THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040906
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Sinking in the West: Wonder how the NFL public relations machine is going to explain the decline of pro football in Southern California. While the Rams move closer to moving East, Sunday's game between the Oilers and Raiders at the L.A. Coliseum drew only 40,473. There are more people than that in the O.J. Simpson jury pool.
Hype-o-rama: If Steve McNair fails to win the Heisman Trophy, it will not be because of lack of publicity.
Made for TV: A tribute, a roast, a dog-and-pony show. Whatever you call the two-hour special held to retire his jersey, Michael Jordan's farewell won't be confused with Lou Gehrig's at Yankee Stadium. While watching some of it, I did not consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
Add tribute: Dean Smith, on hand at Chicago's United Center Tuesday night to honor his former Tar Heel star, was introduced as the only man who could hold Jordan to 20 points. Too bad Dean couldn't have held the show to 20 minutes.
Big Dog: Now that he's signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, Glenn Robinson can dream of the day that he, too, has his number hauled to the rafters. Only in Robinson's case, it will be his bank account number that's retired.
Graffiti: Redshirt the 1994 Heisman.
Parody: NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has achieved his goal. As November begins, no team has been eliminated from the playoffs, not even the Cincinnati Bagels.
One born every second: Charles Barkley puts NBA exhibition games in perfect focus when he says, ``Preseason is just to break a sweat and cheat the fans out of some of their hard-earned money.''
Not so fast: The media are in too much of a hurry to anoint the Orlando Magic the power in the East. I see a team that lacks the experience needed to reach the NBA Finals.
Says here: The best college football team in the country would be Miami's defense and Penn State's offense.
More than making do: Even without his best offensive linemen for most of the season, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young is completing 70.1 percent of his passes, tops in the NFL.
His better half: I wouldn't be surprised if George Seifert's wife were underwhelmed by her husband's plans to scale the Dallas Cowboys. Linda Seifert, 50, recently climbed 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Big deal: An increase in scoring this year of only 2.2 points per game compared with the first nine weeks of last season proves that the NFL doesn't need new rules, but better quarterbacks.
Hoop dreams: Bobby Hurley should get the NBA's comeback player of the year award just for pulling on a uniform.
A princely presence: If Detroit Pistons rookie Grant Hill develops into the next endorsement phenom, he'll be counted on to add something different to a sports marketplace dominated by the likes of Deion Sanders and Andre Agassi - a touch of class.
Bad idea: The NCAA is concerned enough about newspapers printing the betting lines on college games that the Division I men's basketball committee is considering barring from the Final Four any newspaper that runs the odds. In other words, the NCAA might try to put the First Amendment on probation.
In passing: With half the season gone, coach of the year in the NFL is San Diego's Bobby Ross. by CNB