Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 10:04 a.m.
All-time series: Chiefs lead, 48-38.
Last time: The Broncos won, 31-24, in Denver on Dec. 15.
Notable: Denver TE Shannon Sharpe bowed his head and said a few prayers as soon as he saw that Sports Illustrated put QB Jake Plummer on its cover, for the first time, this week ... Plummer shrugged off the supposed jinx. Remember, though, that Arizona lost, 49-0, at Arrowhead last year with him at QB ... ex-Denver QB John Elway, by the way, has been on 11 Sports Illustrated covers ... The Chiefs have forced an NFL-high 14 turnovers ... last year in Kansas City, Sharpe caught 12 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns in Denver's 37-34 victory in OT ... Broncos RB Clinton Portis will go, and that will be enough against a bottom-third rushing defense.
Prediction (3-1) -- Denver 28, Kansas City 23.
TOP FIVE: 1. Seattle; 2. Minnesota; 3. Indianapolis; 4. Kansas City; 5. Denver.
BOTTOM FIVE: 30. Chicago; 29. San Diego; 28. Jacksonville; 27. N.Y. Jets; 26. New Orleans.
LAST SHOT: "I thought there was every possibility that my professional working career, as such, was over. I looked into my social security and players pension."
-- Buffalo assistant head coach Dick LeBeau on his future when he was fired as Cincinnati's coach after last season. The Bengals, 12-33 under LeBeau, play the Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Sunday.
This week, Steve Mariucci will be back in San Francisco, Tony Dungy is in Tampa Bay and Mike Holmgren goes to Green Bay. In addition, running back Emmitt Smith finds himself back in Dallas.
Returns, with a special nod to Dante Hall, have been all the rage this season.
Hall, the shifty and speedy 25-year-old receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs who has earned special teams player of the week honors for the past three weeks, leads the league with nearly 36 yards per kickoff return.
All of which clouds an intriguing NFL development.
The Minnesota Vikings are 4-0.
In the 42 previous years of the franchise, it advanced to the playoffs each of the six times it won its first four games. It has won seven in a row dating back to last season, the longest current winning streak in the league, and it has a very favorable schedule.
The Vikings remain undefeated in '03 thanks to Gus Frerotte, who set a team single-game record for quarterback efficiency when he torched the 49ers on Sunday in the Metrodome.
Minnesota won, 35-7, which Red McCombs called one of the biggest victories since he bought the team in 1998.
Frerotte completed 16 of his 21 attempts, for 267 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. His rating of 157.2 eclipsed the 152.9 that Warren Moon had established, against New Orleans in 1995, as Minnesota's best game by a quarterback.
With one more completion or one fewer pass attempt, Frerotte would have recorded the perfect game, a rating of 158.3 that is the highest possible mark.
"Frerotte is not a suitable replacement for (Daunte) Culpepper," wrote one goofball, "(and) he's not even a suitable replacement for Kelly Holcomb."
Minnesota fans knew better. Four days before the game, more than half of the respondents to a most unscientific St. Paul Pioneer Press poll said the Frerotte-led Vikings could beat the 49ers because "Gus is as good as Jeff Garcia."
Garcia, San Francisco's quarterback, went 11-for-23, for 108 yards and three interceptions, on Sunday. The sideline frustrations of Terrell "Me-Me-Me" Owens were, as usual, well-documented.
We, however, won't sully Frerotte's fantastic game, or Minnesota's fabulous start, with Owens's shenanigans or the many mistakes that have plagued the 1-3 49ers.
The Vikings, on the other side, have recently made many wise decisions. McCombs hired former Vikings tight end Mike Tice, who had taken over for Dennis Green in the 2001 regular-season finale, as coach before last season.
Tice then brought in George O'Leary to tutor the defensive line. Embarrassingly deposed as Notre Dame's coach after only five days because of resume inaccuracies, O'Leary enthused the line so well that Tice put him in charge of the entire defense this season.
Battered for years, Minnesota's defense leads the NFL with 11 interceptions. Overall, it is rated ninth in the league. Jim Marshall and his old gang of Purple People Eaters must be proud.
This weekend, O'Leary makes a return of his own when the Vikings play the Falcons in Atlanta. Those locals still revere him for taking Georgia Tech to five consecutive bowls, but he will resist offers to attend the Jackets' homecoming game Saturday.
Hiring Frerotte, instead of Jeff George, in March as their second-string quarterback, for two years at nearly $2 million, was another splendid move by Tice and the Vikes.
Out of Tulsa, Frerotte thought his NFL prospects were so dim that he worked as a corporate fitness consultant to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Then he turned some heads -- namely, those of Washington scouts -- at the 1994 NFL combine. The Redskins picked Heath Shuler with the third overall selection in the 1994 draft. But six rounds later, they nabbed Frerotte as insurance.
Three seasons later, Shuler was a $19.25 million clipboard carrier, then he was traded to New Orleans. This is Frerotte's 10th season in the league, and his gaudy 128.2 rating is the best of his career.
The past two weekends, the New York Giants tight end has visited 36 hours before a kickoff at Washington and during a bye week. Will it be three in a row? The Giants play host to Miami on Sunday at 10 a.m.
He might have already earmarked the weekends of Oct. 26 (at Minnesota) and Dec. 21 (at Dallas), when the Giants aren't on the East Coast, for a few hours of Las Vegas fun.
(Pause, while you pick. We would have tallied the figure through the entire game, but "60 Minutes" was a much more desirable option.)
If you said 46, advance to Houston and a seat at the 50-yard line for Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium. And ESPN does a much better job than its competitors of NOT cutting to an ad, instead offering some analysis, two or three times per half.
So, on any given Sunday, expect to see a minimum of 300 television commercials during the course of watching morning and afternoon games, and the marquee night contest.
Division hits
NFC: West -- Ex-Arizona boss John Mackovic should send an application to San Francisco, where GM Terry Donahue has 15 former Pac-10 coaches on his staff. South -- Carolina DE Mike Rucker earned NFL player-of-the-month honors. North -- A Wednesday shake-up at Halas Hall in Chicago centered on benching defensive vets in favor of rookies. East -- Redskins QB Patrick Ramsey averages an NFL-best 8 yards per pass attempt. Philly, with the second-worst pass defense, tries to stop him Sunday.
AFC: West -- San Diego and Jacksonville meet for the first time Sunday, in Florida. South -- WR Jimmy Smith returned to the 0-4 Jaguars this week after serving a four-game, drug-related suspension. North -- The Steelers have won nine of the past 10 against the Browns in Pittsburgh. East -- Miami QB Jay Fiedler boldly called out the Giants' defense, which allows an NFL-worst 314 passing yards a game. "This is not the week we're going to let them find themselves," said Dolphins WR Chris Chambers.
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