Redskins Look To End Controversy

With Heath Shuler’s season over, Washington Redskins coach Norv Turner gave the first indication that the Redskins quarterback dilemma may not extend to a third year.

Shuler was enjoying perhaps his best game in the NFL when he suffered a hairline fracture to his little finger and sprains to both his ring and index fingers of his right hand in Sunday’s 35-23 victory over the St. Louis Rams. It threw yet another wrinkle into the controversy that has dominated Turner’s two years as coach.

Turner said Gus Frerotte will make his 11th start of the season next Sunday in the finale against Carolina, but the coach hedged when asked if both second-year quarterbacks would be back when training camp opens next summer.

“From an emotional standpoint, that’s what I’d like to do,” Turner said. “But I think there’s a lot more things that enter into it and those are the things that we’ll look at hard in January and early February.”

Hampton makes run for job

Rodney Hampton was supposed to run into the Giants’ sunset after the season. But one day after running all over the Dallas Cowboys, he has forced the Giants into making a decision that could keep them awake at night for months.

Teams wish they could have such a problem. The Giants have a stacked backfield in Hampton, a great runner who simply destroyed the Cowboys with a career-high 187 yards and still has a lot of years left in him, and Tyrone Wheatley, the No.1 draft pick, a big back with sprinter speed.

The problem is that Hampton is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and in the final year of a three-year contract that paid him an average of $2.3 million a season. The Giants can’t afford to have two high-priced running backs on their roster, but at the same time can they trust their backfield to Wheatley? End zone

Reggie White, who played in Green Bay’s win over New Orleans despite a serious hamstring injury, may play Sunday against Pittsburgh. Packers coach Mike Holmgren said if Detroit loses to Tampa Bay he could bench White rather than risk further damage… . The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL, alleging violations of antitrust laws connected with the Rams’ move to the city… . Miami linebacker Brian Cox’s spitting episode with Buffalo fans and fight with Bills fullback Carwell Gardner is being reviewed by NFL officials.