NFL NOTES

By BILL PLASCHKE

Jan. 23, 1998 12 AM PT

Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe has been spending this week telling anyone who will listen--and that’s just about everyone--that if the Green Bay Packers try to cover him with one man, he will be the Super Bowl most valuable player.

The Packers are not falling for it.

“If he does that, kudos to him,” Packer safety Eugene Robinson said. “But we’re not selling the farm to cover him. We’re not going to let that distract from the fact that the game is going to be won by our defensive line.”

In other words, Sharpe can talk all he wants, but the Packers are still going to focus on stopping Terrell Davis. To double-cover Sharpe would mean one fewer potential tackler on Davis, which could mean 10 more yards.

Nice try, Shannon.

More to Read

Sports

Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

NFL NOTES

More to Read

More From the Los Angeles Times

Most Read in Sports