GUS STILL WANTS TO START

With plenty of graybearded quarterbacks still drawing interest from NFL teams, one older signal-caller who was 8-3 as a starter in 2008 wants to be the No. 1 option, somewhere. The guy in question is Gus Frerotte, a chronic overachiever who started his career as a seventh-round rookie who outperformed the third overall draft pick in D.C., and who has been a consistent contributor to nearly 25 percent of the league’s teams. Frerotte is under contract in Minnesota for 2009. But he possibly talked his way out of town with criticism directed at the franchise after the team’s season ended with a wild-card loss to the Eagles. Coach Brad Childress had declared Frerotte the starter for the balance of the campaign in September, benching Tavaris Jackson. After Frerotte suffered a fracture in his back, Jackson got the job -- and Childress stuck with him even after Frerotte had healed. It’s a safe bet that, in 2009, the quality of the team’s quarterback play will influence the ongoing employment of Childress and his staff. Regardless of whether Childress wants Frerotte to return as a reserve to whoever the starter might be, Frerotte doesn’t sound like he’s interested in that option. “A lot of people say, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to go back there and, if you’re not starting, just stand there and watch?’ but it’s not about that for me,” Frerotte told Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I played a lot with those guys, so I can still play. . . . “I was only in the offense for six months, so I should get a lot better with another year under my belt,” he said. “I think I’ve earned the right to be a starter. It wasn’t handed to me. I went in and played well and gave everything I had to the team.”