ASHBURN, Va. - Steve Spurrier is getting tired of answering questions about his job.
But they keep coming, mostly variants of the same theme: Will he be coaching the Washington Redskins next season?
"How many times have I answered that?" Spurrier told reporters this week.
"Let's talk about the Seattle game. We're not the only team that's 3-5. We're struggling a little bit, and we're going to try to get better. You ask me that every week, and I give the same answers every week."
Spurrier's answer is that he wants to give himself three seasons to see if his style of play can work in the NFL. He's reached the halfway point with a record of 10-14 and a four-game losing streak, and his undisciplined team is struggling on offense.
"I'm sticking on my three-year deal. Okay?" Spurrier said.
But does that timetable mesh with Dan Snyder's? Spurrier is Snyder's fourth coach since Snyder bought the team in 1999, and recent player moves and the splash made over the use of consultants during the bye week indicate the hands-on owner is getting impatient again.
"Here we go again," cornerback Champ Bailey said. "But you can't buy into it. You can only go by what they do. If he doesn't fire him, we still have him. If he's still here, we need to play for him. It really doesn't bother me."
The guessing game has begun. Which college will land Spurrier for next season? Who would want to work for Snyder if he dumps yet another coach?
Or is it all just smoke and no fire?
"He supports the coach and is confident the coach will get this right," Snyder's spokesman, Karl Swanson, said Thursday. "Dan hopes Spurrier will stay for the entire term of the contract."
The contract - five years, $25-million - would complicate any sort of change. Snyder would have to swallow a huge amount of money if he fired the coach. Spurrier, in turn, would be unlikely to quit and leave all that money behind.
Needless to say, the daily rumors are the last thing the players want to hear as they search for answers to end the losing skid.
"If you have any pride, it affects you," quarterback Patrick Ramsey said. "But at the same time, you don't really listen to it a whole lot. You have a job to do."
BRONCOS: Linebacker John Mobley is out for the season with a bruised spinal cord. The team put Mobley on injured reserve, making him ineligible for the remainder of the year. Mobley won't require surgery but will need 6-9 months to heal, doctors said.
FALCONS: Cornerback Juran Bolden will start even though he faces criminal charges for driving a stolen car and marijuana possession. Coach Dan Reeves decided to take a more lenient approach with Bolden, who was promoted to the starting lineup after he was jailed. "We feel that Juran will be found not guilty, or we wouldn't feel like he's a part of our football team," Reeves said.
GIANTS: Mike Barrow is making an impact the old-fashioned way for middle linebackers - with tackle after tackle after tackle. Halfway through the season, the 11-year veteran and former Miami standout has 96 tackles and is on the way to breaking the team's single-season best of 146 tackles set by Harry Carson in 1979. "He's hustled his butt off," defensive end Michael Strahan said of Barrow. "I told him early this year, "I have never seen you play like this in all the years you have been here.' "
RAIDERS: As the longest-tenured member of the team, Tim Brown decided it was time he talked to his frustrated teammates. The message: Shut up and play. Brown addressed the 2-6 team in an effort to get it back on track after the franchise's worst start in 39 years and the public criticism cornerback Charles Woodson had of coach Bill Callahan. "There will be no more comments about all this stuff that has been happening," the 37-year-old Brown said. "I think that was the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, and the best thing to do for this team, which is more important. Talk about football, talk about the Jets, talk about football games, but all this other stuff is not going to get us anywhere at this particular point."
TEXANS: David Carr was upgraded to probable on the injury report, another sign the quarterback will start at Cincinnati after missing a game with a sprained right ankle.
TITANS: State wildlife officials gave a warning to Tennessee right tackle Fred Miller because his hunting license was expired when he killed a 12-point buck with a bow and arrow. Miller also killed the deer on land where he didn't have permission to hunt. He and a friend were hunting Oct. 27 on land near Radnor Lake State Natural Area in Nashville.
