This Quarterback Doesn’t Have to Turn Over a New Leaf

Tom Cushman in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “After greeting me at the Colts’ training facility on a recent afternoon, Peyton Manning excused himself, crossed the locker room, located an unused stool and returned with it.

“ ‘You need a place to sit,’ he said.

“Right then, I needed a place to lie down. Manning’s gesture may seem like a common courtesy, but trust me . . . inside today’s NFL, a reporter has a far better chance of being body-slammed than offered a seat.

“ ‘Peyton is very reserved, very cordial, very mannered,’ says Craig Kelly, the Colts’ public relations director. “ ‘There’s a lot of Southern gallantry about him.’ ”

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Trivia time: Who holds the major league season record for home runs by a pitcher?

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Kyle who? Sometimes it’s hard for a freshman to get recognition. Headline in Saturday’s San Francisco Chronicle: “Freshman QB Broller gets first start in Pac-10 opener.”

Kyle Boller threw two touchdown passes to lead Cal to a 24-23 victory over Arizona State. It’s doubtful the newspaper will bogey his name again.

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Fair-weather guy: Woody Paige of the Denver Post had already given up on the Broncos before they played Sunday and lost, dropping to 0-3:

“The bandwagon wobbles on with a light load. Media were the first to jump off. As long as the sun is out and the sky is cloudless, we are riding shotgun. But as soon as fair weather turns inclement, we’re out of here.

“But what do you expect from pond scum? If, rather than writing and talking about sports, we could do something constructive we would.”

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Stinker No. 2: Missouri Coach Larry Smith, commenting heatedly on his team’s 40-10 loss to Nebraska on Saturday:

“It’s real simple--we stunk, we’re embarrassed, and that’s the worst excuse for a football team I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Worse than the USC team you coached that lost to Memphis State, 24-10, at the Coliseum in 1991, Larry?

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No takers: Pete Rose commenting on the infamous winds at San Francisco’s 3Com Park, formerly known as Candlestick Park:

“It was the only place I ever played where, when a popup went up, you know how you’d say, ‘I got it?’ In Candlestick, you’d say, ‘Who wants it?’ ”

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Caring guy: Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated, commenting on emotional Dick Vermeil, coach of the St. Louis Rams:

“Vermeil . . . has taken crying to a high-water mark. He will bawl at the retirement of a blocking sled.”

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Trivia answer: Wes Ferrell of Cleveland, nine in 1931.

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And finally: Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post was still picking on Rick Neuheisel before Neuheisel’s Washington Huskies held on for a 31-24 victory over his old Colorado team Saturday:

“Hate is too strong a word for what Colorado feels for [Neuheisel]. He left us empty and and unfulfilled. It was a fitting exit for a football coach who always was more style than substance, and better at singing silly little songs than ringing up big victories.”