It’s old-quarterback roulette

So what was Terry Bradshaw really thinking on Sunday when he said of Vinny Testaverde’s Week 6 start for the Carolina Panthers, “Just how thin is the National Football League, as far as quality quarterbacks are concerned, that we have to go and get a guy out of a wheelchair, put him on a team and he stands a chance to start today?�

Was Bradshaw:

a) Feeling sorry for the soon-to-be 44-year-old Testaverde?

b) Feeling sorry for the Panthers?

c) Feeling a little jealous?

d) Feeling like loosening up his arm and trying out for the St. Louis Rams?

Gus Frerotte, 36, started for the Rams on Sunday and had five passes intercepted in a 22-3 loss to the Kyle Boller-quarterbacked Baltimore Ravens. Not many quarterbacks lose games by nearly 20 points to Kyle Boller-quarterbacked teams. Fewer still have thrown five interceptions for a franchise falling to 0-6 to equal a 45-year-old record for futility.

Bradshaw is 59 and now a grizzled veteran of the Fox franchise, but let him squeeze in a few practice reps during commercial breaks and you’d have to figure he couldn’t do much worse than Frerotte.

How badly were Testaverde’s ears burning on Sunday (assuming someone jotted down Bradshaw’s comments and repeated them LOUDLY and s-l-o-w-l-y for the old new Carolina quarterback)? Called in / rolled in as emergency help after injuries to Jake Delhomme and David Carr, Testaverde left the wheelchair -- and the Arizona Cardinals -- behind as he did indeed start for the Panthers, becoming the third-oldest quarterback to start an NFL game.

Testaverde was more than credible too, completing 20 of 33 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown in a 25-10 Panthers triumph. He also finished with five fewer interceptions than Frerotte.

Sunday was a notable afternoon for old quarterbacks and interceptions. Brett Favre, who turned 38 last week, had two passes picked off in Green Bay’s 17-14 home victory over Washington to surpass George Blanda as the league’s all-time interception leader. Favre now has 279 career interceptions, two more than Blanda, who played until he was 48.

Blanda spent most of his career in the American Football League, as did the No. 3 leader on the career interceptions list, John Hadl (268). That’s testament to the wild, wide-open, gunslinging style of play that characterized the AFL during its 10-year existence. Favre, born on Oct. 10 of the AFL’s final season, would have fit right in with that league.

Meanwhile, Jeff Garcia, who turns 38 in February, extended his startling streak of interception-free games this season to six with a 13-10 victory over the Tennessee Titans. In related news, the New York Jets, who wore throwback uniforms that recalled the team’s early AFL days as the New York Titans, lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-9.

Not a good day for Titans. Combined, Titans past and present went 0-2 and scored a collective 19 points.

For those who missed it -- and you did if you live in SoCal and didn’t have satellite access on Sunday -- the New England Patriots beat the Dallas Cowboys in the battle of the unbeatens, 48-27.

(ESPN, which momentarily forgot Dallas is an NFC team and strangely devoted Game of the Century coverage to this matchup, returns you now to its regular programming.)

Meanwhile, in the matchup SoCal fans were stuck with instead, the San Diego Chargers defeated the Oakland Raiders, 28-14. Important breaking news in this game: They finally found LaDainian Tomlinson! Missing from action for five weeks (as you might have heard from the person in your fantasy league who drafted LT with the top pick), Tomlinson rushed for four touchdowns and 198 yards as the Chargers evened their record at 3-3.

So KCBS viewers were able to view that. The Chargers by two touchdowns over the Raiders was a virtual nail-biter compared to the Patriots’ rout of the overrated Cowboys. Still, what KCBS viewers missed: Tom Brady’s passing for a career-high five touchdowns -- with only an offensive pass-interference call against Randy Moss preventing a sixth. And New England moving to 6-0 and a step closer to the game that might cause ESPN’s Bristol headquarters to self-detonate: Patriots at Indianapolis Colts, Nov. 4.

Looking ahead, here is some good news for local fans: That Patriots-Colts game is scheduled for a 1:15 p.m. kickoff. On the same day, the Chargers are scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings at 10 a.m. -- a matchup that looks a lot more appealing today than it did two weeks ago.

Vikings rookie running back Adrian Peterson rushed for a team-record 224 yards in a 34-31 victory over the Chicago Bears. Peterson also returned four kicks for 128 yards en route to 361 all-purpose yards -- the third-highest total in league history.

New Orleans defeated the suddenly at-sea Seattle Seahawks, 28-17, to reduce the NFL’s winless ranks to two: the Rams and the Miami Dolphins. Miami, down to starting Cleo Lemon at quarterback, lost to the Cleveland Browns, 41-31, to drop to 0-6.

The Rams are 0-6 for the first time since 1962. How long ago was that? In 1962, the Rams were still Los Angeles teenagers, 17 years removed from their last season in Cleveland -- with yet 18 years to go before their Anaheim debut. The Rams’ coach in 1962 was Bob Waterfield, who did the honorable thing after opening the season 0-6. Two games later, he resigned.

Even when Anaheim’s Rams were in their early ‘90s tank-the-franchise mode -- a cynical ploy designed to alienate fans and drive attendance down so John Shaw could “rationalize� a get-obscenely-rich move to St. Louis -- the team never began a season 0-6.

Question to ponder for today: If Shaw said, “Turnstile counts show it just isn’t working here� and offered to run a U-turn to SoCal, would anyone here want them back?

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