The Chargers awaited word from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders whether they have a chance to play Sunday's game against Houston at Qualcomm Stadium. The mayor only said Qualcomm will be closed to evacuees at noon on Friday. Around that time, he should make a decision about the game. The odds are favoring a Monday night game in San Diego if the mayor can sign off on the availability of the stadium.

Keeping the job: Daunte Culpepper won his challenge from Josh McCown this week. He's staying as the starting quarterback of the Raiders. McCown is back from a broken big toe, a painful injury that immobilized him for more than a month. McCown moved well in practice but Culpepper will be the starter even though no official word is coming from head coach Lane Kiffin. Culpepper has completed 55 of 92 passes for 650 yards and four touchdown passes.

Quitting time: Corey Simon made a wise choice in retiring on Thursday. Many people in the Colts organization thought he should have done that this summer, but players want to play. The way it worked was the right way to go out. Simon, whose career was damaged last year by polyarthritis when he was with the Colts, wanted to continue playing and grabbed a backup job with the Titans. He didn't play much, which was good for his body. Before he signed with the Titans, Simon had to lose a lot of weight from last year. He admitted that it was increasingly harder for his body to recover from practices each day. He quit before anything bad could happen to him. As a former first-round pick who was always associated with winners in Philadelphia and Indianapolis, he had a nice career.

The Titans aren't in a hurry to replace Simon, but they need to do something before long. They only have three defensive tackles on their roster now that Simon has retired. Grady Jackson is the logical choice, but there will be good competition to sign him. The Colts also have needs at that position.

Depleted line: With the release of guard Claude Terrell, the Rams have only four offensive linemen left from the start of training camp. They lost Orlando Pace, Mark Setterstrom and Adam Goldberg to the injured reserve. Center Brett Romberg is still on the active roster, but he's out this week with an ankle injury. That leaves Andy McCullom, Alex Barron and Richie Incognito as the only remaining Rams for Sunday's game against the Browns. Here's how weird the situation is. They have as many castoffs from last year's Cardinals offensive line -- Milford Brown, Nick Leckey and Brandon Gorin -- as they do healthy Rams survivors.

On the outs: Tatum Bell started five games as halfback for the Lions, but he's clearly being phased out. Kevin Jones took over for him as the starter last week, and Bell did not play a down. Now, as the team's fourth-string halfback, he's probably not going to suit up this week. Expect Bell to be deactivated. The Lions plan to go with Jones and T.J. Duckett as their top two backs.

Packer fitness race: Packers coach Mike McCarthy isn't rushing to a decision of whether to let Koren Robinson play in Monday night's game against the Broncos. He's putting Robinson through extensive drills to get him ready for the chance to play. McCarthy said he looks rusty, which is natural because of missing camp because of his one-year suspension. He had Robinson go through a lot of ball protection drills to make sure he doesn't fumble. If Robinson plays, he most likely will start off as a kick-returner.

Injury toll: Here's how bad things are for the Dolphins. Halfback Ronnie Brown and safety Renaldo Hill became the third and fourth starters placed on the injured reserve list since the start of the season. They blew out their knees Sunday. Coming home from the game, one of Cam Cameron's kids spotted an accident and mentioned to Cam that one of the victims looked like Zach Thomas. Thomas suffered a neck injury during that accident that prevented him from making the trip to London.