Jerry Rice was pinned against a whitewashed cement wall inside Arrowhead Stadium trying, unsuccessfully, to stir his memory. The greatest wide receiver in NFL history looked weary and worn down. His face was wrinkled from the bitter loss and, even more so, his fourth-quarter fumble on the Oakland 22 that led to the Chiefs' game-winning score and the Raiders' third straight loss.

When, he was asked, was the last time he had coughed up such a costly fumble and looked so, well, mortal?

	30 Second Column
	Thirty seconds in coach Dick Vermeil's office: Deep inside Arrowhead Stadium, it overlooks the west end zone and the concrete tidal wave that rises up beyond it. The expansive room is decorated like a cross between a CEO's suite and a cigar bar -- all black leather and dark-grained wood. A bar in the far corner sits empty and bare. The other side of the office, facing a hallway, is all glass. Vermeil's desk is completely covered with thick binders, game plans and stats, including one spreadsheet that says teams that won the turnover ratio also won 75 of the first 86 games of the 2002 season. A play from Sunday's win against the Raiders is frozen on a computer screen behind his desk. Pictures of his family and friends cover every table top and shelf. Next to them is an intricate model of a stealth fighter. The centerpiece of the room, on the wall directly in front of his desk, is a large portrait of his team in St. Louis and a replica of the Lombardi Trophy they won.
	The Flemister File
	Wherein we follow the exploits of FlemFile mascot and Washington TE Zeron Flemister: Late last week in an effort to shake up his team 'Skins coach Steve Spurrier announces that Z-Flem, who started the first five games of the year and has played through torn cartilage in his right knee, is among the players deactivated for Sunday's game against the Colts -- perhaps a signal that the team will focus more on the running game and less on Spurrier's Fun-n-Gun-n-three-n-done. This is the roller coaster that is an NFL season: A month ago he was one of the few standouts on offense. Sunday he watched the game from the sidelines in his street clothes. A disheartened Z-Flem, one of the few guys in the league who would return a phone call after this kind of week, picks it up from there. "This is the first time this has happened to me and it was an eye-opener. It's only human nature but at first, my reaction was to get mad and to blame it all on coach and ask why he was picking on me. But it's not all him, it's me. You want to say I don't have any control over this but I do -- I can practice harder and play harder and block better. I must have done something to put this idea to sit me down in his head. I stayed with the team and attended all the meetings and at first I did try to laugh it off and say, like, 'This is no big deal.' But it is. When I went out onto the field on Sunday and had to leave the rest of the tight ends so they could go warm up, it hit me hard. "Coach has said all year that if things aren't going right he will make changes and I think little things, like not blocking well, get magnified when you are losing -- but this is really hard on you as a player and a person. Guys who know coach Spurrier have come up to me and told me, 'Don't take it too hard, this is the way he is, it's just the way he coaches. He's different. He's a different type of coach. Keep your head up, he did this to get a point across to you and the team.' Well, I can tell you one thing, he got his point across to me, that's for sure."
	The Flem Five
	Top Five Guarantees Inspired by the Bengals' Promise to beat the Texans: 5. Emmitt Smith guarantees Alf an Emmy. 4. Steve Spurrier guarantees to stick with one QB. 3. Chiefs defense guarantees shutout. 2. Coyote guarantees he'll catch Road Runner. 1. Philly fans guarantee they'll miss The Vet.
	WHYLO of the Week
	In this week's WHYLO bag, Marc Thompson says, "I didn't think it possible but you may have supplanted Bill Simmons as my favorite ESPN scribe." Stephen Hallowell writes, "Finally someone writes an article about Gunners, the unmentioned, unloved heroes of the game!" Allen Berroya agrees, saying last week's column was "By far the best football article I've ever read." Lots of mail from Ohio U fans about the big matchup this week with my Lil' RedHawks from Miami but by far this schizophrenic email titled "Muck Fiami!!!" from Bob Villanueva was my fav. "Will we win? Probably not, but sports has never been a priority at OU and our fans have been loyal through thick and thin. Usually thin though, I'll give you that one." Lions fans weighed in heavily on the Matt Millen 30-Second Column and the Joey Harrington Flem File Five. Don Lee writes, "Rock on with your 30 Second Column! Finally! Someone with the guts to stand up and call Matt Millen what he truly is ... the most overly celebrated football moron of all-time." "With apologies to Al Franken," writes Jamal Hayden, "Matt Millen is a big fat idiot." He had his defenders, though. Joey Douglas writes, "I'd be more than willing to see you & Matt in a cage match. For your sake, I hope you're a better fighter than a writer. Excerpts like your comments on Matt Millen is one of the reasons why this sports nut won't subscribe to any magazine dumb enough to employ you. I'm just one more person who finds your writing skills and your understanding of sports' mentality inept." At least Joey had the guts to claim his vitriol. That's more than I can say for someone who logs on as Wmubear. "What's the matter, do you want Joey to rub your cheeks? You must be a [homophobic slur] to think the way you thought, when you wondered if Raiola blushed. I wish I knew where you were RIGHT now, so I can toss the [poo-poo] you just stirred up right in your face." Well, now we know what the W in Wmubear stands for: Who Helped You Log On?
	Flem Gems
	Kansas City Thought No. 1: Somehow they got the trees that line Arrowhead Stadium to turn Chiefs red and orange just in time for Raider Week. The more a player or coach whines, spars or looks down his nose at the media during his career, the faster he'll pick up a mike once he retires. Note to Christina Aguilera: Thanks for trying, but it ain't working. KCT2: Are the Chief fans who hold up the "D + Fence" sign loyal or clueless? The new Nirvana song only makes me sad. To support their fave NHL team more people should grow mullets during the playoffs. KCT3: After games the Arrowhead staff cordons off the team's supply of breakfast cereal with yellow police tape. I don't want to play this out in the media but the kids' rollerhockey team I help coach is 4-0-2 with me behind the bench and 0-2 with my neighbor Jak coaching solo. You do the math. IN A WARMUP FOR THEIR MASSACRE OF RIVAL OHIO (an 18 point underdog), MY LIL' REDHAWKS FROM MIAMI 27, TOLDEO 13. I have a feeling Halloween as a father is even better than Halloween as a kid. ... This column was written while listening to Rage Against the Machine and New Order.

"Oh, I can't remember," he stammered. "I was surprised the ball came out … I had ... I had both arms around it … It was just one of those games."

Something looked different about Rice. I stood back and studied him for several minutes. And then it hit me. He's looked old to me before. I mean, the guy is 40, for cripe's sake. But the frayed cornrows. The hip new suit. The earring. The goatee. The tired eyes. This was the first time I had ever seen him this way: as an older guy trying really hard to look young -- and not pulling it off.

Perhaps he was just trying to fit in with the rest of the Raid, er, Grayders, the NFL's oldest team.

Oakland has six starters -- Rice, 40; CB Rod Woodson, 37; DE Trace Armstrong, 37; QB Rich Gannon, 36; WR Tim Brown, 36; and LB Bill Romanowski, 36 -- who are ancient by NFL standards. (And that's not counting kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who is only 24 but has the body of a 48-year-old.) And like most vintage items this team is as fragile as it is costly. The Grayders are already $50 mil over the 2003 salary cap.

Still, Al Davis insists that in the NFL there is no such thing as getting old, and certainly early on his team proved him right. (Old Al still has a few tricks up his sleeve too, the way he swindled the Bucs this summer in the Jon Gruden deal.) Oakland started the season 4-0, averaging 40.5 points and 461.5 yards per game.

But, even in the fickle world of professional football, it has been shocking to watch how quickly this team has gone from the Raiders to the Grayders; from savvy, smart and experienced to old, slow and feeble. Suddenly you look at the Raider logo and wonder if that pirate dude is wearing an eye patch because of glaucoma.

Dating back to last year's late fade, the Grayders have now lost six of their last 10 regular season games. "As the season wears on, your body is going to break down." says fifth-year guard Mo Collins. "There's nothing you can do. And that's the way it is for young guys-- so I can only guess what it would be like for an older veteran."

Sunday in Kansas City, Oakland's dink-n-dunk offense moved up the field with all the speed and violence of one of those granny scooters that maxes out at 3.5 mph. None of Gannon's first eight passes traveled more than five yards. And as I watched this team charge down the field like ketchup out of a bottle, I kept hearing that scooter in my mind -- you know … Meep! Meep! -- and thinking that even at 3.5 mph it's a short trip from ageless to aged in the NFL.

"We're in a rut, what can I tell you," Gannon said after the game. "These next couple three-four weeks will determine where this season is gonna go."

Yes, Gannon is having another Pro Bowl season. Yes, Rice leads the team in receptions. Yes, Brown had 13 catches Sunday. Yes, Woodson has three picks and Romo has three sacks. And yes, Grayder games seem to stop every five minutes to celebrate some other kind of career milestone. But, come on, you know that this league is about so much more than stats. It's about emotion and energy and enthusiasm. It's about attrition and staying mentally fresh, catching fire late in the season and riding a wave to the Super Bowl.

In other words, this is a young man's game. And the Grayders may be game but they sure aren't young.

In fact, when they complain about catches they sound like old men lamenting about not being regular. And when they struggle in the red zone, in part it's because a shortened field means more physical, one-on-one battles. After Rice's fumble and the Chiefs' subsequent RZ score, the Grayders gathered up on the sidelines like they were milling around waiting for the early bird special to begin.

Armstrong sat there dejected and slumped over on the bench with his chin in his hand. Rice stood by himself, glassy-eyed. Gannon, flecs of gray creeping up his sideburns and vining out across his head, looked disheveled. The entire left side of his uni was a giant grass stain. And Romo was screaming at rookie 'backer Napoleon Harris after a blown assignment on the TD, shaking his fist like an old geezer would wave a cane.

Like anyone else creeping closer to the Grayders' demographic, this kind of unraveling was not easy to watch. Personally, I would like nothing more then for them to turn back the clock on football and society. Last week our neighborhood peewee rollerhockey team challenged the coaches to a scrimmage after a game. A few minutes later I was flat on my back, exhausted and gasping for air when a kid skated by and whispered, "Geez, look at you, ya old man…"

I got up, chased him down and checked him into the boards -- hard. And he will be getting a stalk of broccoli on Halloween.

But how about the Grayders? Do they have any fight left in them? They've already burned their bye week and face only two teams with losing records the rest of the way. But can they hoist themselves up, chase down some younger teams in the second half of the season and check them into the boards?

Kansas City Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil sure thinks so. On Monday he watched film of the Rice fumble and kept rewinding and rewatching the tape in awe.

"Jerry Rice just doesn't hand it to you like that," said Vermeil. "We had to attack and punch that ball outta there. We had two linebackers on top of him and he still about got that ball back with one hand. One hand! Oh, he is such a competitor. Such a tremendous man and such a football player."

Such a Grayder. For life.

Literally.

David Fleming is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at FlemFile@carolina.rr.com. But watch out -- you could be the WHYLO of the Week.