Oh Well, Nobody’s Perfect

Having trouble with your football picks? You’re not alone. It happens even to the experts. Here are a couple of headlines from the Atlanta Constitution’s preseason football special:

--”UCLA is Journal-Constitutions’s Pick to Win National Championship”

--Raiders Plan to Rock Their Way to an AFC West Championship”

So far, the teams are 0-3, and now there’s concern at Alabama and Maryland. They are the Atlanta Constitution’s picks to win in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference.

From Walter Payton, still going strong at age 32: “I don’t have great speed, but I’m quick. I’m a jitterbug, always moving. Maybe not having great speed is a blessing in disguise. That way, nobody can tell if you’ve lost a step.”

If Lou Holtz finds that his players are too full of themselves after the close loss to Michigan, he can remind them of what happened after Notre Dame’s first game under Gerry Faust.

The Irish defeated LSU, 27-9, and subsequently were ranked No. 1 in the nation. The next week they lost to Michigan, 25-7. They haven’t been No. 1 since.

Trivia Time: What Heisman Trophy winner also played in the NCAA Final Four in basketball? (Answer below.)

Said Tulane Coach Mack Brown when asked about the execution of his defense in the 48-31 loss to TCU: “I don’t think we ought to execute them right now. Give them another two or three weeks and see if they improve.”

After Cincinnati’s 36-33 overtime win over Buffalo, Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason revealed that he and Bills quarterback Jim Kelly had gone to dinner together the night before.

“I don’t think he really knows what he’s doing,” Esiason said. “When he figures out what he’s doing, watch out.”

13 Years Ago Today: On Sept. 16, 1973, O.J. Simpson, en route to a record 2,003 yards rushing, opened with 250 yards in 29 carries as Buffalo beat New England, 31-13.

On the same date in 1984, Eric Dickerson, en route to a record-breaking 2,105 yards, gained 49 yards in 23 carries as the Rams lost to the Steelers, 24-14, at Pittsburgh.

Note: Simpson’s 250 yards set a single-game record, which Walter Payton broke with 275 yards in 1977.

“We want Long” was the chant at the Pontiac Silverdome when the Detroit Lions fell behind the Dallas Cowboys under the quarterbacking of Eric Hipple and Joe Ferguson.

Lion Coach Darryl Rogers said he would have heeded the crowd and sent in rookie Chuck Long from Iowa but said: “We never got the ball back.”

Rogers: “I told Chuck he was going in if we got the ball back. I also told him he’s very popular. Maybe he shouldn’t play--he’ll stay popular.”

Trivia Answer: Terry Baker. He won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Oregon State in 1962, then played for the Beavers as a guard in the NCAA basketball semifinals in 1962-63. He went 0 for 9 shooting as Oregon State lost to two-time NCAA champion Cincinnati, 80-46. Cincinnati was upset in the final by Loyola (Chicago), 60-58, in overtime.

Quotebook

Angel announcer Joe Torre, listing the remarkable accomplishments of Cy Young: “The only thing Cy Young didn’t win was the Cy Young Award.”