QUICK KICKS

IF MITCH WILLIAMS CAN FACE THE MUSIC, PAL, SO CAN YOU: One of the most pathetic stories in the league this year is the refusal of Leon Lett to address the media and explain his Thanksgiving blunder that cost the Dallas Cowboys a victory against the Miami Dolphins.

No, a statement issued through the Cowboys’ public relations department doesn’t cut it.

Forget the fact that Lett owes five minutes worth of explanation to the fans who, in a small way, help pay his $900,000-a-year salary.

Far worse is the example he is setting for children like the 886 elementary school students in Mesquite, Tex., who sent him notes forgiving him for his error.

He is telling those children that the way to handle your mistakes in life is to run and hide from them. Whether on an assembly line or in a board room, that attitude does not work in real life.

Not that professional sports teams have ever been accused of forcing their players to swallow any real life. We just thought the Cowboys were different.

*

EARTH TO ANDRE, EARTH TO ANDRE: The only thing Ernest Givins said was that the Atlanta Falcons had good receivers while his Houston Oilers had great receivers.

The way the Falcons’ Andre Rison responded on a conference call, you’d have thought that Givins had criticized his endorsement contracts.

“All I see is Houston’s defensive backs catching more balls than Houston’s receivers,” Rison said. “If Warren Moon had us, Houston would go to the Super Bowl. They run the worst routes I’ve ever seen in my life. They drop more balls than I’ve ever seen in my life.

“They’re sorry. I wish he (Deion Sanders) could check Ernest Givins and shut his little mouth up the whole game. He probably wouldn’t catch a pass.”

Upon hearing Rison’s remarks, the Oilers surprisingly shrugged.

“I do run bad routes, so he might be right,” Haywood Jeffires told reporters.

*

NICE TO SEE YOU, TOO: In commemoration of Atlanta Coach Jerry Glanville’s first regular-season visit to Houston since he left town four seasons ago, Oiler defensive end William Fuller called his former coach “a liar” and “an egomaniac.”

But, Fuller added: “He lied to everybody, so I don’t really feel slighted.”

*

COUNTERFEIT BILLS: After scoring one touchdown or less in seven of 11 games, the Buffalo Bills are starting to realize that everybody in the league knows what they are doing.

If they don’t make a few changes fast--that Thurman Thomas-and-three-wide-receiver setup is getting a little old--you can stop worrying about them returning for a fourth consecutive Super Bowl.

“We’ve been doing the same things we’ve been doing for the last four years,” said wide receiver Andre Reed. “I think the defenses are catching up to us by now, if not already passing us.”

*

MAYBE THIS WILL PERSUADE HIM TO START COMBING HIS HAIR: How well is quarterback Steve Young playing? When he left Anaheim Stadium last week after leading the San Francisco 49ers over the Rams, he was greeted by a pack of women chanting, “Marry me, marry me.”

*

MONGO FEVER: We offer this last toast to Steve McMichael, the surly defensive lineman who will play in his 187th consecutive game for the Chicago Bears Sunday, a club record.

McMichael has played with knee sprains, fractured ribs, cracked fingers and a separated shoulder. He has survived six knee operations and beatings so brutal that he can’t wear his Super Bowl ring during the season because his knuckles are so swollen.

So does he still enjoy the mud and the blood?

“Not the body fluids, I don’t like the body fluids these days,” he said. “I know where some of these guys go.”