Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201260150
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS LENGTH: Long
SUPER BOWL SURPRISE FOR WRITERS
From the Super notebook:Just to prove you never know when you'll learn something new, the writers who regularly cover the Washington Redskins found out that Pro Bowl guard Mark Schlereth has dyslexia.
Schlereth talked about it at Tuesday's media session, shocking some scribes.
"It's really put a damper on something that could be very pleasurable - reading," said Schlereth, an Alaskan native in his third NFL season. "I can read. It's just that it's real slow, and I really take my time and concentrate. It's just not a pleasurable experience."
Schlereth graduated from Idaho with a grade-point average just under 3.0. He said he succeeded in college although he read only one textbook.
"If a teacher said 85 percent of the course grade was on [lecture] notes and 15 percent on the book, I made sure I didn't miss class because I hated to read."
Schlereth recalls being embarrassed as a youth when he was teased by other boys because of his reading problems. He took care of that situation, however.
"We'd be playing football [at recess] and I'd just run over the guy," said Schlereth, now 285 pounds. "That was all I had to do. I didn't throw any punches. And, if he had to go to the nurse's office, well, he got hurt playing football.
"You never got in trouble that way."
\ Washington will move safety Terry Hoage from injured reserve to the active roster for today's game, with safety Alvin Walton moving to IR with a shoulder bruise. Hoage suffered a broken right arm in Week 7 against Cleveland.
The Redskins will decide before the game whether to keep middle linebacker Matt Millen on the 45-man game roster. Millen has been inactive for the Redskins' two previous playoff games, primarily because he's a first-down run specialist and Washington played run-and-shoot teams.
If middle linebacker Ravin Caldwell (cracked ribs) is too sore to play today, Millen likely will be on the 45-man roster. If Caldwell can go, Millen will sit.
\ Here's why you always hear and read that the Super Bowl includes a "media crush."
The NFL has issued 1,898 credentials to working media, plus another 740 for those responsible for game operations, and another 347 to CBS Sports for today's telecast.
That's a total of 2,985 credentials.
\ Buffalo running back Thurman Thomas, who had already been named the NFL's most valuable player, was named the Miller Lite NFL Player of the Year on Saturday.
Thomas, with 2,038 yards rushing and receiving, is the first player to lead the league in combined yards for three straight seasons since Cleveland's Jim Brown did it in the 1960s.
Thomas selected the YMCA to receive the $25,000 donation to be made his name. San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana had won the past two Lite Player honors.
Washington quarterback Mark Rypien was a finalist for the honor.
\ Buffalo safety Mark Kelso, a William and Mary graduate, was runner-up to Cincinnati offensive tackle Anthony Munoz for the NFL Man of the Year honor.
The award honors players for their off-the-field contributions to their community.
Kelso, on his own and without announcing it, took a cab from his St. Paul hotel to spend 2 1/2 hours visiting the cancer ward at University of Minneapolis Hospital.
\ Redskins place-kicker Chip Lohmiller will wear the same right shoe in today's Super Bowl that he wore during his college career in the Metrodome.
Lohmiller, who kicked a Minnesota-record 62-yard field goal in his junior season, has kept the modified track shoe since then.
The NFL's leading scorer, a native of Woodbury, is thrilled about this homecoming game. His parents are flying in from Norway for the Super Bowl. John Lohmiller's job with 3M got him transferred overseas.
The Redskins' kicker has a home in St. Paul, where he spends his off-seasons. "I'm probably the only person who wants to really play the Super Bowl here, among the players anyway," he said.
\ Lohmiller's ice fishing expedition with teammates Art Monk, Monte Coleman and Earnest Byner on Friday was a success - depending on how you measure success.
"Which way is the North Pole," Byner wondered.
"I have a better question," Coleman said. "Which way is the hotel? I feel like one of the four stooges out here."
After 90 minutes of sitting and waiting atop the 18-inch thick ice on Cedar Lake, Byner caught a 4-inch perch. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a 15-pound record walleye," said the Redskins' running back. "I'm proud to be out here, at least until the ice starts cracking anyway."
\ One of the most colorful characters during Super Bowl week has been Buffalo defensive line coach Chuck Dickerson.
"Jim Lachey is a 310-pound ballerina," Dickerson said of Washington's Pro Bowl offensive tackle. "He ought to wear a tutu under his uniform. The thing we've noticed about him from watching the tapes is that he has bad breath. Players will fall down without Lachey even touching them, so he has to have bad breath."
Asked to discuss the Bills' defensive line matching up with the Redskins' offensive front, Dickerson said: "I have a bunch of guys with flat foreheads. If we can get our flat foreheads against their pointy little chins, we have a chance."
\ The players on the Super Bowl champion team will have earned $64,000 apiece from three NFL postseason games, including the Super game-winning share of $36,000.
Today's losers earn $18,000 for the Super Bowl, bringing their playoff total to $46,000.
\ Twin Cities newspapers and television stations reported that unhappy Minnesota running back Herschel Walker could be headed back to his home state. The Vikings are talking trade with Atlanta.
Walker, a straight-ahead runner, has struggled for the Vikings since moving from Dallas in 1989 for five players and seven draft choices. The trade has been assailed since then in the Twin Cities.
Atlanta uses the run-and-shoot offense, which uses one back, but Walker doesn't have the shiftiness that makes Barry Sanders so superb in Detroit's run-and-shoot.
\ Each Super Bowl player had the chance to purchase 20 tickets. Sounds like a lot, unless you're Washington linebacker Andre Collins, who has 18 brothers and sisters.
"Eleven of them will be here," Collins said. "All of them wanted to come, but that wasn't feasible. I passed the torch to my mom and she decided. I have a hard time saying no.
"I did have enough tickets. The tough thing was trying to find them all a place to stay."