When you have two QBs ...

Doug Plank, the former strong safety for the Chicago Bears, once said, "Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental."\nSo it was laugh-worthy last week when a San Diego Chargers defensive end claimed he thought Doug Flutie, 41, should be the Chargers' starting quarterback instead of Drew Brees. If the Chargers are seriously debating whether Flutie should start at quarterback, then they are going nowhere fast.\nSure, Flutie played extremely well, going 21 for 29 for 248 yards and two touchdowns and scoring two additional touchdowns on the ground. Any gains the Chargers make, however, will have no long-term benefits.\nThe bigger picture shows teams that have quarterback controversies usually do not win big. Merely having a quarterback controversy is a bad sign. How it turns out is almost irrelevant.\nThe Cleveland Browns are a prime example. Neither Tim Couch nor Kelly Holcomb have played well this year, and even if they had, the Browns would not be in playoff contention because of their defense. \nThe real story this season wasn't the quarterback controversy, ignited by Holcomb's brilliant performance in last year's playoffs subbing for the injured Couch, but the Browns' decision to dump their linebacking core of Earl Holmes, Dwayne Rudd and Darren Hambrick in favor of Ben Taylor, Andra Davis and Kevin Bentley. The Browns have had a brutal time of it trying to stop the run with the new linebackers.\nIn addition, William Green, who ran for 726 yards in his last seven games last year, has run for just 559 yards this year. And to make a bad year worse, he missed Sunday's game against Kansas City due to a team-issued one-game suspension after being arrested for DUI and then being subsequently caught with 3.2 grams of marijuana during a search on his car.\nThe Miami Dolphins look like their season is unraveling. Instability at quarterback has seemingly affected the defense as well. Sunday, Titans quarterback Steve McNair, a quarterback whom the Dolphins' had never lost to, riddled the Dolphins for 201 yards and two touchdowns as Tennessee romped 31-7.\nThe unsettled quarterback situation hasn't helped. Brian Griese threw three interceptions and lost two fumbles against the Titans. The Dolphins' acquisition of Griese in the first place came about because of concerns Jay Fiedler couldn't win the big one or in the case of the Dolphins' failure to make the playoffs, even get the Dolphins to the big one.\nAnd who can talk about quarterback controversies without mentioning Plank's old team. The Bears have had, in essence, an ongoing quarterback controversy for over 50 years now, ever since Hall-of-Famer Sid Luckman retired following the 1950 season. The only quarterback they've had since of reliable quality was Jim McMahon, the man who quarterbacked the team to its lone Super Bowl title 18 years ago.\nAnd it's not like the Bears didn't have quarterback controversies during McMahon's time as McMahon was constantly injured during his seven-year run with the Bears. Whether it has been Bill Wade vs. Rudy Bukich or Mike Tomczak vs. Steve Fuller or Kordell Stewart vs. Chris Chandler vs. Rex Grossman, the Bears can neither escape quarterback controversies nor identify one who will make it a non-issue. And without a good quarterback, it probably is no coincidence that the Bears went from 1971 to 2002 without having a Pro Bowl wide receiver either.\nLook at the good teams in the NFL, and one finds they have no quarterback controversies. Peyton Manning is entrenched in Indianapolis. McNair is an MVP favorite in Tennessee. Trent Green has excelled with the Chiefs. \nMeanwhile, the Rams' season turned around once coach Mike Martz stopped catering to Kurt Warner and gave the job to Marc Bulger. Brett Favre has kept Green Bay among the league's elite teams for over a decade now. Daunte Culpepper has played so well in Minnesota that Gus Frerotte's fine job in relief while Culpepper was recovering from a back injury led to no upheaval. And things started going much better in Seattle when Mike Holmgren picked Matt Hasselbeck and stuck with him instead of giving into the temptation to give Trent Dilfer another try.\nA good starting quarterback can settle a team. Rarely will it divide a team. When Bengals coach Marvin Lewis announced even before training camp began that Jon Kitna and not Carson Palmer would be the team's starting quarterback, he settled a controversy early. Sure, Kitna had to play well to make Lewis look good, but by naming Kitna, he imbued him with confidence. The Bengals are playing better than they have in years.\nThey're much less temperamental.