"The equipment managers at Southern Cal stuck a nickname on Matt Leinart early on. They liked to call him "Snake," after Kenny Stabler.

With his clean-cut All-American-boy countenance, Leinart hardly bears a physical resemblance to Stabler, whose scruffy silver beard, unruly hair and purported occasional whiskey breath in the huddle became personal trademarks. But like Stabler, Leinart is a lefthander, which is where the Snake thing came from.

Now, also like Stabler, he's the starting quarterback for Houston's professional football team.

But unlike Stabler, who at 35 took the Oilers' reins in 1980 with his best years in the rearview mirror, Leinart presumably has his prime in front of him. And if he's a student of football history, he should find inspiration from the script of Stabler's career, as well as that of Steve Young, the only other southpaw quarterback to win a Super Bowl."