Quick Kicks

Eagles pickled pink

It was either a medical breakthrough or a particularly sour-tasting placebo.

It was either the secret ingredient that kept the Eagles plugging through record-breaking heat or the feather that allowed Dumbo the Elephant to fly.

Either way, trainer Rick Burkholder’s pickle juice was a briny success.

“I know it helped me,” safety Brian Dawkins said. “I’m a crampee. I cramp up all the time. I didn’t have a single cramp today.”

Burkholder credited Steve Condon, a college trainer who spent time with the Eagles over the summer, with the idea. Condon had the players drinking pickle juice - plain, in doses of 2 ounces - to prevent dehydration during camp.

Burkholder said the pickle juice contains some combination of salt and nutrients that seems to prevent cramping. He doesn’t know why it works, just that it does.

Chiefs honor Thomas

Edith Morgan greeted and hugged each Chiefs player who emerged from the tunnel and onto the lush Arrowhead Stadium turf.

“They’re all my sons now,” said Morgan, the mother of the late Derrick Thomas, whose memory was celebrated before Sunday’s season opener against the Indianapolis Colts.

“I said, `DT is going to be out there with you,’ “ Morgan said. “ `Play the game as if he’s there.’ “

The Chiefs played their first regular-season game since Thomas, the cornerstone of the franchise for 11 years, died in February from injuries resulting from an automobile accident.

Not coincidentally, the Chiefs lost to the Colts 27-14, snapping an NFL-longest streak of 11 straight victories in home openers, or every opener since Thomas joined the team as its No. 1 draft pick in 1989.

Bledsoe remains hopeful

When it was over, Drew Bledsoe of the Patriots said he was feeling fine physically. It was a different story emotionally, though.

“Those are the kinds of games when you have a chance to win at the end and don’t that take a big toll on me emotionally,” the quarterback said.

“As a kid, you’re always thinking about going out and making the last-second shot in basketball, or whatever,” he added. “In some ways, I’m still like a little kid. I find myself thinking about those situations and when you have them and it doesn’t happen, it’s physically draining.”

Bledsoe enabled the Pats to get a first down at the Bucs’ 22-yard line with less than 20 seconds to go, but he was unable to get in the winning throw.

Davis a rich man

Stephen Davis kicked off his season with a mega deal.

A league source with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the AP that the NFC’s leading rusher last season has agreed to a nine-year contract worth about $90 million, including a signing bonus worth approximately $6.5 million.

They said it …

“I’ve never seen a young quarterback with that much poise. He went into that fourth quarter like a veteran needing to win the game. You never would have known it was his first game,” Vikings defensive end Bryce Paup on quarterback Daunte Culpepper’s first start for Minnesota.