of error for a quarterback to throw the football is that much less.

“The five games I missed, I hated to miss the ballgames, but I think it helped me in the long run. I was able to learn in a relaxed position.”

It’s not easy to relax when you’re the first rookie quarterback to start a season opener for the Cowboys since Roger Staubach in 1969. Aikman was born in Cerritos and moved to Henryetta, Okla., at the age of 12. He says he would much rather live in Dallas than in Los Angeles, but he’s quickly learning that a Cowboy quarterback--even one in boots and a cowboy hat--can’t just blend into the crowd in this part of the country.

“There are times when it’s really fun and exciting and other times when you don’t want to have any part of it, you just want to get away,” he said. “If I have a choice, I’ll stay in the house.

“I haven’t felt any more pressure here than I did at UCLA. . . . I’ll never live up to everyone’s expectations, anyway, so I just do the best job I can.”

The competition between rookies Aikman and Walsh for the starting job, chronicled in a preseason Sports Illustrated story titled, “Duel in the Sun,” wasn’t much of a shootout. It was over long before the first game of the season.

Johnson assured everyone that both quarterbacks would get an equal chance. But not all quarterbacks are created equal. Aikman was just excited about getting to play.

“Both Steve and I looked at this year as a chance to play, which neither of us might have gotten had we gone to a team with an established veteran,” Aikman said. “But I feel, and so does Steve, that more than likely, one of us will be dealt at the end of the season.

“I’d love to stay in Dallas, but I’m not concerned about my career in the NFL. I feel like I’ll do well wherever I go. I’ve got other things on my mind than trying to figure out what management will do.”

There’s no big secret what management will do. Just ask Johnson about the Cowboys’ future.

“I do believe we’ve made some progress,” he said. “I do believe that with the draft picks we have and with a young group and a quarterback like Troy Aikman, the Cowboys will have a very good future.”

Somehow, Aikman has managed to remain convincingly humble through all this. He is still the same polite, Clark Kent type, who acts super only when he’s in uniform.

And veteran quarterback Babe Laufenberg, the Cowboys’ backup who has relayed a lot of signals but hasn’t thrown a pass this season, does his best to help keep Aikman on an even keel.

Aikman might be in the spotlight on Sunday, but he has other, decidedly less glamorous duties the rest of the week.

Not long ago, Laufenberg located his favorite delivery service, told him, “Turkey, with Muenster cheese,” handed him a five-dollar bill and sent Troy Aikman, the world’s best-paid errand boy, on a sandwich run.

“See there, he’s still just a rookie,” Laufenberg told bystanders.

OK, so maybe sometimes he does feel like a rookie.