By BERNIE LINCICOME, Scripps Howard News Service

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Fumble. Fumble. Punt. Punt. Interception. Quarterback change. Fumble.Second half.Punt. Interception. Touchdown. Punt. Punt. That's it. That's the game. That's the shame. That's the season.

The debate is moot, whether Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler's arm is stronger than John Elway's since at the end of neither of Cutler's arms is a Super Bowl ring, a measurement that has diminished many a strong-armed quarterback, with Dan Marino coming most prominently to mind.

The word was a bit Bush-esque but still made sense. Aggress-tivity.This came from the Philadelphia Phillies' Shane Victorino, who was explaining the natural athletic instincts that caused both dugouts to empty at Dodger Stadium. That is baseball, by the way, several degrees below football in aggress-tivity, but part of the nature of competition.

The simple solution to all football problems is to change the quarterback. Failing that, fire the coach.If only . . .Neither of those apply to the Denver Broncos since Jay Cutler is the future and Mike Shanahan is the foundation. And maybe not even the problems part of the equation applies since it is impossible to improve on an undefeated record.

Oh, golf. Sure. Nothing much else going on. Pennant races. Football nail-biters. No-hitters. NASCAR. The further veneration of Michael Phelps.Dropping into autumn, we find a little international spit and spite weekend centered on the silliest of games, Mark Twain's good walk spoiled, or as Paul Gallico concluded, if there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out.

Somewhere among the souvenirs is a picture taken from a ski lodge balcony up above Grenoble, a place called Villard de Lans, the moment Lance Armstrong crosses the finish line of the stage that would propel him on to his sixth of seven Tours de France titles.

Honesty seems so ... well, so day-before-yesterday. But let's try.Of all the modifiers for the Denver Broncos against the Oakland Raiders, any of these would have been entirely satisfactory. Squeaker. Struggle.Adequate. Passable.At the most optimistic? Promising. Encouraging. Routine.

Welcome to a fixed fight. Political conventions are wrestling without the steroids, though a couple of the delegates from New Jersey look suspicious.Excuse the sports references, even as the process of choosing the next president of the United States invariably slops over into my world here in Denver.

The road to baseball's attic is long, if you can find the road. How to get here? Be the best that ever was.Or, in the case of Goose Gossage, exceptional enough to endure a nine-year torment while voters waffled and others took bows. "All I regret," said Gossage, "is my mother did not live to see this."

There was pain in this Open, too, not the illustrious kind when Tiger Woods defied good sense and the limits of his sport to win the U.S. Open in June, but this one was the kind that comes with not knowing at just what point Greg Norman would blow another chance.