Two of the best-known - certainly the winningest - quarterbacks ever in the NFL will be on the field Saturday night when the Vikings seek their fourth straight exhibition win with a game against the Chiefs.
It will be Joe Montana against Jim McMahon - at least for a quarter.McMahon, who will celebrate his 34th birthday on Saturday, will play the first quarter for the Vikings while Montana, who looked sharp in a quarter last week, may play as much as a half for the Chiefs.
"I just want to get these two fake games over with and then tee it up for real," said McMahon, who has won the starting job in Minnesota in part because he ranks second in NFL history to Montana in winning percentage.
The Chiefs sent first-and third-round draft choices to San Francisco for the 37-year-old Montana, who has done nothing to diminish his legendary, celebrity status. Nearly 80,000 fans turned out for the Chiefs' preseason opener and the game with Vikings is also sold out.
Montana guided the Chiefs to the Buffalo 1 on the first drive of the game, although the Chiefs came away without points. He finished 6-of-11 for 97 yards.
"I'm glad it's over with, that portion of it," Montana said of his first game in a Chiefs' uniform. "Now we can go on to bigger and better things from here."
Cowboys
Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman has certain expectations for his first Cowboys start since the Super Bowl - he expects the offense to be sharp and he doesn't anticipate sympathy from Buddy Ryan.
Aikman, who had off-season back surgery, will play between one and two quarters Saturday when the Cowboys play the Houston Oilers in a soldout preseason game in the 65,000-seat Alamodome.
"I really am expecting to go out and for us to look sharp, maybe not mid-season form, but I would like to think we will be able to move the football and put some points on the board," Aikman said.
Aikman's return to action will be against the 46 defense devised by Oilers defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.
"I don't think (Ryan) is going to come after me any more than any other quarterback," Aikman said. "It's a defensive scheme where he believes in putting a lot of pressure on the quarterback.
49ers
Steve Young has been cleared to resume throwing a football one week from today, less than three weeks after he broke a bone in the tip of his thumb. Young's status for the 49ers' season opener on Sept. 5 remains, officially, in doubt, but it appears likely he'll be physically able to play.
Coach George Seifert, wary of rushing Young back too soon and losing him for an extended period with a possible aggravation of the injury, continued to hold to a conservative view that he would get Bill Musgrave ready to start at quarterback. But Seifert acknowledged Young's condition was "a little bit better than we might have expected," and said that if Young were fully ready to practice in 13 days, on the Wednesday before the opener at Pittsburgh, he would start.
Transactions
Rich Gannon is moving and Andre Rison is returning.
In a busy day of NFL transactions Thursday, Minnesota sent Rich Gannon, its starting quarterback for most of last season, to Washington for a conditional draft choice.
Andre Rison, the only player in NFL history to catch more than 300 passes in his first four seasons, signed a two-year contract with the Falcons. Jumbo Elliott, a tackle whom the Giants made their franchise player, agreed to a contract for this season. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Harold Green, 25, who made $305,000 in 1992 - when he rushed for 1,170 yards, second only to James Brooks (1,239 in 1989) in Bengals history - signed a three-year, $4.1 million deal