PRO FOOTBALL / BILL PLASCHKE : It’s an Old Story, but Will It End?

Before starting a discussion on the virtues of 37-year-old linebackers, we have one question for Cleveland’s Clay Matthews.

What on earth do you call that hip-gyrating, belly-shaking thing you performed on national television after intercepting a pass by Steve Young Monday night?

“That was my tribute to Elvis,” Matthews said.

Elvis?

“You gotta understand,” Matthews said. “He was still singing when I was a rookie.”

Matthews, whose 16 NFL seasons with the Browns are the most by a linebacker in NFL history, is only one of many old-timers kicking up their heels this season:

--John Elway, 33, and Boomer Esiason, 32, are the NFL’s top-rated passers. Joe Montana, 37, was first after the first week.

--Phil Simms, 37, is the third-ranked passer in the NFC. His New York Giant teammate, Lawrence Taylor, 34, is their most inspirational defensive player again.

--Jackie Slater, the oldest tackle in the league at 39, helped the Rams to a surprising victory last weekend by kicking Steeler linebacker Kevin Greene to San Diego County and back.

--Dennis Smith, 34, and Karl Mecklenburg, 33, have been the Denver Broncos’ two best defensive players. Mecklenburg already has one more fumble recovery, one, than in the last two years combined.

--Morten Andersen, 33, leads the NFL in scoring.

And all this in a game with an average career span of less than four years?

“I would think it’s great, but, well, I consider all of those guys to be young ,” said Matthews, a former USC star who has eight tackles in two games and will lead the Browns into the Coliseum against the Raiders this weekend. “I just know that when you get to this age, hitting gets old, so you are playing for the fun of it. And that shows.”

The leading theory, however, is that the veteran surge is money related.

With the new collective bargaining agreement, there is more money available, but, with a salary cap probably coming next season, it will go to fewer players. Older veterans have never before had such incentive.

If they excel, they could be rewarded beyond their dreams. If they don’t, they will be released. It is that simple.

“There is renewed enthusiasm on the part of these older guys to hang on as long as they can, to get a piece of this new money,” said Erik Widmark, director of pro personnel for the Phoenix Cardinals.

Said Matthews, who has played in a Brown-record 218 games: “All we’ve been reading is that with the salary cap coming, all of us older guys are gone. Everybody is doing everything they can to prevent it.”

HALEY’S COMET

The man who ultimately ended Emmitt Smith’s salary dispute was not an owner or an agent or even Smith.

It was Charles Haley, the Dallas defensive end. With one swing of his helmet, he scared Cowboy owner Jerry Jones into flying to Atlanta himself with a new contract.

The incident occurred in the Cowboys’ locker room just after the loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. According to teammates, Haley smashed a hole in the wall with his helmet while shouting, “We can’t win with this . . . rookie.”

The rookie was Derrick Lassic, who was replacing Smith.

Thanks to a foot-wide indentation in the white plaster, a sight that was shown on Dallas television the next day, Jones finally had tangible proof that the Smith affair was tearing the team apart.

“Either they sign Emmitt now or they should let him go somewhere else now,” Haley said at the time. “We just all wish they would do something now.”

And so four days later, Jones caved in and gave Smith a four-year contract that made him the highest-paid running back in the league.

Remember Jones’ complaints about the salary cap? Guess what? He suddenly realized what every other general manager in the league understood, that he could pay Smith a substantial percentage of his $13.6 million this year--$7 million in salary and bonuses--and ease the effect on the cap. After all, that’s what the Buffalo Bills did when they gave Thurman Thomas the $13.5-million deal that precipitated this wrangle.

Smith is no longer mad at Jones, but front-office people around the league are furious.

“Now that he gave Smith what he wanted, every other star in the league is going to try that same thing,” one general manager said. “No matter what, Jerry should have made Emmitt aware that if he sat out a year, he would be in no better position next year, Smith was just hurting himself.”

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A PASS MAKES

Five years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals were 42 seconds from winning Super Bowl XXIII when Montana hit John Taylor with a pass across the middle to win the game for the San Francisco 49ers.

Today the Bengals have only four players remaining from that team--offensive linemen Bruce Kozerski and Joe Walter, punter Lee Johnson and nose tackle Tim Krumrie.

The Bengals have recently rid themselves of so many high-priced veterans--Esiason, David Fulcher, Rodney Holman, Tim McGee and Eddie Brown--that they have become the poster boys for the impending salary cap.

On their 53-man roster, they have 26 new players and 10 new starters. Among those starters are four rookies. Bengal players have an average of 2.5 years’ pro experience.

Their first touchdown of the season was scored by somebody named Ostell Miles. Their leading receiver is Jeff Query, playing for his third team in three years.

They are 0-2 and looking down the barrel of 0-16, largely because they do not play Tampa Bay and must travel to New England.

They haven’t scored a touchdown in seven quarters and, last Sunday, witnessed the end of a 43-game streak in which they had sold out Riverfront Stadium.

The only person who could be happy about this is Coach David Shula. At 34, he is finally older than all of his players.

Although some might say they are the San Diego Padres of the NFL, the Bengals look at it differently. And, perhaps, smartly.

Next spring, when others are cutting players by the dozen so their payrolls will be under the salary cap, the Bengals will have financial room to sign such top free agents as Philadelphia Eagle defensive stars Seth Joyner and Clyde Simmons.

“We will be an acquirer . . . not a loser, and that will be a bit of a switch,” said Mike Brown, Bengal general manager. “Teams will all be driven toward the cap, and you will see a balance obtained throughout the league. Others will not have the advantage we will.”

In the meantime?

“When we lose, we’re easy to criticize,” Brown said. “The only thing for certain is that right now, we’re not very good. But that will change.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

Game of the week: John Elway at Joe Montana. This Monday night game between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs will mark the first meeting in more than three years between two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. Montana won the most recent and important meeting--the 1990 Super Bowl. In preparation for this clash of warriors, the ABC-TV “Monday Night Football” telecast will open with an inspirational song by . . . Vanessa Williams?

Ten years from now, this could sound like Elway at Montana . . . or maybe not: Rick Mirer at Drew Bledsoe. The Seattle Seahawks’ game against the New England Patriots will be the setting for the most publicized battle of rookie quarterbacks in 20 years. On their way to Canton, the young guys have combined for three touchdowns and five interceptions.

Some potential hard knocks to the head: Rams at New York Giants. Not that the Rams are traveling to a bizarre environment, but, according to a recent newspaper story, items turned in to lost-and-found at Giants Stadium included a bowling ball, a toaster and dentures.

The Browns will win, then change their mind and claim they lost: Cleveland Browns at Raiders. The local unbeatens face the most wishy-washy team in professional sports. And we aren’t merely talking about Michael Jackson/Dyson’s indecisiveness on his last name.

Fullback Kevin Mack announced his retirement on July 19, then unretired a month later, although the Browns haven’t put him on the roster. Then receiver Hassan Jones, a free-agent signee, retired in the middle of training camp, only to return three days later. The Browns later cut him. We think.

BETWEEN THE NUMBERS

* OUCH: There are hints that a back problem could stall, if not end, Eric Dickerson’s comeback. Erric Pegram is scheduled to start for the Atlanta Falcons at running back this week ahead of Dickerson, who is listed as doubtful because he has a disk problem in his sixth vertebra.

Coach Jerry Glanville said the problem was dangerous. Dickerson said he feels fine except for tingling in his fingers.

* SHUT UP: What worries the San Francisco 49ers more than their seven turnovers in two games is their suddenly noisy huddle.

“In the past when we got in tough situations, we would huddle up and you wouldn’t hear a word except from the quarterback calling the play,” center Jesse Sapolu said. “(Monday night) when we were behind, you would hear guys talking in the huddle, reminding each other of this or that. If we were confident of each other, that wouldn’t happen. It’s just a sign. Maybe not a good sign.”

* SAY WHAT? Quarterback Jim Harbaugh of the Chicago Bears has been beaten up so badly--eight sacks in two games--that he asked Coach Dave Wannstedt if teammates could be allowed to hit him during practice so he could get used to it. His request was denied.

* UNBEATEN AND UNKNOWN: Rich Kotite of the Philadelphia Eagles was walking around the Veterans Stadium parking lot recently, getting his exercise, when some guy comes up to him and says, ‘Hey, Good luck this year, Mr. Fregosi.”

* GET A MAP: Bear rookie Curtis Conway, who had never lived outside Southern California before leaving USC, was so worried about finding O’Hare Airport before the team’s first road game in Minneapolis last weekend that he hitched a ride with teammate Wendell Davis. You guessed it. Davis was running late, both guys missed the plane, and neither played much on Sunday.

* HEAVE-HO: The players laughed at first, but nose tackle Darren Drozdov’s penchant for throwing up on the ball during games has caused him to lose eight pounds and caused the Denver Broncos to send him to a psychiatrist.

“They’re trying to get me to stop,” he said. “They think it’s between my ears.”

* HE’S LOST IT: Great day for Eric Bieniemy of the San Diego Chargers last Sunday. In order, he lost the football when he fumbled against the Broncos, lost his job when he was benched in the second half, and lost his car when it was stolen in front of his mother’s house.

“I was just happy my mother wasn’t in the car at the time,” Bieniemy said.

* MUMMY’S THE WORD: Randall Cunningham of the Eagles has decreed in his will that when he dies, he is to be buried in a pyramid. Don’t ask.