PRO FOOTBALL / BILL PLASCHKE : Bledsoe, Mirer to Get Their Shots and Take Their Lumps

One kid squirmed in a chair while the sides of his head were shaved by veterans.

The other kid walked out to the field and noticed that his number, 3, had been partially torn off his jersey. The numeral now resembled a demented smile.

One kid gets free publicity from his coach during every practice break. “Bledsoe!” Bill Parcells shouts. “Bring me my Gatorade!”

The other kid would feel fortunate if teammates would call him by his proper name.

Rick Mirer is known to most of the Seattle Seahawks as “Woody.” The moniker is even taped above his locker.

With his blond hair and Indiana roots, he reminds them of the bartender on “Cheers.”

“I’m going through a, uh, pretty big transition,” Mirer said earlier this week.

Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots, the guy with the bad haircut, has trouble even admitting to that much.

“(Parcells) rode me pretty hard the last time I said I was making progress,” he said.

They are two kids trying to grow up around adults, two rich rookies in a sport that accepts those words as easily as knee and injury.

Bledsoe, 21, and Mirer, 23, have something else in common.

Come Sept. 5, they will be starting quarterbacks.

And then the fun will really begin.

“There is so much to handle, rookie quarterbacks move in slow motion,” said Steve DeBerg, Tampa Bay’s veteran. “They get up under center and they are saying, ‘OK, do I have the right audible, are we in the right formation, do I know the snap count?’

“Then they look at the defense and step back and say, ‘What is that formation.?’ ”

DeBerg, the league’s oldest player at 39, knows that rookie quarterbacks like somewhat different music. He not only played with John Elway, Vinny Testaverde and Steve Young when they were rookies, he was even with the San Francisco 49ers during Joe Montana’s rookie year.

DeBerg will never forget Elway’s 1983 debut with the Denver Broncos against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“They came out with all different kinds of blitzes and stunts and formations; they threw everything at him,” he said of the Steelers. “Some of that stuff, a veteran quarterback would say, ‘What is this?’ ”

Elway was one for eight for 14 yards with one interception and no touchdown passes. And such messiness has happened before.

Statistics show that Elway’s experiences during his rookie season--seven touchdown passes, 14 interceptions, 54.9 quarterback rating--are not unusual.

When last season’s top 10 passers were in their first year during which they threw at least 50 passes, their average rating was 65.9. They combined to throw more interceptions, 104, than touchdowns, 102.

That includes three players--Warren Moon, Bobby Hebert and Jim Kelly--who should have known better because of previous experience in the USFL or Canadian Football League.

“There is no way around it,” DeBerg said. “This league is so difficult to learn, a first-year quarterback is really going to get it.

“The big question is, do you let him learn from his mistakes, or do you let him watch a veteran for a while?”

The answer from the Patriots and Seahawks, who selected their quarterbacks 1-2 in the draft last spring because they had the worst records in the league, is simple.

They don’t have a choice.

After Bledsoe completed 19 of 29 passes for 245 yards with two touchdowns in a full game against Green Bay last week, Parcells was sold.

Either that, or use Scott Secules.

Mirer impressed the Seahawks with the way he has handled the distractions of his controversial contract while giving the team a sorely needed leader in the huddle. He threw his first touchdown pass while leading them to a 30-0 victory over the 49ers last week.

It was either him, or Stan Gelbaugh.

“I think I have an advantage because of where I’ve been,” said Mirer, from Notre Dame. “There was a lot of pressure there. A lot of media.

“It has gotten so I don’t let a whole lot affect what I do. I know I’ll make a lot of mistakes. But I know how to be patient.”

And quick on his feet.

Last week he was giving an interview about his yet-unapproved contract, which includes a clause that guarantees payment even if the world ends. Jeff Graham, a teammate, interrupted.

“You’re in the space shuttle, you’re in orbit, the world ends, what happens then?” Graham said.

Responded Mirer: “I get to keep the shuttle.”

*

The Off-Season Hustle award goes to Erik Widmark, director of pro personnel for the Phoenix Cardinals.

Besides calling numerous players after midnight on the first day of the free-agency sweepstakes in March, he actually followed two potential signees to a celebrity golf tournament in Austin, Tex.

Once there, he walked along the course, watching them from the gallery. After the tournament, he “bumped” into them in the pro shop. Soon thereafter, he closed the deals.

Life for quarterback Steve Beuerlein and safety Chuck Cecil, and perhaps the Cardinals, will never be the same.

*

Enough with the mail and nasty phone calls, pleads Bob Harlan. The Green Bay Packers are not going to substantially change their uniforms.

“I don’t know where everybody got that idea,” said Harlan, the Packer president. “We are looking at changing the style and color, but nothing significant.”

Harlan, who has received permission from the league to explore changes, promised that they are not changing to blue--”Although we originally wore blue, so that wouldn’t be so out of line,” he said. “But no, we’ll still be green, and the G is staying (on the helmets).”

The major difference will be in the gold, which has never really been gold but mustard yellow.

“We’re just going to be more gold,” he said.

It should be no surprise that one advocate for the change has been Coach Mike Holmgren, who got used to true gold while working for the 49ers.

*

The San Diego Chargers can only hope they get off to as quick a start as their general manager did.

Bobby Beathard quietly pulled a fast one on the rest of the league last week when he dropped the “franchise” designation from defensive end Leslie O’Neal, then signed him three days later to a three-year contract worth $9 million.

Sure, O’Neal could have signed anywhere in the league during those three days. But by then, most payrolls already exceeded what will be probably be allowed under next year’s salary cap.

If O’Neal had been an unrestricted free agent all summer, he might have gotten a bit richer and left town. But by last week, it was too late.

“I thought a lot of teams had spent themselves out,” Beathard said. “But I did go to bed thinking about it for a few nights.”

With a franchise designation now available, the Chargers have leverage in renegotiations with Junior Seau, whose contract ends after the 1994 season.

If Seau does not sign a long-term deal before then, he risks becoming a franchise player and losing money and freedom.

*

Quick kicks: Bill Cowher, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has moved his team’s bench to the sunny side of Three Rivers Stadium. He is hoping that opponents, particularly the visiting Houston Oilers on Dec. 19, will freeze on the other side. . . . Brad Baxter, running back for the New York Jets, keeps a 40-pound, eight-foot python in his Mercedes convertible. “My car comes with an alarm,” he said. “But this is something extra.”

Muscle and Fitness magazine picks an All-NFL strength team in its October issue. More intriguing, however, was its all-lumpy-body team, which includes Brent Jones of the San Francisco 49ers, Nate Newton of the Dallas Cowboys, David Richards of the Detroit Lions, Jerry Ball of the Cleveland Browns, and all-time captain Craig (Ironhead) Heyward of the Chicago Bears. Check out the Bears on CBS this year. Ironhead, at 5 feet 11 and 285 pounds, looks like a giant olive resting on two toothpicks.

Free agency wasn’t great for everybody. Quarterback Kelly Stouffer, the sixth overall pick of the 1987 draft who started six games for the Seattle Seahawks last season, including their opener, is still out of work. Maybe his 47.7 rating in those six games has something to do with it. . . . By releasing defensive end Keith McCants, their top pick in the 1990 draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are keeping a sorry tradition alive. They have had only one solid first-round pick in the last decade. That list includes such stars as defensive end Ron Holmes, defensive back Rod Jones, and quarterback Vinny Testaverde. Bo Jackson, their top pick in 1986, refused to wear their uniform. Their only truly good pick in the last decade, tackle Paul Gruber, is holding out for a trade.

What part of unprofessional don’t you understand: After ending his holdout by losing a contract battle with the Chargers, Ronnie Harmon refused to speak to reporters, waving them off by saying, “What part of no don’t you understand?” Those same reporters gave him so much good publicity last season that his third-down heroics sent him to the Pro Bowl. . . . David Klingler, quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals: “When we get in a game, I don’t know whether it’s being not used to playing people in other colored jerseys or what, but we get the yips.”

Rookie Quarterbacks

A look at how the top 10 quarterbacks from last season fared in their first season with 50 or more passing attempts:

Name, Team (Year) Att. Comp. Pct. TD Int. Steve Young, Tampa Bay (1985)* 138 72 54.8 11 7 Chris Miller, Atlanta (1987) 92 39 42.4 1 9 Troy Aikman, Dallas (1989) 293 155 52.9 9 18 Warren Moon, Houston (1984)** 450 259 57.6 12 14 Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia (1985) 81 34 29.8 1 8 Brett Favre, Green Bay (1992) 471 302 64.1 18 13 Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins (1983) 296 173 58.4 20 6 Neil O’Donnell, Pittsburgh (1991) 286 156 54.5 11 7 Bobby Hebert, New Orleans (1985)*** 181 97 53.6 5 4 Jim Kelly, Buffalo (1986)**** 480 285 59.4 22 17

Name, Team (Year) Yds. Rating Steve Young, Tampa Bay (1985)* 935 52.2 Chris Miller, Atlanta (1987) 424 26.4 Troy Aikman, Dallas (1989) 1749 55.7 Warren Moon, Houston (1984)** 3338 76.9 Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia (1985) 548 29.8 Brett Favre, Green Bay (1992) 3227 85.3 Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins (1983) 2210 96 Neil O’Donnell, Pittsburgh (1991) 1963 78.8 Bobby Hebert, New Orleans (1985)*** 1208 74.6 Jim Kelly, Buffalo (1986)**** 3593 83.3

*Young played two years in USFL

**Moon played six years in Canadian Football League

***Hebert played three years in USFL

****Kelly played two years in USFL