Mark Vlasic

Mark Vlasic--the Chargers' newest bearded wonder--walked out into the cool night air and gave his mom and dad a hug. His mother, as mothers are known to do, asked Mark how he was feeling, and he said: "Fine, Mom. Just fine." The Chargers were almost hoping he'd fall down and hurt himself or something. They think Vlasic--a rookie otherwise known as The Arm--could use a season on the injured reserve list to learn the ins and outs of pro football.

It was Picture Day at Charger training camp and Rick Neuheisel was getting a hard time about his shiny uniform pants. It seems he'd gotten the odd pair in the barrel. Neuheisel laughed along with the players who teased him and admitted he would rather be in the plain white pants everyone else was wearing. "You like to blend in," he said.

He comes from a quarterback-rich area in western Pennsylvania that has produced Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana and Jim Kelly. "I hope there's room for one more in pro football," said Mark Vlasic, who was drafted in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the Chargers last week. Vlasic, who grew up in Monaca, Pa., and played college football at Iowa, may be the eventual successor to Dan Fouts, but inexperience is likely to keep him in a backup role for at least a few years.

In a test of loyalties, football fans in the state of Iowa found themselves cheering both sides in a recent game between the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. Among Iowans, the Bears are generally the favorite among the 28 National Football League teams. But the presence in the Detroit starting lineup of former Iowa quarterback Chuck Long gave Iowa fans a reason to root for the Lions.

Although Mark Vlasic, starting his first game since taking over for All-American Chuck Long, threw for 288 yards and Jim Mauro caught a record-tying 3 touchdown passes Saturday, Coach Hayden Fry said his defense held the key to a season-opening 43-7 victory over Iowa State. While Iowa's offense was amassing 580 total yards, the defense held the Cyclones to 125 yards, including minus-11 rushing. The Hawkeyes also had 7 sacks and gave up only 8 first downs.