Star-crossed rivals absorb some Fox fire

Yes, children, it might be hard to believe, but once upon a time, long before the days of Drew Bledsoe and Mark Brunell, the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins rivalry was the biggest and fiercest in professional football.

That history is still enough to land a game between the 2006 Cowboys and Redskins on national television Sunday night, still enough for NBC to make a big deal about it. Rival Fox, however, prefers that viewers watch “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill” instead, so it was interesting to listen to Fox’s NFL studio analysts assess the competition being televised by the competition.

On the network’s Sunday morning pregame show, Terry Bradshaw said Dallas’ burgeoning quarterback controversy was a clue that Cowboys management was clueless.

“Dallas has had Don Meredith, Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman -- they’ve always built around great quarterbacks,” Bradshaw said. “Then they brought in Drew Henson and Chad Hutchinson -- two baseball guys?

“This front office wouldn’t know a good quarterback if he fell into their lap. They need to stay with the guy they got in Drew Bledsoe.”

Jimmy Johnson, meanwhile, wondered whether his old team could recognize damaged goods when they fell into its lap.

Referring to injured Cowboys kicker Mike Vanderjagt, Johnson said, “You could tell it was a wasted signing in the first week. I don’t know that the front office and Bill Parcells were communicating.”

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Master motivator

Bill Mulligan, the feisty and funny basketball coach who spent 39 years (1956-1995) lighting up scoreboards and filling reporters’ notebooks at Long Beach Poly High, Riverside City College, Saddleback College, UC Irvine and Irvine Valley College, was roasted Saturday night at a banquet at UC Irvine.

Former Irvine player Tod Murphy talked glowingly about Mulligan’s unique ability to fire up a player before a big game.

“I remember the end of my freshman year, last regular-season game, and we’re getting ready for the [conference] playoffs,” Murphy said. “It was a tough game, and I didn’t play very well. I’d been in kind of a slump and Coach came over, and I knew he was going to give me that ‘Fire up!’ speech -- ‘Get ready for the playoffs, we’re going to be OK.’

“He said, ‘Murph, come on over here!’ So I come on over, and I’m a freshman and I’m [thinking], ‘What do you got, Coach, what do you got?’ He looked at me and he said, ‘Are you ever going to play another good game in your life?’ ”

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Trivia time

The Cowboys and Redskins play twice every regular season, but have they ever met during the postseason?

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Fling on a prayer

When All-American forward Kevin Magee played for Mulligan in the early 1980s, UC Irvine had a shot-happy point guard named Jason Works who frequently tested his coach’s famous short temper.

“I listen to what Coach says,” Works once told reporters, “but I do what God tells me.” Hearing this, Mulligan grumbled, “Doesn’t God ever tell him to give the ball to Magee?

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Trivia answer

The Redskins are 2-0 against the Cowboys in the playoffs, the victories deciding the 1972 and 1982 NFC championships.

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And finally ...

During the 1980s, Mulligan was asked how conference rival Fresno State was able to recruit so many talented players from the Chicago area. Quipped Mulligan: “They think they’re coming to California.”

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mike.penner@latimes.com