Breunig Couldn’t Call the Shots for the Big Guns

Bob Breunig, who retired from the Dallas Cowboys Wednesday, recalled the first time he called defensive signals for the team.

“It was against Denver in a scrimmage,” he told Jim Dent of the Dallas Times Herald. “It was a pretty heated scrimmage, and I was just a rookie. I didn’t think I would play, but Lee Roy Jordan had to come out for an equipment repair, so they sent me in.

“I ran out to the huddle, and off to my left was Ed Jones, who was 6-9. Jethro Pugh was 6-7 and 260 pounds. Off to his right was Larry Cole, who was 6-5 and 265 pounds. And then there was Harvey Martin. And I was standing there at 6-1 and 218.

“I just said, ‘Why don’t you guys just run whatever defense you guys feel like running this time?’ ”

Wait a minute: From San Francisco ticket broker Bob Zidell, predicting that Super Bowl XIX tickets will bring the biggest price in history: “When was the last time you remember the two best teams being in the Super Bowl?”

How about last year? Super Bowl XVIII matched the Washington Redskins (16-2) and the Raiders (14-4). Nobody had a better record.

At the American Football Coaches Assn. meeting in Nashville, Tenn., it was standing-room only in the room where the lecture was titled “Utilizing Personnel in the Passing Game.”

Reason: The lecturer was LaVell Edwards, head football coach at Brigham Young.

The lecture drew the largest crowd anyone could remember, including Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, who said, “I’ve got to relearn the passing game.”

Add Edwards: Asked the secret of his success, he said: “There are no secrets. The reason we’ve become good at passing is simply because of the amount of time we practice it. Every ball our quarterback throws--from the first day of spring practice to the last play of the last game--he must know the coverages and account to Mike Holmgren why he threw the ball.”

Holmgren, former San Francisco high school star and part-time performer at USC, is the BYU quarterback coach.

Baltimore Manager Joe Altobelli said he expects Fred Lynn to help the Orioles as much with his glove as with his bat.

He recalled facing Lynn in the International League when he managed Rochester and Lynn played for Pawtucket.

“Once, I sent a runner from first to third. Another time, I sent one from second to home. Both runners were thrown out by Lynn.

“After that, I never ran on Fred Lynn,” Altobelli said.

Quotebook Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on ABC’s hiring of Joe Theismann to do color on the Super Bowl: “O.J. Simpson? Talk about being farmed out. He’ll be on pregame, halftime and postgame with Mr. Excitement, Tom Landry.”