Quick Kicks

Here’s MY calling card …

Jacksonville receiver Keenan McCardell says Pittsburgh’s Greg Lloyd hit him with a cheap shot Sunday because Lloyd mistakenly thought McCardell had made a threatening call to his house.

McCardell denied that he ever made such a call, but said he suspects that someone on the Steelers’ staff made the call to motivate Lloyd.

The Steelers took over first place in the AFC Central by beating the Jaguars 23-17 in overtime.

McCardell said Lloyd came up and leveled him well after the whistle on the first play of the game, a long incompletion by Mark Brunell.

“He didn’t need to do that,” McCardell said. “He said I called his house and threatened his family. I don’t need to do that. … I hope the league fines (him) … for it.

“After the game, he told me, ‘Be a man. Own up to it.’ I used to have a lot of respect for him, but not now. … He should remember that what goes around, comes around,” McCardell said.

Wait ‘til next week

The Dallas Cowboys lost Troy Aikman in the first quarter, then lost the game in the final minute.

Aikman suffered a mild concussion and strained neck when he was sacked in the first quarter at Philadelphia.

After he was hurt, Aikman was replaced by Wade Wilson and didn’t return. Aikman said team doctors wouldn’t let him play, even though he felt he could.

“I felt I could have gone back in in the second half,” Aikman said. “I have every intention of playing next week.”

Falcons lose owner

Retired insurance executive Rankin Smith, praised when he brought NFL football to Atlanta three decades ago but derided when the Falcons failed to become a winner, died Sunday. He was 72.

Smith, owner and chairman of the board, died of heart failure at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. Smith bid $8.5 million, a record for a sports franchise at the time, to gain the expansion franchise that began play in 1966.

By the numbers

Eric Bieniemy set a Cincinnati team record when he returned a kickoff 102 yards… . Kansas City’s Marcus Allen extended his league mark for rushing touchdowns by getting No. 117… . The Giants have 29 sacks in nine games, just one less than they had all last season… . Under coach Ray Rhodes, the Eagles are 10-1 in October… . Buffalo linebacker Damien Covington had 22 tackles, including 16 solo stops, against Denver… . Houston kicker Al Del Greco has made 86 of his last 100 field goals and 123 straight extra points… . Philadelphia’s Irving Fryar had five catches and passed former New England teammate Stanley Morgan to take 10th place on the career reception yardage list.

Noteworthy

When Rams quarterback Mark Rypien threw his first pass since the final game of the 1995 season, it was intercepted by another former Washington State star, Chiefs cornerback James Hasty… . The last time Washington and Baltimore met in an NFL game, the Redskins beat the Colts 38-14 in 1981.

The final thought

“In my wildest dreams, certainly I did, but I have a lot of wild dreams.”

- Coach Jim Fassel, after being asked if he had imagined that his Giants could be so successful

, DataTimes