Quote of the Week I

Bill Walsh's 49ers had several memorable playoff games against Bill Parcells' Giants. George Rose/Getty Images

MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

"We weren't buddy-buddy, but you can respect your enemy. Know what I mean? He integrated good people into an excellent offensive philosophy, and that's what made the 49ers such a feared opponent every time we played them.

"When we played, our plan was to never let Joe Montana throw on time. They wanted to go five steps, then get the ball out; they weren't a protection-oriented offense. So we wanted to disrupt their rhythm, and when we did, we had a pretty good chance.

"We had some very memorable games. The two games in 1984, the second time in the playoffs when we gave them a game. Then when we knocked them out of the playoffs in '85 and '86. Every time we played, it seems like such a big game. When I go to my grave, those are some of the games I'll really remember ...

"Not long ago, he came to visit me in Dallas. He just wanted to talk. It was really wonderful. We sat in my office -- I was still coaching -- and just talked football. I will miss him. He is among the very few coaches, very few, that made the NFL what it is today.''
-- Bill Parcells on Bill Walsh.

Quote of the Week II

"It's kind of a cynical thing to say, but most guys don't care. They care about winning football games.''
-- Atlanta quarterback Joey Harrington, talking about how his teammates have moved on with Vick gone.

Quote of the Week III

"Make sure he knows how to spell my last name. It's got two C's.''

-- The star of Vikings camp, cornerback Marcus McCauley, to Vikes publicist Tom West after I spoke with the third-round pick out of Fresno State at Minnesota's training camp last week.

Quote of the Week IV

"Some people believe they can dominate anything. Although, I'm finding you can't dominate death, that's for sure, or sickness, or disease. But I'm trying.''
-- Al Davis.

Let's Not Make August Such a Big Deal Stat of the Week

Oakland was 4-1 in the 2006 preseason. Indianapolis was 1-3.

Regular Old Stat of the Week

Preseason stat line of the weekend:

Kellen Clemens showed the world -- at least the 65 or 70 people who jammed the very lonely Meadowlands on Friday night to see the Jets' preseason opener against Atlanta -- he deserves to compete with Chad Pennington for the Jets quarterback job. (Strange quarterback rotation, by the way, with some strange calls in this game. Pennington played the first two series, a total of 10 plays, and handed off all 10 times. Then Clemens came in for one short drive, resulting in a Jets TD. Then Brad Smith, the former Missouri quarterback, came in for an all-run series. Then it was back to Clemens.)

Clemens led all five scoring drives in a 31-16 win. In the third quarter, the former Oregon QB completed nine consecutive balls, albeit against a backup Falcons group. When offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer went prospecting for players in the two months before the 2006 draft, there's a reason he liked Clemens.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me I

Ballboys throughout history at the Minnesota Vikings training camp:

1. Andy McPhail, GM, Baltimore Orioles
2. Lane Kiffin, coach, Oakland Raiders
3. Jay Foreman, ex-NFL linebacker
4. Troy Walters, wide receiver, Detroit Lions
5. Larry Fitzgerald, wide receiver, Arizona Cardinals

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me II

Scheduling factoids I love:

• Who said life was fair: The Bucs will travel 2,716 miles to Seattle for their first game of the season. The Jets will travel 978 miles, combined, to all road games in their first 11 weeks of the season (Baltimore, Buffalo, New York Giants, Cincinnati).

• Traveling men: The Chargers don't play a Pacific time zone road game until Week 17.

• Homebodies: The Jets play 14 games in Eastern time, two in Central.

• Not friends with Park Avenue: The Chiefs play three of their first four on the road, and three of their last four on the road.

• Just be grateful, baby: The Raiders always seem to find some conspiracy theory or another about the NFL office jobbing them; but they open this season with an eminently decent September: Detroit and Cleveland at home, Denver and Miami on the road.

• Just concede, baby: Peyton Manning in the Black Hole on Dec. 16, his first-ever trip to Oak-town.

• Just Christmas-shop in Ponte Vedra, baby: Oakland plays at Jacksonville for the first time on Dec. 23.

• The NFL Network wants a recall: Indy-Atlanta looked so sexy for Thanksgiving Night a few months ago. Now the best part of the pregame show won't be the showdown between Peyton and Mike. It'll be a serious-looking Adam Schefter doing a standup outside the federal courthouse in Richmond, previewing the Vick dogfighting trial starting four mornings after the game.

Geographical Factoid of the Week that May Interest Only Me

The Seattle Seahawks have signed with a radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska, to carry their games this season. Fairbanks is 2,244 miles away from Qwest Field, and it would take 42 hours to make the drive from there to the stadium.

To get some sense of the distance between Seattle and Fairbanks, imagine if New England got a station in Cheyenne, Wyo., to be Wyoming's home of the Patriots. Foxboro is 314 miles closer to Cheyenne than Seattle is to Fairbanks -- and it would take 13 fewer hours to make the drive from the Rockies to eastern Massachusetts than it would to drive through large chunks of the Yukon to make it to Qwest.

Parts of Russia are closer to Fairbanks, in fact, than Fairbanks is to Seattle. It is a 1,050-mile flight (air miles) from Fairbanks, flying west across the Bering Strait, to the eastern tip of Russia.

MMQB Quiz of the Week

There are three NFL players from South Dakota. You probably know Adam Vinatieri is one of them. He's a descendant of the bandleader who played for Gen. George Custer before Custer went into the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The other two, incredibly, are starters on the same team in the same position group. Name them. (Answer in No. 10a of Ten Things I Think I Think.)

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Notes of the Week

Travel notes from the camp trail, which I think you might like as much as fantasy tips:

1. It takes 83 air minutes to fly across Montana, approximately the same airtime it takes to travel from Chicago to Newark.

2. Northwest Airlines serves Cherry Garcia ice cream and Tillamook cheddar cheese in first class. (Gotta love the perks of being a Continental silver elite flyer, and having their program share flyer programs with Northwest.)

3. Minnesota State, the former Mankato State College that sits 75 miles south of the Twin Cities, has a home football game with Peru State this fall. I bet you didn't know: a) there was such a thing as "Minnesota State,'' except on Coach reruns; and b) there was such a thing as Peru State. It's not in the Andes. It's in Nebraska.

4. The Oakland airport needs a massive infusion of electrical outlets and closer car-rental counters.

5. The Oakland airport does not need better coffee, because it serves Peet's in the United terminal, along with $2.50 Odwallla bars.

6. If Denver's airport were not in suburban Bismarck, it would be the most pleasant airport in the country. The distance from downtown drives you crazy.

7. While the East sweltered most of the week, I was in successive days of 58-, 72-, 65-, and 68-degree overcast weather (River Falls, Mankato, Seattle, Napa).

8. It is cruel to check into Raiders camp at the Napa Marriott, absolutely cruel, because there are vineyards dotting the roadsides on the way up California 29. If you keep going 12 miles up the road, you'll get to Calistoga, where there are tastings in the lobby at 5:30. And to think I missed all of it, and ... well, you don't want to hear a wino's complaints.

10. Flying this summer is like taking the bus. Only most times it's less comfortable. Denver to Newark the other night, in the middle seat in coach of a soldout flight, was something to be endured.

I challenge those smiley airline CEOs just once to fly for 3 1/2 hours in the middle seat in coach, particularly when the person in front of them reclines the seat fully, making it impossible to do anything aside from breathing and praying the people on each side don't smell too much. In fact, I beg one of the airline execs to do it. Then I'd like to hear what a pleasant experience flying is.

Sit back, relax, enjoy the flight. No, what you should say is: Sit back, grit your teeth, exhale only every so often, endure the flight.

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