Fans Everywhere Sing the Boos

The San Diego Chargers were booed at home Sunday, because it was Throwback Sunday in San Diego -- time to break out the old powder-blue jerseys and the old white helmets and the old 44-13 losses to the New York Jets.

The Chicago Bears were also booed at home, because their 19-13 loss to Philadelphia was their sixth defeat in a row in 2002, meaning owner Mike McCaskey didn’t get enough of a return on the soul he sold in 2001.

Peyton Manning was booed at home, despite passing for 327 yards and two touchdowns, because, evidently, he was responsible for Indianapolis’ first-, second- and third-string running backs being injured and unavailable for the Colts’ 23-15 loss to Tennessee.

Matt Hasselbeck was booed at home, because that’s what football fans in Seattle do.

There was so much booing by so many home fans, it sounded like a Cincinnati Bengal game.

Except there was no booing at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday because the Bengals were playing in Houston. Winning in Houston too.

Winning for the first time in eight games this season.

Winning by a score of 38-3, their largest margin of victory since 1989.

Winning, at last, despite being three-point underdogs to an expansion team, to salvage whatever was left of the reputations of Bengal Coach Dick LeBeau, who predicted victory over the Texans, and wide receiver Chad Johnson, who guaranteed it.

Every autumn, two groups of old football players from Florida settle into their armchairs and begin their hopeful, fateful countdowns. Members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only NFL team to complete a season undefeated, count down the days until their record is safe for another year. Members of the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-14 in their inaugural season, count down the days until every current NFL teams breaks into the victory column.

Last season, the Buccaneers had to sweat it out until Week 14 before the Detroit Lions faltered in their quest.

This season, Cincinnati prolonged the anxiety until Week 9.

If there were champagne corks popping in the homes of creaking Buccaneers, the Bengals’ postgame celebration was distinctly restrained.

Offensive tackle Willie Anderson scolded Johnson for his brazen act, telling reporters, “We told Chad, ‘No more guarantees.’ It puts too much pressure on the offensive line, because the crowd gets so into it and you can’t hear.”

LeBeau turned the historic victory into a stand-up routine, deadpanning that his prediction was “misconstrued,” that he thought the question was whether he could beat Texan Coach Dom Capers in golf.

Yes, LeBeau said, he guaranteed he could beat Capers in golf.

Oh, that LeBeau humor.

He’d better keep his day job, which is why LeBeau needed this victory so desperately. Before Sunday, LeBeau was 0-7 in 2002 after going 6-10 in 2001 and 4-9 after replacing Bruce Coslet during the 2000 season.

That’s a very tired act. LeBeau had to take it out on the road, try some new material. What’s black and white and red all over? The Houston Texans, who might need to change their color scheme, maybe burn those uniforms, after losing to Cincinnati at home by 35 points.

The Chargers, a startling 6-1 in their boring navy blues, dug out their classic powder blues for an old-time AFL reunion with the Jets, led by Broadway Chad Pennington. Ordinarily, those uniforms are a welcome sight in San Diego. The Chargers ought to wear them every weekend -- look what happened to the Angels after they reclaimed a bit of their sartorial past -- but team management stubbornly refuses to make the switch, breaking out the 1960s suits only for special occasions, such as 31-point losses to the Jets.

The new-look Chargers in their old-look jerseys looked suspiciously like Notre Dame in its unlucky green jerseys against Boston College. The Jets, coming in at 2-5 with a defense yielding more than 400 yards a game, routed San Diego and limited LaDainian Tomlinson to 60 yards -- one fewer than LaMont Jordan managed on one scoring run in the fourth quarter.

Charger Coach Marty Schottenheimer called his team’s performance “unacceptable.” Charger quarterback Drew Brees said “We played probably the worst we can play.” The Qualcomm Stadium crowd didn’t disagree, letting their turnaround heroes hear it, even if at 6-2, the 2002 Chargers have still won as many games as the 2000 and 2001 Chargers combined.

Which proves that even long-suffering fans get spoiled if they sit out in the sun too long.

Still, San Diego is a long ways from Oakland, festering home of the Black Hole deviants, still revved from Halloween with the hated 49ers stopping by.

Conditions in that silver-and-black asylum are so twisted, many 49er players strictly forbade their families from taking the trip across the bay, ordering them to stay at home for their safety.

Good move, since the 49ers made the crucial mistake of beating the Raiders in their nest, 23-20, in overtime, on a 23-yard field goal by Jose Cortez a few minutes after Cortez had been rattled into missing a 27-yarder.

“It was gritty, it was courageous, it was off the charts,” said 49er Coach Steve Mariucci, who sounds like he should be reviewing movies for “Good Morning America.”

It was a surly Sunday all around, all the way to Detroit, where new NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith was booed for his long years of meritorious service to the game. Smith gained only 39 yards in 16 carries against the Lions. His Dallas Cowboys scored only a single touchdown in a 9-7 loss to the Lions.

Lion fans should have been appeased. Instead, they jeered Smith, serenading him with chants of “Bar-ry! Bar-ry!” in reference to ex-Lion Barry Sanders, who was on his way to breaking Walter Payton’s record before abruptly retiring in 1999.

“Hey, I’m in Detroit!” Smith mused afterward. “Anything less would be uncivilized.”

Smith would say that. He has piled up nearly 17,000 yards traveling across this league. The old Cowboy has been around.

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They Rate on the Road

*--* 49er quarterback Jeff Garcia’s completed 25 of 36 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns, with no interception s in Sunday’s 23-20 victory over Oakland. This improved his road passer rating since 2000 to 94.6, second in the NFL in that time. The five highest road passer ratings since 2000: PLAYER TEAM ATT COMP YARDS TD INT RATING KURT WARNER St. Louis Rams 523 361 4,594 30 24 96.2 JEFF GARCIA San Francisco 49ers 674 410 4,926 43 16 94.6 BRETT FAVRE Green Bay Packers 716 441 5,196 38 17 91.4 DREW BLEDSOE New England, Buffalo 468 276 3,056 19 5 87.5 BRIAN GRIESE Denver Broncos 559 361 3,840 28 19 87.1

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