Game Day

1. Question: Who’s better, starters or stiffs?

Answer: The stiffs. Quarterbacks who opened the season on the bench, and now start, are 34-27. Among them are Randall Cunningham, Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde, who are 13-1 and rank 1-2-3 in the league. Those quarterbacks who started the season in command are 86-93.

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2. Q: Is there any danger of a Bronco collapse?

A: Only if you’re talking about a spavined bronco. If it’s the 8-0 Denver Broncos we’re discussing, no. Nine other teams have started the NFL season 8-0. All made the playoffs and seven of them went to the Super Bowl.

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3. Q: How did Charger quarterback Ryan Leaf spend his bye week?

A: Getting in trouble in Pullman, Wash., where he played in college. Anyone who has watched him play might have suggested more practice, but according to several local newspapers and Washington State’s student newspaper, Leaf threw beer on two Washington State students, flipped off several others, had a run-in with a 52-year-old store manager, was ejected from two bars and banned from a convenience store. He also flipped off the beat reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune recently and called him an obscene name.

“I don’t care what other people think of me,” Leaf told the Oregonian of Portland while denying some of the specifics last week. “I want respect from the people I respect.”

That appears to be a very small group.

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4. Q: Anything new on the Houston-L.A. expansion front?

A: Houston is going out of its way to remind the NFL of something L.A. lacks--cold cash. Robert McNair, the prospective owner of the Houston franchise, sold 90% of his company, Cogen Technologies, recently and added another $1 billion to his checking account. The NFL likes cash, and the two groups in Los Angeles don’t have it, having presented financial deals that include lots of borrowed money.

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5. Q: Why did the Redskins win last week?

A: They wanted to avoid doing push-ups. The players decided that they were making too many mistakes. It took them seven consecutive losses to figure this out, but once they did, they decided to penalize themselves 10 push-ups for every dropped pass in practice, 20 for jumping offside or holding, and doubling the exercise if the infraction occurred in a game.

Maybe that’s why wide receiver Michael Westbrook missed a practice and got benched.