NFL Notes: Vikes switch quarterbacks, lose Smith for rest of year

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

Minnesota Vikings fans probably will get their wish, if only for one week.

Brad Johnson is expected to start Sunday's game against Kansas City as Warren Moon recovers from a sore right ankle, which he re-injured in Monday night's 15-13 loss to the Chicago Bears.

Although the move will please Minnesota's disgruntled following, coach Dennis Green was quick to quiet any talk of a quarterback controversy. The Vikings, after all, have too many problems on offense to point fingers at Moon alone.

"Warren Moon is our starting quarterback," Green said Tuesday. "I'm not a great believer in making a lot of changes, particularly at quarterback. Personally, I think it's a copout.

"I think everybody else has to carry their load. We've got so many things that we're not doing well on offense that we're going to get to those before we worry about a guy that's had the kind of career and still plays for us the way Warren has played for us."

While Green pondered what to do about the quarterback position, he got bad news about another position: Running back Robert Smith will miss the rest of the season with an injured left knee.

"I just feel terrible," Smith said. "I really can't describe how bad it feels to have so many people in your corner and believing in you and wanting to believe in you so badly, and having it all just crumble on one silly play. Again."

Smith suffered a complete tear of the medial collateral ligament and at least a partial tear of the posterior cruciate ligament during the first quarter of the loss to the Chicago Bears.

It is the second time in Smith's four NFL seasons that a knee injury has ended his season -- it was his right knee in 1993 -- and he also missed nearly the entire second half of 1995 with a badly sprained ankle. A hip injury cost him two games in '94.

But this time it was more painful, figuratively, for Smith. He was having an outstanding season, on pace for nearly 1,600 yards.

"I feel like I let a lot of people down," Smith said. "I feel like I let this team down. I'm not going to be there in the stretch run -- again -- for them."

* BEARS' COX OUT: The Chicago Bears' agonizing season has taken another painful turn, with defensive leader Bryan Cox needing surgery to repair a fractured bone at the base of his left thumb. Cox, unlike several of his less fortunate teammates, thinks he'll be out no more than a week. "I'm having surgery Friday, as it stands right now," Cox said Tuesday night. "I'm going to have to have pins put in, and I'll be out Sunday (against Tampa Bay). But personally, I think that's the only game I'm going to miss."

* GEORGE SAVES MONEY: Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Jeff George may have saved himself almost $700,000 through his grievance over a four-game suspension. A grievance hearing Tuesday resulted in a settlement including a $160,000 penalty stemming from George's Sept. 22 sideline tirade directed at coach June Jones, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today. George could have been stuck with an $855,529 penalty if the Falcons' four-game suspension was upheld in arbitration. The team wanted to withhold that amount from the $3.6 million one-year salary of the quarterback, who was waived by the Falcons on Oct. 22 and became an unrestricted free agent the next day.

* GIANTS LOSE TOOMER: The Giants' improved kick-return game got thrown for a sizable loss Tuesday when the team announced that the knee surgery wide receiver Amani Toomer underwent late Monday will force him to miss the rest of his rookie season. Toomer, who was the Giants' second-round draft choice, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in practice last Thursday. He had reconstructive surgery Monday at the Hospital for Special Surgery-Cornell Medical Center. The team's trainer, Ronnie Barnes, said rehabilitation would take about seven months.

* RAIDERS' SMITH RETURNS: Oakland Raiders man agement is welcoming Anthony Smith back after his four-week suspension. It remains to be seen how he'll be greeted by teammates. The Raiders reinstated the defensive end Tuesday after a suspension imposed when the former first-round draft pick skipped a team flight to a Sept. 29 game at Chicago. The four-week suspension was the maximum the Raiders could impose on Smith, who apparently skipped the flight because he was upset at rumors he was about to be traded.

* REDSKINS INJURED: Two Washington Redskins players and a team intern were injured when the car they were riding in overturned. Cory Raymer, 23, Brian Thure, 23, and Hugo Garcia, 26, were hurt Tuesday when Raymer swerved to avoid another car, said Mary Evans, a state police spokeswoman. Raymer is a second-year center and Thure is a second-year guard. Garcia is an intern working with the team's strength and conditioning coach.

* NASHVILLE PREPARES FOR OILERS: A Tennessee home for the Houston Oilers is in the works. Officials closed the sale Monday on the first of 49 businesses that must be relocated to build a 65,000-seat stadium for the state's first major pro sports franchise. "One down, 48 to go," mayor Phil Bredesen said after receiving the key to Jamison Bedding Inc.

* CHIEFS COACH ANGRY: Marty Schottenheimer bristles when someone suggests the Kansas City Chiefs play dirty football. Responding to comments by Denver coach Mike Shanahan, Schottenheimer showed game film at his media luncheon Tuesday and hotly denied charges that his team has ever been guilty of unethical blocking techniques. "We've got a lot of people in the AFC implying that we are coaching things that are on the edge, that are on the brink, that are unethical," said the Chiefs' head coach, his voice rising. "And they're not. We have football players who play hard. They play until the whistle blows. I make no apologies for that."