Extra Points

So, what's the secret behind Denver's 8-1 record? According to cornerback Louis Wright and coach Dan Reeves, it's a meeting the two had last July.

"We were at a crossroads as a team," says Wright, the player rep. "This is a team that could have split terribly apart at that time. It's a team that had problems with Coach Reeves."

Says Reeves, "That meeting was probably the single most important thing that happened to this team. It certainly got my attention."

When they got together, a nervous but determined Wright told Reeves that the players felt he was unapproachable, insensitive, too demanding and prone to outbursts on the sideline. "No one was happy," Wright says. "Everyone was saying he was a players' coach, but he wasn't. It was, 'This is the way it's going to be and that's it.' "

"I was shocked," says Reeves, who's in his fourth season as the Broncos' coach. "Gosh. What I thought I was accomplishing, and I was apparently missing the boat. You perceive yourself one way, and it's not necessarily how everyone else sees you. I felt I had great rapport with the players, but after talking to Louis, I realized I didn't."

So Reeves toned down his sideline behavior, eliminated wind sprints in practice, scheduled meetings later and shortened them by an hour, and ended practices earlier. He also let the players know his door was "always open" if they had a problem.

Says Paul Howard, Denver's veteran guard, "He's listening to us now."

Quarterback Joe Theismann sounded unhappy with his coaches after the Redskins were blown out by the Giants Sunday, 37-13. "The Giants gave us a five- or six-man front and let Lawrence Taylor free-lance," said Theismann, who threw 10 straight incompletions in the first half. "They haven't used that before. Last week St. Louis blitzed on nearly every play, and that was a look we hadn't seen before. Each week teams are throwing new defenses at us. We're going to have to start changing our offense on the fly." Asked if the Skins should have revised their attack Sunday, Theismann said, "I can't answer that question."

New Orleans owner John Mecom denies that he has discussed the sale of his Saints with Jacksonville investors who, of course, would house the team at the Gator Bowl. But Jacksonville Mayor Jake Godbold insists otherwise. " John Mecom is a liar," he says. "He talked to our people, and he denied he did. He wants to sell the team for $75 million, and we have people in Jacksonville who are willing to pay $70 million. That extra five is more than it's worth."

Fred Williams, the Saints' vice president of administration, says that no one with the club's authority had made contact with Godbold about selling the team. "The mayor of Jacksonville is a liar," Williams says. "He used the term liar, so I will use it, too. Mayor Godbold is a guy that runneth over at the mouth."