The out-of-town media wanted to talk to the backup quarterback on the weekly conference call. They wanted to talk to a guy who hasn’t stepped under center in a regular-season game since January 1996.
Unusual? Not when the backup quarterback is Randall Cunningham and the Minnesota Vikings’ next opponent is the Philadelphia Eagles.
Cunningham spent 11 turbulent seasons with the Eagles before retiring last season. The Vikings enticed him to come back this year, and on Sunday night he will stand across the Metrodome field from the team he once defined.
“I’m on the other side, now,” he joked before talking to the Philadelphia reporters. “They can criticize me as much as they want now.”
Cunningham’s only playing time with the Vikings this season has been as the fill-in punter for the first two games.
He isn’t yearning for a chance to play against his former team, because he knows that starter Brad Johnson has been outstanding.
“I pray that nothing happens to Brad, because he’s our team leader and he’s a very good quarterback,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham, 34, said he has matured since leaving Philadelphia.
“I’ve asked God to forgive me about any negative feelings I’ve ever had about leaving Philadelphia,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to be upset about playing 11 years and doing the things that I did and then get on the road. I’m very, very happy to be here.”
Howard gets chance: Kick returner Desmond Howard is expected to line up at wide receiver for the first time this season when Oakland plays host to the St. Louis Rams Sunday.
It was an opportunity he had wanted when he signed with the Raiders last March. But like many teammates, Howard has altered his individual plans for this season because of the Raiders’ 1-3 start.
“People need to realize this thing is much bigger than me playing wide receiver,” Howard said. “We’re 1-3. That’s the bigger problem. We’ve talked about winning championships, but we have to get into the playoffs first, and at the rate we’re going, we won’t do that. If people are getting caught up in me playing receiver, they’re missing the point. I want to win.”
Attendance up: Attendance at NFL games, despite the small crowds in Tennessee, was up by nearly 2,000 fans a game over the first four weeks of 1996. The league said Thursday that paid attendance for the 56 games averaged 62,287 compared with 60,462 last year. The biggest crowd–and a major reason for the increase–was at the new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, where the Redskins’ home opener drew 78,270. The Skins’ new stadium seats 23,000 more than RFK Stadium. The Tennessee Oilers are playing in Memphis, where they’ve drawn crowds of 30,171 and 17,737.
Attendance is also lagging in San Diego, where the Chargers’ game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens will be blacked out locally because some 14,550 tickets remained unsold by the 1 p.m. Thursday deadline. It will be San Diego’s second straight home game kept off local TV.
Stadium tax: The Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates promised to contribute a combined $85 million toward proposed stadiums to replace 27-year-old Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers promised $50 million toward a 65,000-seat stadium and the Pirates promised $35 million toward a 38,000-seat facility.
The offers come as a Nov. 4 referendum to raise the sales tax by a half percent in the Pittsburgh area to pay for the stadiums, an expansion of Pittsburgh’s convention center and other economic development project trails in polls.
Both teams said they would sign 25-year leases to play in the new stadiums and would assume any cost overruns on the projects.
