President Reagan is unable to reach an agreement with the Soviets because he does not give into their demands to drop S.D.I. The Iceland meeting failed after 11 hours of talks to reach an agreement on arms control or to set a date for full-fledged summit meeting in the United States. While officials said that tentative understandings were reached on most issues, a possible formal accord foundered over Soviet insistence that the United States restrain its program to develop a system of space-based missile defenses. Each leader blamed the other for the lack of results.
Mikhail S. Gorbachev said today that by insisting on development of “Star Wars” weapons, President Reagan “scuttled” a series of broad arms control agreements reached by the two men at their meetings here. The Soviet leader said that “only a madman would accept” the American insistence that research and development of a space-based missile defense system be allowed to proceed beyond laboratory work under a broad agreement to reduce nuclear weapons. Mr. Gorbachev said at a news conference after the collapse of his talks with Mr. Reagan that he had come to Iceland thinking that the best way to end the arms race was to present President Reagan with a radical package of new proposals. Mr. Gorbachev said Moscow had presented a package of “major concessions and compromises” at the meeting, while the United States side “came empty-handed, with a whole set of mothballed proposals.”
Gorbachev and Reagan surprised their own advisers by nearly agreeing to eliminate all strategic ballistic missiles and potentially abolish all nuclear weapons within a decade. Reagan’s space-based missile defense research (SDI) to the laboratory. Reagan refused to mortgage America’s future security and defense against potential cheating or future threats, viewing SDI as a non-negotiable principle. When Gorbachev held firm, the dramatic talks collapsed in their final hours. The summit was initially panned by the global press and key officials as a somber diplomatic failure because the grand bargain fell through. Actually, Reykjavik was a vital breakthrough. By laying bare the depth of potential cuts, the summit paved the way for the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed the following year.
Furthermore, Reykjavik immensely changed the way the two superpowers could discuss global issues. It created a line of communication that allowed discussion of all sorts of issues without the need to wait for a summit meeting. This was a momentous change that allowed many issues to be solved more quickly and efficiently. The nations also agreed to a total exchange of data, which had been in the works since 1969. Therefore allowing much more open and efficient discussion between the two countries, and their two spheres of influence, granting honest discussion between nations across the globe.
The conference marked a significant change in policy for both countries that allowed successful future negotiations. Human rights issues, such as the restrictions on Soviet Jews from emigrating to Israel, were solved. As were debates on the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. As Ridgeway argues, “there were many issues discussed and agreements reached in Reykjavik, which have never been given much attention.”
President Reagan and his aides came here with the expectation that Moscow was prepared to reach tentative agreements on medium-range missiles and other arms issues without first solving the problem of space-based defenses. And they had reason to believe this, based on the two leaders’ pledge last November in Geneva to seek an “interim” accord on medium-range weapons, and based on more recent public statements by Soviet leaders. But today in the dramatic finale to their two-day get-together, Mikhail S. Gorbachev told them they were wrong. To the Soviet leader, every agreement to reduce arms depended on American willingness essentially to scrap Mr. Reagan’s dream for space-based defenses against missile attacks. And he had a basis for this belief as well. That same joint statement in Geneva pledged the two sides to “accelerate” efforts to “prevent an arms race in space.”
The agreement by Soviet and American officials to withhold disclosures about the summit conference produced an argument between the two delegations today, and between President Reagan’s spokesman and reporters covering the meeting here. It began when Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, acknowledged this morning that he sent a formal written protest on Saturday night to Gennadi I. Gerasimov, the Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman. Mr. Speakes said that Georgi A. Arbatov, the director of the Soviet Institute for U.S.A. and Canadian Studies, violated the spirit of the agreement at a news conference Saturday morning at which he criticized the American position on nuclear weapons testing. And at his afternoon briefing today, Mr. Speakes declared that the Russians had committed an even worse violation of the agreement.
The human rights issue played a secondary role in the meetings here, and officials indicated that the cause of Soviet Jewish emigration had received a setback because of the inability of the two sides to reach an arms control agreement. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said human rights issues had been raised “on a number of occasions” during the talks between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. But it was evident from remarks made by Mr. Shultz and other officials that the issue of rights had, despite pledges made by the President, emerged as secondary to arms control.
President Reagan addresses the military families stationed in Iceland prior to leaving for Washington.
Officially, Washington has expressed no interest in the intelligence value of the Soviet nuclear submarine that sank in the North Atlantic last week. But in the past the United States has gone to great lengths to examine Soviet vessels and equipment lost at sea. People familiar with undersea intelligence operations say Soviet submarines that sank off Portugal in 1970 and Newfoundland in 1972 were examined by the United States using undersea exploratory devices.
The Christian Social Union retained a solid majority in state parliamentary elections in Bavaria. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats overwhelmingly defeated the opposition Social Democrats in a Bavarian state legislative election. Karl-Heinz Hjersemann’s Social Democrats conceded defeat on the basis of a television computer projection giving state Premier Franz Josef Strauss’ Christian Social Union — the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrats — 126 seats in the state legislature and 55.9% of the vote. The opposition Social Democrats were shown winning 65 seats with 28.4% of the vote.
Greece’s conservative main opposition New Democracy Party held big leads over the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement in early returns from nationwide municipal elections, state-run television reported. New Democracy was reported between 15 and 20 percentage points ahead of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s party in the three main cities of Athens, Salonika and Piraeus. The elections were expected to deliver a verdict on the Papandreou government’s popularity and its austerity program.
A mortar shell fired at a joint police-army post in Northern Ireland killed a reserve policeman and wounded two passers-by, police reported. The outlawed Irish Republican Army, in a statement to the media, claimed responsibility for the Saturday night attack in west Belfast. Meanwhile, London’s Observer newspaper reported that an undercover British security unit functioned like a “death squad” in Northern Ireland and killed six unarmed people, including five suspected terrorists, in 1982. The paper said the unit was part of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the province’s Protestant-dominated police force. Belfast police would not comment on the charges.
Six terrorism suspects are being deported from Britain, Scotland Yard reported Saturday night. The police said one of the suspects had already been sent out of the country and five were in custody in London while “administrative arrangements” were made to deport them. A report in early editions of The Sunday Telegraph identified the six as members of a squad from the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, a Palestinian group that broke away from the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970’s. The group is believed responsible for several terrorist actions, including attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports last December. The Sunday Telegraph said the police “had intelligence indicating that the six were preparing to attack an American or British target in London.” A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed the deportations but would not comment on the suspects’ nationalities.
Streets in cities throughout Israel were deserted and synagogues overflowed with worshipers as Jews marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, by fasting and praying for forgiveness for their sins. The Day of Atonement, which ends at sundown today, brought all business to a standstill. Radio and television stations went off the air, all public transportation was halted and roads were deserted except for an occasional ambulance or police car. Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s only international airport, was also closed.
A close friend of Shimon Peres’s was recently asked to sum up his performance as Prime Minister during the last 25 months. “When faced with jumping into a cold pool he tended to hesitate and look for compromises,” said the friend, “but once he finally jumped he was a great swimmer.” Indeed, say many Israeli political commentators, in those areas where Mr. Peres acted decisively and had a national consensus already behind him — such as for improving the economy or withdrawing from Lebanon — his managerial skills enabled him to score some impressive achievements. But where he did not have a built-in consensus already, say the Israeli analysts — such as on the question of peace with the Palestinians or in the scandal surrounding Shin Beth, the domestic intelligence service — he tended to compromise or hesitate and failed to shape any new reality. Shamir to Take Over On Tuesday Parliament is scheduled to vote confidence in Israel’s new Government, in which Yitzhak Shamir, of the right-wing Likud bloc, will become Prime Minister and Mr. Peres, of the Labor Party, will assume Mr. Shamir’s old job at the Foreign Ministry.
Iran appeared today to be starting a series of hit-and-run attacks against Iraq, possibly in preparation for a long-awaited major offensive. Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Kurdish rebels made two more commando raids today, the Teheran radio announced, a day after what the Iranians said was a major raid deep into Iraqi territory against one of Baghdad’s main oil installations. Iran is believed to have been massing troops along the border for weeks in anticipation of an offensive, and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, a volunteer force separate from the Iranian Army, claims to have raised 500 new battalions.
Tamil rebels ambushed a Sri Lankan security patrol today, killing three soldiers, and about eight guerrillas were killed by troops, a Government communique said. Among the dead was a crewman on a helicopter that tried to rescue the patrol after it was ambushed in Adampan, about 140 miles north of Colombo, the communique said. The other troops killed were on patrol. Four soldiers were evacuated with wounds. The communique, without giving details, said the troops had retaliated and killed about eight rebels. Meanwhile, a bomb explosion today wounded 14 civilians in a village bazaar in Mankulam, 135 miles northeast of Colombo, according to residents in nearby Vavuniya.
Queen Elizabeth II became the first British sovereign to visit China. The Queen’s six-day visit comes nearly two years after Britain and China agreed on the future of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong and during a time of increased British-Chinese trade. With a smile and a wave of her gloved hand, the Queen, in a wide-brimmed white hat and a lemon-yellow dress, emerged from the door of her plane and walked down a flight of steps to receive two bouquets of red and white flowers, each clutched by a young Chinese girl and boy. On the concrete tarmac, beyond the dour, gray cement terminal, China’s Foreign Minister, Wu Xueqian, led a delegation of officials in greeting the Queen. “I extend a warm welcome to your majesty on behalf of President Li Xiannian,” Mr. Wu said.
The people of Comunidad Modelo, a miserable warren of mud shacks, have been promised by the Government that it will help them rebuild from the earthquake that swept away their homes and buried their loved ones on Friday morning. But tonight, as the rains of a violent thunderstorm added to their misery, they found it hard to believe that the promise would be kept any time soon. “We have nobody, nobody,” said Ana Lilia Vasquez Sibrian, 50 years old, as she watched friends dig out their crushed adobe home. “We are forgotten.” The Salvadoran President, Jose Napoleon Duarte, said in a televised news conference late Sunday night that the death toll had risen to 890 and that some stricken areas had still not been reached to search for victims, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Duarte said 10,000 were injured and 150,000 left homeless. In his Sunday homily today, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, Arturo Rivera y Damas, harshly criticized the failure to provide greater relief services to the poor neighborhoods that appear to be those that sustained the most damage. Officials said two Americans were killed and one may be missing in the disaster.
Vice President Bush acknowledged today that his national security adviser had ties to a Central Intelligence Agency veteran identified as a leader of a secret effort to supply Nicaraguan rebels. But the Vice President continued to deny any involvement in overseeing the supply operations to the rebels, known as contras, who are fighting the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua. Through a spokesman, the Vice President said he had met twice in his office with the former C.I.A. agent, known as Max or Felix Gomez and as Felix Rodriguez, but only to discuss El Salvador. Worked for El Salvador According to Mr. Bush’s staff, Mr. Gomez had worked for the Salvadoran Air Force as a counterinsurgency specialist.
Two planeloads of food for the starving people of southern Sudan were moved without incident although rebel forces in the war-torn region had threatened to shoot down any passing aircraft, the Sudanese news agency said. It said a chartered DC-8 flew from Khartoum south to the government-held city of Juba, and a C-130 transport flew into neighboring Zaire with 16 tons of food to be relayed to the famine area. The source of the relief supplies, believed to be Operation Rainbow, a U.N.-coordinated, Western-sponsored airlift, was not identified. An earlier scheduled flight was canceled after the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army made the threat.
Leaders of six black-ruled nations in southern Africa met in Mozambique for a one-day summit and protested that South Africa is massing armed forces along its borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Representatives of those countries and of Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania urged “all peoples and governments of the world to block South Africa’s race toward generalized war.” Their summit followed by one day a national alert called by Mozambique President Samora M. Machel, warning that South Africa was planning an air raid to overthrow his government.
Initial Congressional reaction tonight to the failure of President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev to reach agreement on nuclear arms control was mixed. Some Democrats blamed the President for refusal to compromise on his missile defense program and some Republicans praised him for avoiding what they called a Soviet trap. Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, spoke out in Mr. Reagan’s defense, saying the meeting was a “Soviet trap to put the United States in perpetual jeopardy of the remaining intercontinental ballistic missiles.” “The President did not blink,” Mr. Lugar said, adding that he acted in an imaginative and proper way to “preserve the defense of our country.”
The Reagan Administration plans to impose new rules to protect patients’ rights in nursing homes. All nursing home resident would be guaranteed a “dignified existence” under the new rules. The rules represent a reversal of the Administration’s stand on the regulation of nursing homes.
An estimated $11 million worth of specialized computers and related equipment have been diverted to the Soviet Bloc in one of the biggest unauthorized transfers of U.S. high technology to the East, U.S. officials in Washington and Vienna said. The equipment was routed through Austria to East Germany in two separate shipments this summer and U.S. officials said they think the “probabilities are pretty high” that it wound up in the Soviet Union. No laws were violated in the shipments, but the movement of high technology items to the Soviet Bloc circumvented U.S. attempts to deny to the East advanced computers and other Western equipment that could have military applications, the officials said.
Within a year, a drug should become available in France for use under physicians’ supervision that both blocks and terminates pregnancy, according to a World Health Organization official. If a woman wishes to avoid pregnancy after intercourse or if she has missed a menstrual period and believes she may be pregnant,a single pill would initiate menstruation, sweeping the egg cell out of her system. Dr. Jose Barzelatto, the director of W.H.O.’s program on human reproduction, noted that in such a case the woman could not tell whether she was actually pregnant. The new drug is still known only by the designation RU 486, given by its developer, the Roussel-Uclaf Company, a French affiliate of Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, based here in Switzerland.
After trying for five years to reduce Federal regulation of nursing homes, the Reagan Administration has reversed itself and plans to impose new rules to protect patients’ rights. The proposed rules were drafted by the Department of Health and Human Services in response to recommendations made in February by the National Academy of Sciences. Under the new rules, every nursing home resident would be guaranteed a “dignified existence.” Nursing homes would have to inform patients how they could get in touch with legal aid lawyers and state regulatory officials, how they could obtain their own medical records and how they could influence policies at nursing homes.
The Postal Rate Commission has agreed to consider whether the U.S. Postal Service is unfairly competing with private delivery services by charging too little. The commission, which sets postage rates, is acting on a complaint from United Parcel Service asserting that rates for parcel post do not cover the Postal Service’s costs of delivering packages, especially those traveling short distances. The law requires all classes of mail to pay direct costs that can be attributed to their handling, plus part of the administrative cost of running the agency.
The teamsters have made fund raising for political campaigns a top priority. Their union’s political action committee, Drive, has amassed 10 times more funds for contributions in a recent 18-month period than it raised in a similar period four years earlier. The effort is an attempt to maintain political clout.
As many as 16,000 airplane pilots may be continuing to fly even though their automobile driver’s licenses have been revoked or suspended for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to a published report. And as many as 1,000 of them may be commercial pilots, the Pittsburgh Press said in a report on a study by the inspector general’s office of the Department of Transportation, which compared a list of 700,049 aviators with the names of 4 million motorists listed since 1960 with the National Drivers Registry as having their licenses suspended or revoked for drunken driving.
The Army has recalled 91 tanks from seven bases because investigators found production defects in the portable bridges attached to the vehicles to help them cross gullies and streams. Army investigators found “welding deficiencies” in the bridges that could cause them to break, said Katherine Hoener, an Army spokeswoman. Capital Engineering & Mfg. Co. of Chicago, which was paid $14 million to produce 140 bridges, was suspended September 11 from receiving government contracts pending the final outcome of the Army’s investigation, Hoener said. The bridges span 63 feet when released from kits attached to the front of M-60 and M-48 tanks.
The remains of a Confederate soldier who died as a Union prisoner of war in 1863 will be exhumed from a Louisville, Kentucky, cemetery and reinterred next to his wife’s grave in Tennessee. Descendants of the man, Cyrus Graham Clark, found his grave in 1972 after family members had searched for 100 years. They plan to move the body in a pine box draped with the South’s battle flag to Gainesboro, Tennessee. There, a mule team will haul the coffin to the city cemetery, accompanied by a fife and drum corps and 75 people in Confederate uniform. Jim Birdwell, one of Clark’s descendants, called the planned ceremony “a homecoming in the truest sense.”
A tractor-trailer apparently carrying a radioactive cargo plunged off a bridge into the Snake River near Rupert, Idaho, but no radiation was detected in the water, state police said. A U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman said the cargo was believed to be 16 tons of natural uranium in sealed containers and described it as “not dangerous.” Karen Wheeless said: “The material is just slightly enriched above what is natural uranium — what people walk on and build their houses on all the time.”
Economists are disturbed that more and more men, aged 55 to 64, are leaving the work force. For many, early retirement is unwelcome and can represent a psychological and financial hardship. Others, who are financially secure, have embraced the opportunity for an extended period of leisure.
A course in violence prevention has stirred the interest of educators in New York and other areas. The 10-week course is taught in Boston by Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a physician who specializes in adolescent violence. Evidence is beginning to emerge that the course is having an impact.
The Chiron Corporation, which announced a joint venture with a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company to develop a series of genetically engineered vaccines and which received the first F.D.A. approval of a vaccine for hepatitis B, has gained a starring role in one of biotech’s leading growth areas.
About 600 firefighters battled three forest fires near Mount St. Helens today, and as winds grew calmer, officials cut their estimate of acres burned from more than 1,000 to 620. All three fires resulted from deliberate slash-and-burn operations to remove old timber around the active but quiet volcano, said a Forest Service spokesman, Roland Emetaz. He said about 450 Forest Service and 150 Washington Department of Natural Resources firefighters had contained only about 10 percent of the largest blaze, 7 miles southwest of the volcano. He said crews using an aerial infrared scanner overnight had determined that the fire covered only about 340 acres, down from Saturday’s estimate of 700 acres.
Unseasonably cold air pushed temperatures to record lows yesterday over the Rockies and the Plains, and snow fell at higher elevations of the Rockies. Freeze warnings were posted over southeastern Nebraska, northwestern Missouri, much of central and eastern Kansas, and parts of northwestern Texas. Snow fell over much of Colorado and higher elevations of New Mexico, while cold rain was scattered from southern and eastern New Mexico across northwestern Texas. Two hunters were reported missing in Colorado, where the early snow coincided with the start of the big-game hunting season. One of the hunters was found yesterday and taken to safety on horseback.
College football began in Michigan, marking the unofficial return of fall in the state. The Spartans of Michigan State University visited the Wolverines of the University of Michigan in their 79th meeting, one of the oldest and most passionate rivalries in college football.
Major League Baseball:
Norm Cash, 1961 American League batting champion, drowns in Lake Michigan, a victim of a boating accident. He was 51.
Major League Baseball, American League Championship Series, Game 5:
One pitch away from elimination and trailing 5–2 entering the 9th, the Red Sox stage one of the most improbable comebacks in post-season history winning 7–6 over the Angels in 11 innings. Heading into Game 5, California looked set to earn its first trip to a World Series. Rich Gedman’s two-run home run in the second put the Red Sox up 2–0, but Bob Boone’s home run off Bruce Hurst in the third cut the lead to 2–1. Bobby Grich, the previous night’s hero, hit a two-run home run to give the Halos a 3–2 lead in the sixth inning; Red Sox center fielder Dave Henderson had tried to leap at the wall to catch Grich’s long fly ball, but ended up deflecting it over the fence. The Angels added to their lead in the seventh inning off Bob Stanley on Rob Wilfong’s RBI double with two on and Brian Downing’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly. In the ninth, Mike Witt allowed a leadoff single to Bill Buckner but struck out Jim Rice, putting him two outs away from his second complete game victory of the series. The next batter, Don Baylor, hit a two-strike, two-run home run to pull the Red Sox within one run. After retiring the next batter, Witt was replaced. Gary Lucas was brought in to face catcher Rich Gedman who had been 3 for 3 in the game against Witt, including a double and a home run. Lucas, on the other hand, had a history of striking Gedman out. But with his very first pitch, Lucas hit Gedman, and was replaced by Donnie Moore. The Angels closer brought his team within one strike of its first AL pennant, but Henderson caught hold of a Moore forkball and launched a home run into the left field stands, stunning the hometown crowd and greatly redeeming himself for his earlier miscue. Boston had taken a 6–5 lead.
The lead would not last, however, as in the bottom of the ninth, Bob Boone singled off Stanley, and Ruppert Jones pinch-ran for him. Gary Pettis sacrificed Jones to second, and Wilfong singled him home off Joe Sambito, tying the game. Dick Schofield then singled, sending Wilfong to third, and Downing was intentionally walked to load the bases with only one out. All of Boston’s top-half heroics would have been washed away with a mere sacrifice fly at this point. But instead, Doug DeCinces only managed to hit a short fly ball to right field. Grich’s subsequent line-out to pitcher Steve Crawford ended the inning. The teams settled down and the tenth inning was again scoreless, but the Red Sox loaded the bases in the top of the 11th off Donnie Moore on a hit-by-pitch and two singles for Henderson. He hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Baylor with the go-ahead run. Calvin Schiraldi then retired the Halos in order in the bottom of the 11th, completing a shocking comeback and sending the series back to Boston.
Boston Red Sox 7, California Angels 6
Major League Baseball, National League Championship Series, Game 4:
Astros’ ace Mike Scott, pitching on three days rest, was dominant once again in Game 4. The right-hander again pitched a complete game on a three-hitter to earn his second victory of the series in Houston’s 3–1 triumph. Mets’ starter Sid Fernandez allowed just three runs in six innings, but surrendered a two-run home run to Alan Ashby and a laser-beam home run to Dickie Thon to account for all the offense the Astros needed. Danny Heep drove in Mookie Wilson with a sacrifice fly in the eighth to account for the Mets’ only run. Gary Carter came to bat as the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, but flied out to center as the Astros tied the series 2–2.
Houston Astros 3, New York Mets 1
NFL Football:
The much-maligned Miami Dolphin defense forced four turnovers today to spark a 27–14 victory over the Buffalo Bills that ended Miami’s three-game losing streak. Lorenzo Hampton ran for two touchdowns, Dan Marino passed 30 yards to Mark Duper for another score and Fuad Reveiz kicked two field goals. But the Miami defense, which had allowed a league-high 176 points entering the game, stole the show. In addition to making two fumble recoveries and two interceptions, the Dolphins foiled two drives with sacks and stopped Greg Bell of Buffalo for a 1-yard loss on a fourth-and-1 play. The Bills’ only score while the outcome was still in doubt came on a 1-yard run by Bell in the first quarter. Miami, off to its worst start since 1969, improved to 2–4. Buffalo dropped to 1–5 with its 20th straight road loss. The Dolphins, who led by 10–7 at halftime, opened a 20–7 lead in the third quarter on Reveiz’s 36-yard field goal and Hampton’s 4-yard scoring run. The expected passing battle between Marino and Jim Kelly never panned out. Kelly finished with 20 completions in 28 attempts for 218 yards with 2 interceptions. Marino was 24 for 41 for 337 yards with 1 interception.
The Chicago Bears dumped the Houston Oilers, 20–7. Walter Payton scored on a 1-yard run and became the first player in N.F.L. history to gain a total of 20,000 yards by rushing, receiving and returning. The Bears (6–0) won their 12th straight game since a loss to Miami last December 2, but they had to contend with the tough defense of the Oilers (1–5) and Houston’s boisterous fans. Payton’s touchdown in the third quarter gave the Bears a 14-0 lead and gave him exactly what he needed to hit the 20,000-yard mark. He had 19,939 yards going into the game. The Bears, who struggled offensively in the first half, were forced to settle for Kevin Butler’s 31-yard field goal with 9:52 left to play after they had failed three times to score from the Oiler 3-yard line. Play was delayed several minutes while officials tried to quiet the roaring crowd. Payton, a 12-year veteran, finished with 76 yards on 22 carries and caught one pass for 30 yards, giving him 20,045 career rushing, passing and return yards.
The Denver Broncos topped the San Diego Chargers, 31–14. John Elway led Denver (6–0) on four scoring drives of at least 65 yards and Mike Harden returned a fourth-quarter punt 41 yards for another touchdown. Denver, the only undefeated N.F.L. team besides Chicago, matched the best start in team history. The Broncos also won their first six games in 1977, the season they reached the Super Bowl. Buford McGee’s 4-yard touchdown run with 1:29 left was the first second-half touchdown for the Chargers (1–5) in the last five games.
The Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers, 21–14. Garry James, a Detroit rookie, rushed for 140 yards on 20 carries and scored his first N.F.L. touchdown on a 41-yard run. After taking a 14–7 halftime lead on touchdowns by James and Scott Williams, the Lions (3–3) wrapped up the game on Eric Hipple’s 2-yard touchdown toss to David Lewis, the tight end, with 7:07 to play. For the game, the Lions gained 236 yards on the ground to 44 for the Packers (0–6). James became the first Lion rookie to gain more than 100 yards since Billy Sims in 1980.
The Cleveland Browns downed the Kansas City Chiefs, 20–7. Bernie Kosar passed for 287 yards and two touchdowns, and Kansas City (3–3), playing without five injured starters, was unable to cross the Cleveland (4–2) 49-yard line in the second half. Kosar, who completed 22 of 35 passes, threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Earnest Byner in the second quarter and a 6-yard scoring pass to Ozzie Newsome in the third. The pass to Newsome, a tight end who has caught at least one pass in 104 straight games, broke a 7–7 tie five minutes into the third quarter.
Gerald Riggs ran for 141 yards and one touchdown today as the Atlanta Falcons defeated the Los Angeles Rams, 26–14, in a battle for first place in the National Conference West Division. Riggs, who carried 35 times, put the Falcons ahead to stay at 10–7 on a 4-yard run with 2 minutes 16 seconds left in the first half. The score ended a 47-yard drive that started after Bret Clark had partially blocked a Dale Hatcher punt that went only 14 yards. Buddy Curry of the Falcons returned a blocked field-goal attempt 34 yards to the Rams’ 46-yard line to set up a 32-yard field goal by Mick Luckhurst in the third quarter. Clark’s 34-yard interception return to the Los Angeles 34 set up Luckhurst’s 49-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, which gave Atlanta a 23–7 lead.
The Minnesota Vikings edged the San Francisco 49ers, 27–24, in overtime. Chuck Nelson’s 28-yard field goal in the fourth minute of overtime gave Minnesota (4–2), saved from defeat in the final seconds of regulation, the victory. Ray Wersching of San Francisco (4–2) missed a 38-yard field goal attempt — the ball bounced off the left upright of the goal post — as the fourth quarter ended. Minnesota received the kickoff that opened overtime and drove 58 yards before calling on Nelson. Tommy Kramer threw a 19-yard pass to Anthony Carter, who caught two touchdown passes in the game, on the game-winning drive.
The New Orleans Saints edged the Indianapolis Colts, 17–14. Buford Jordan’s third-quarter touchdown following an Indianapolis fumble gave New Orleans (2–4) a 17–0 lead and the Saints held off a strong rally by the Colts (0–6). Jack Trudeau, the Indianapolis quarterback whose fumble on a sack at his 12-yard line set up the 9-yard run by Jordan, brought the Colts back on the next two series with touchdown passes of 24 and 15 yards to Matt Bouza. But as the Colts drove for a possible winning touchdown in the closing minutes, a pass by Trudeau was fumbled by Mark Boyer at the Saints’ 12-yard line and the Saints recovered.
The Jets, perfect in the first half, faltered in the third period but held on to defeat the New England Patriots, 31–24, today at Sullivan Stadium. The Jets won with their backup quarterback, Pat Ryan, who had not started a game in two years. Ryan, who replaced Ken O’Brien, who was hurt last week against Buffalo, executed the offensive plan without a flaw. “Pat did a super job,” said Joe Walton, the head coach. “He was in control the whole game and let nothing bother him.” Ryan was impeccable, completing 14 of 25 passes for 148 yards, five completions to Shuler. One was lofted into the end zone for a neat touchdown. Ryan was not intercepted. “I’m tired, happy,” he said. Johnny Hector, the halfback who has been more than an adequate replacement for Freeman McNeil, had his best performance for the Jets. His 40 rushing attempts set a team record and they were good for 143 yards. Hector scored three touchdowns, all 1-yard inside runs, with the last in the fourth quarter the most important. The Jets gave up 401 yards passing to Steve Grogan, the Patriots’ quarterback and an old nemesis, but were ahead by 24–0 before Grogan could get his act going in the third quarter.
It isn’t often that a linebacker catches a pass from his own quarterback in stride to score a touchdown. For Harry Carson and the Giants, in their 35–3 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles today, it was more than fitting. While the Giants on offense moved in and out of their private Twilight Zone, the Giants’ defense in usual form — poised, determined and overpowering — led the way to victory. And what a victory it was: Combined with the Washington Redskins’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys, it put the Giants in a tie with the Redskins with a 5–1 record in the National Conference East Division.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 30–19. Neil Lomax passed for 228 yards and two touchdowns and Stump Mitchell scored on runs of 3 and 31 yards as St. Louis (1–5) gave Gene Stallings his first victory as an N.F.L. head coach. The Cardinals snapped a seven-game losing streak that had stretched over two seasons. Lomax, playing with a group of inexperienced wide receivers because Roy Green and Pat Tilley are injured, completed 17 of 27 passes, including scoring tosses of 30 yards to Earl Ferrell, the fullback, and 38 yards to Chas Fox, a wide receiver who was signed as a free agent. Both touchdown passes came in the second half as the Cardinals increased their 9-7 halftime lead. The Bucs (1–5) rallied from a 23–7 deficit in the final 11 minutes. They closed the margin to 4 points with 5:38 left, but the Cards pulled away again when Mitchell, who gained 122 yards on 20 carries, scored on his 31-yard run with 1:45 to go.
Jim Plunkett, filling in for the injured Marc Wilson, threw two touchdown passes as the Los Angeles Raiders (3–3) won their third straight game, beating the Seattle Seahawks, 14–10. Plunkett, who at 38 is the league’s oldest quarterback, tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Dokie Williams with 1:17 left in the first quarter and fired a 49-yard scoring pass to Jessie Hester in the second period to give the Raiders a 14–0 lead. After a 1-yard touchdown run by Curt Warner cut the Raiders’ lead to 14–10 in the third period, Seattle (4–2) failed to cross midfield until the final minute of play. Napoleon McCallum led the Raiders in rushing with 75 yards on 20 carries. Marcus Allen was used sparingly and limped out of the game early in the fourth quarter after apparently reinjuring his right ankle.
Herschel Walker didn’t start, but there was nothing second-fiddle about his role Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys knocked the Washington Redskins from the unbeaten ranks, 30–6. “I’m not going to worry right now whether he’s starting or not,” coach Tom Landry said after he caught six passes for 155 yards and rushed 13 times for 45 yards and two touchdowns. “As long as we’re winning, I’ll do it all year. It’s not a one-man show,” Walker said after Dallas (4–2) stayed within reach of Washington and the New York Giants (both 5–1) in the NFC East. Walker started two games while Tony Dorsett was out with a knee injury. He returned to duty as a third-down back with Dorsett’s return Sunday and did most of his rushing after the ineffective Cowboy veteran went to the bench in the fourth quarter. But he accounted for nearly half of Dallas’ total offense. Steve Pelluer, making his second start in place of injured Danny White (groin), passed for 318 yards and effectively scrambled to stay out of trouble. He got a big boost from Walker on a 69-yard pass play that produced a drastic turnaround in the first quarter.
Buffalo Bills 14, Miami Dolphins 27
Chicago Bears 20, Houston Oilers 7
Denver Broncos 31, San Diego Chargers 14
Detroit Lions 21, Green Bay Packers 14
Kansas City Chiefs 7, Cleveland Browns 20
Los Angeles Rams 14, Atlanta Falcons 26
Minnesota Vikings 27, San Francisco 49ers 24
New Orleans Saints 17, Indianapolis Colts 14
New York Jets 31, New England Patriots 24
Philadelphia Eagles 3, New York Giants 35
St. Louis Cardinals 30, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 19
Seattle Seahawks 10, Los Angeles Raiders 14
Washington Redskins 6, Dallas Cowboys 30
Born:
Li Wenliang, Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm over COVID-19, in Beizhen, China (d. 2020).
Adam McQuaid, Canadian NHL defenseman (NHL Champions, Stanley Cup-Bruins, 2011; Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets), in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Trevor Bell, MLB pitcher (Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds), in North Hollywood, California.
Jackie Bates, NFL cornerback (Kansas City Chiefs), in Sacramento, California.
Tyler Blackburn, American actor (“Pretty Little Liars”), in Burbank, California.
Marcus T. Paulk, American actor (“Moesha”), in Los Angeles, California.
Died:
Norm Cash, 51, former Major League Baseball first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, and 1961 American League batting champion, in a drowning accident.
