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Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte is 37. Titans quarterback Kerry Collins is the spring chicken at 35.
Hey guys, who called the AARP convention?
Hey Gus, what was it like playing against Vince Lombardi?
Hey Kerry, you’re so old that Joe Paterno was still coaching Penn State when you were playing for the Nittany Lions. Oh wait ...
None of those witty one-liners, however, can match the one Collins offered up himself this week.
“It’s the battle of the blue-hairs, I guess,” he said with a chuckle.
Ah, the personal confidence that only maturity can bring.
What’s not so funny is that both teams’ seasons, which began with sky-high expectations, ride on the wrinkled old right arms of these two journeymen.
Both franchises started the season with New Age quarterbacks — Vince Young in Tennessee and Tarvaris Jackson in Minnesota — who have rocket arms and legs, too, which seems to be becoming a necessity in this era of wide-open offenses and blitz-from-anywhere defenses.
Just three games into the 2008 season, however, both teams have resorted to backups from the Stone Age to keep them afloat.
Frerotte and Collins are quintessential drop-back, cement-legged passers who only like to run when the dinner bell rings (a dated reference no doubt lost on Jackson and Young).
“We’re very similar in that nobody can catch us on the field. We’re really fast,” Frerotte cracked about his fellow tricenarian — yes, that’s a word.
What they lack in the 40-yard dash, they’ve so far made up in guts and smarts honed over years of chucking footballs against every defense imaginable.
Frerotte stepped in as the starter last week after the Vikings struggled in the passing game in two losses to open the season. The 25-year-old Jackson was inconsistent in two games of his second full season as the starter.
But he didn’t get much help from his receivers or the playcalling either, and things opened up a little bit in Frerotte’s first start against Carolina last weekend.
It’s been a different story in Tennessee. Young won the offensive rookie of the year in 2006, but his third season has been a bizarre roller coaster.
It opened with him as one of the leaders of the offense. But he injured his knee in the fourth quarter of the season opener, then took off on a drive without his cell phone and prompted Titans officials to call police and said they were worried Young might commit suicide.
He has rejoined the team and is working his way back to health, but coach Jeff Fisher is going with Collins for the time being. Considering Collins’ own history of off-field shenanigans, it’s a little scary to think of him as a rock to lean on. But he’s been just that so far for the 3-0 Titans, showing that anything can happen in the NFL if you stick around long enough.
“I want to lean on all of the experiences I have had over the years and want to just go out the right way,” Collins said. “And not to say that I don’t have good years, in my opinion, after this year, but I know my time is getting shorter and shorter. So I just want to take advantage of the opportunity and play and have fun.”
Thanks in part to Collins, a punishing running game and a stingy defense, the Titans are off to a fast start and he can afford to enjoy the moment a little more.
Gus? The old man better wing it on Sunday. His 1-2 Vikings sure could use a win on the road to bolster their confidence that the 15-year veteran can lead them to a place where Jackson, according to the coaches, wasn’t quite ready to go yet.
But with that age comes perspective, and Frerotte doesn’t appear to be overwhelmed by the moment.
“It’s just funny that we’ve both played a long time and got to this point in different ways,” Frerotte said. “We’ve played with a lot of teams and been through a lot of situations. To be out there and still doing it after all of these years in the league, if you ask him and me, we’re having a lot of fun. You really enjoy the time that you’re out there now.“
Jon Krawczynski can be reached at jkrawczynski(at)ap.org.
