Welcome to football’s zombie week, the languid intermission where we take sips of amaro or calvados and rummage for things to talk about. Soon they’ll herd us all back for the grand finale.

In the meantime, no, I won’t spoil your brain with another one of those tedious Ranking o’ the Super Bowls columns. What about a top 10 defiled living-room scenes from "Hoarders ," or…? Oh, never mind.

But it is a fine time to reminisce. There’s a little quiet in the house. We can hear ourselves think. So please, allow me to welcome back a few old friends to the room, folks who are well acquainted with the subject at hand.

HIT MAN: Cliff Harris, Dallas Cowboys, XII — “I said something in the papers I came to regret. I said, ‘We’re gonna beat Denver. I know we are. Craig Morton is going to be knocked out and he won’t finish the game.’

“I didn’t say that maliciously but, heck, we were gonna come after him. That was no secret. Craig wasn’t very mobile to begin with, and I knew he had a big bruise on his leg from the first time we played them.

“We were knocking him on his ass. I’m sure he was hurting; that’s why he was getting rid of the ball early. When a quarterback goes down on the hard Astroturf it hurts. It’s not like falling on a bed.

“Anyway, Coach Landry got upset for me saying that, but sure enough it came true. We did knock him out."

UPSET: Curt Gowdy, NBC Sports, SB III — “I remember coming down the lobby in the Americana Hotel in Miami before heading over to the Orange Bowl for the game. Howard Cosell was sitting there. He was a figure in New York at the time but not nationally. Anyway I hear him yelling out, ‘Cowboy! Cowboy!’ That was his nickname for me.

“He came over and said, “You know, Cowboy, I hate to see it today. The Colts will break Joe Willie’s legs.”

“I said, 'Well, there are other teams that have been after him. And nobody has broken them yet.' "