Warren Moon is going to make John Elway feel like a young kid again Sunday in one of several pivotal matchups to start the second half of the season.
Moon will be 41 on Nov. 18. Nobody has played quarterback as well as Moon has past 40. In 1974 Washington’s Sonny Jurgensen won the NFC passing title at 40, but he was sharing time with Billy Kilmer and threw only 167 passes, 11 for touchdowns.
Moon has thrown 11 touchdown passes in 272 attempts since replacing injured John Friesz for the Seahawks in the season opener.
George Blanda played until he was 48, but primarily as a place-kicker. He never threw more than 58 passes a season after he turned 40.
To Moon, the old-age story “gets a little old.”
“Some of my ability and skills get lost in the fact I’m 40 years old,” Moon said.
Moon has no advice for Denver’s Elway, 37. “He told me he won’t be playing when he’s 40, but I don’t believe him because I think he still enjoys playing and he’s fighting for a championship himself,” Moon said.
Moon has a theory on his success as the NFL salary-cap system discourages older players. “As the league gets younger, it’s easier to play because players aren’t as smart,” he said.
Moon, said Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson, “is getting better every week.”
“What I like to do is throw the football,” he said. “Our offense is pretty much built for him. We’re going to get the ball off quick and throw it down the field. You don’t have to be real mobile to do that. But he’s as accurate and good as anybody in football.”
Spielman decision: According to Bears pro personnel director Rick Spielman, younger brother Chris felt his body “completely paralyzed” momentarily during the Bills’ game against Denver last week. The middle linebacker was injured Oct. 20 against the Colts, but played anyway. He is seeking medical opinions on the need for surgery on a herniated disk in his neck, which will keep him out the rest of the season.
“He wants to play next year, but it might not be worth it,” Rick Spielman said. “We both went through the Mike Utley thing in Detroit.” Former Lions guard Utley was paralyzed in a freak injury with the Lions when Chris Spielman was playing there and Rick was scouting.
Not as big: Cowboys-49ers used to be the game of the year. It’s still big to some:
“I think we’re the best 4-4 club in the league,” Emmitt Smith said.
The Cowboys have made 32 trips into the red zone, but have only nine touchdowns and 21 field goals to show for it.
“We’ve played good enough defense to be 8-0, our special teams are the best in the league. . . . But we can’t score when we’re in there,” coach Barry Switzer said. “That’s what’s wrong with this football team. If we scored in the (red zone), we’d be 7-1 or 8-0.”
It’s simple, really: The Jets’ Neil O’Donnell is the AFC’s fourth-rated passer, on pace for 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. But he also is looking over his shoulder at Glenn Foley.
“Forget those numbers,” coach Bill Parcells said. “They don’t count. Get your team in the end zone. That’s how you judge quarterbacks.”
In O’Donnell’s last 27 possessions, the Jets scored three touchdowns, the same number Foley put on the board in his first three series against New England.
“Neil knows what his job is,” Parcells said. “His job is to get the team into the end zone. If he does that, I’m going to be happy. If he doesn’t do that, I’m not going to be happy with him.”
Would Troy Aikman be starting for Parcells?
Don’t touch that dial: If the Chiefs are beating the Steelers at halftime Monday night, watch out. In the last six games, the Steelers’ Kordell Stewart has a second-half passer rating of 135.2, close to the perfect score of 158.3. In the first half, his rating is a miserable 50.9. He has thrown eight touchdown passes and no interceptions in the second half of those games. In the first, he has thrown two TD passes and seven interceptions.
“He’s definitely a second-half guy,” receiver Yancey Thigpen said. “He’s a winner, a guy who is going to get it done by any necessary means. That’s what it takes in the second half when you’re behind.”
Would Stewart be starting for Parcells?
Don’t touch Brett: A month after Packers quarterback Brett Favre complained that Lions defensive end Kerwin Waldroup had taken cheap shots at his knees, Waldroup was called to New York and warned of a possible suspension.
Although the former Rich Central athlete has only one sack in eight starts this year, Waldroup was fined $7,500 last year for hitting Atlanta’s Bobby Hebert in the knees and, according to the NFL, was fined this season for hitting Tampa Bay’s Trent Dilfer in the knees.
NFL director of football development Gene Washington met with Waldroup last week in New York, a year after former Lions defensive line coach John Teerlinck (now with Denver) was called on the same carpet for encouraging questionable tactics.
“He just told me they’re going to suspend me if I hit another quarterback low,” Waldroup said. “Basically, I can’t touch ’em anywhere under the knees. Can’t grab ’em, can’t hit ’em, nothing.”
No-brainers: Coaches use a chart to decide when to go for two-point conversions. They should use their brains too. Because there’s only a 28 percent chance of making two, it’s like taking a point off the board early in games.
Jimmy Johnson did it twice against the Bears, when trailing 15-13 and leading 19-18. The Dolphins missed them both. Had he kicked just one, they probably would have won in regulation. By kicking both, he would have had a 17-point lead so when the Bears rallied, it wouldn’t have mattered that they scored two touchdowns.
