The Buffalo Bills have a rare, three-way battle for the starting quarterback job heading into their 2010 training camp.

     The question to be answered this season is: Are any one of them "The Answer" at the most important position on the team?

     Fourth-year veteran Trent Edwards is the prospective favorite as the team gets ready to head to St. John Fisher College, because he is the biggest, has the best arm and has the most wins in his career (he's 14-16 as a starter).

     But coach Chan Gailey stresses that the job is there for the taking by any of the three -- Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm. (Rookie seventh-round draft pick Levi Brown will get time to learn the ropes.)

     "Nothing's in concrete," Gailey said at the end of minicamp. "Don't read too much into who takes the first snap and who takes the second snap and who takes the third snap [in training camp]. Don't read too much into that. It's close."

     Gailey said both preseason games and camp practices will weigh heavily into the QB decision. "I don't discount practice," Gailey said. "To me if a guy doesn't practice well, he hurts himself. It's not just games. Now I know there's gamers and there's practice players. I understand that. You can't discount what happens in games. That is more heavily weighted. But you don't discount what happens in practice."

     Here is a question-and-answer session with Edwards. The links to the left of this story have similar sessions with Brohm and Fitzpatrick:

     Question: We know you're an avid golfer. What kind of shape is your game in?

     Answer: My handicap index right now is 2.4.

     Q: What's the best round you ever played?

     A: Last year at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course (at the American Century Celebrity Championship), the second round. I shot 73, which was 1 over, in competition, putting 'em all.

     Q: What's the best course you ever played?

     A: The first that comes to mind is Pebble Beach. I just joined the Olympic Club in San Francisco (site of next year's U.S. Open). I played Torrey Pines South (site of the 2008 U.S. Open) a couple times this offseason (in San Diego).

     Q: What's the best thing about living in Buffalo?

     A: I'd say, the people that I've met and how genuine they are. The example I give is I go into Wegmans or Starbucks and when you're checking out there, compared to California, people are a lot nicer and a lot more genuine. They want to know how you're doing. I think California is a little more fast-paced lifestyle. The thing I like about Buffalo is it's a slower pace, more relaxed and family oriented. In California you don't see that all that much.

     Q: Your favorite restaurant here?

     A: Mulberry (Italian Ristorante) in Lackawanna.

     Q: Can you go out and not get bothered much by fans?

     A: Yes. I go out and it's not a problem. You run into your fair share of Bills fans who want to give you their opinion on things. I think any team I'd play for the same thing would happen.

     Q: What do you think of criticism you check down too much?

     A: The older I get and the longer I play this game, the more I realize I need to focus on what I can control. I can't control what people say about me. If I do let that affect me, it's not going to let me be a better player, which the fans want me to be. If I listen to negative talk and allow that to keep me up at night, I'm not going to sleep well and it's going to lead to other bad things. I keep it within my control.

     Q: What's the coolest thing about going to Stanford, off the football field?

     A: I think it's similar to being an NFL football player. When someone asks you what you do for a living or where you went to school, when I give you my two answers, that's something pretty neat. I think that's a conversation starter. I'm pretty proud of the college I went to. I'm proud of the career I've had and I'm proud to be a Buffalo Bill. Those two go hand in hand for me.

     Q: Have you ever met fellow Cardinal Tiger Woods?

     A: I have not. I would love to.

     Q: Your favorite vacation spot?

     A: I took a trip after the rookie symposium in 2007 to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which is about an hour south of Cancun.

     Q: Do you have a girlfriend now?

     A: I do not.

     Q: What's your favorite food?

     A: Steak.

     Q: Is your sister Shelby coming to Buffalo to live with you again this season?

     A: No. I'm single and living by myself. She took a job as athletic director at Los Gatos High School, where we both went. (Shelby Edwards played volleyball at the University of Oregon.)

     Q: Who was your favorite NFL player growing up?

     A: I've got to go with Brett Favre, but that was when I was a bit older. John Elway's in that conversation, too.

     Q: Who's your favorite all-time L.A. Dodger?

     A: Orel Hershiser, the Bulldog.

     Q: Since you were a political science major, if you were president and could make one change what would it be?

     A: Somehow to bring peace to the Middle East. Was that a good politically correct answer?

     Q: What's the last book you read?

     A: It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium, written by John Ed Bradley, who played center for LSU in the '70s.

     Q: Your favorite movie?

     A: Good Will Hunting.

     Q: Your favorite TV show?

     A: Modern Family.

     Q: The best concert you ever attended?

     A: The Counting Crows, my sophomore year of high school. Amazing.

     Q: The person from history you'd most like to meet?

     A: I've got to go with Jesus Christ.

mgaughan@buffnews.comnull