They Said It

? Norm Van Brocklin, former NFL quarterback and coach and now a pecan farmer in Social Circle, Ga., describing the brain surgery he underwent two years ago: "It was a brain transplant. I got a sportswriter's brain so I could be sure I had one that hadn't been used."

?Carl Mauck, Houston Oiler center, discussing the problem of adjusting to new Quarterback Gifford Nielsen, who succeeds the freer-spirited Ken Stabler: "In the huddle, I can't get used to the smell of milk shakes on Gifford's breath."