Steve Young Overrated--Trump

Donald Trump, owner of the New Jersey Generals, is quoted by Todd Phipers of the Denver Post as saying that the USFL will have plenty of players when it returns to action.

“We’ll hold on to Herschel Walker and Kelvin Bryant and some others. We’ll have players,” he said.

Asked about Steve Young, Trump went on a tirade.

“Get rid of him,” he said. “He’s the most overrated player in football. I’d sue him for damages for not playing half this season.”

Add Phipers: Comparing the media interest in the USFL championship game to the Super Bowl, he wrote: “Let’s summarize it this way. One day last week, Kevin Doyle, a sportswriter for the Peninsula Times-Tribune of Palo Alto, was the only passenger on the USFL’s daily press bus to the Oakland Invaders practice.”

Trivia Time: Kathy Whitworth leads the LPGA in wins with 88, and Sam Snead leads the PGA with 84. What else do they have in common? (Answer below.)

With Beckermania sweeping the nation since Boris Becker’s win at Wimbledon, William Drodziak of the Washington Post writes from West Germany: “A spate of overnight biographies has released a torrent of trivia about his life. His booming serve, clocked at 125 m.p.h., has been attributed to eating granola for breakfast. His cool demeanor ostensibly derives from unique relaxation techniques, such as playing chess with his coach before every match and listening to Eric Clapton and Tina Turner on his Walkman.”

Calling it another non-event in a depressing era of non-events, John Jeansonne of Newsday wrote after the baseball players had set Aug. 6 as their strike date: “Aug. 6. A Dog Day, as originally defined by association to the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. On that date in history, the Holy Roman Empire formally ended (1806). An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States (1945). Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, died (1623). Actor Robert Mitchum was born (1917). The fourth strike by major league baseball players would rank no higher than fifth on that list.”

Asked if Mary Decker Slaney might go for a record in her race with Zola Budd Saturday, Slaney’s coach, Luiz Oliveira, said: “You can’t step on the track thinking of breaking world records.”

Apparently Steve Cram can. Said the Britisher after breaking the 1,500 record Tuesday: “I knew I had a good chance when I saw the field. I thought, ‘Why not go for the record?’ ”

Trivia Answer: Neither has won a U.S. Open.

Quotebook

Washington Coach Joe Gibbs, told that Tom Landry had picked the Redskins to win the NFC East: “I think that was fairly obvious. We open with the Cowboys in Dallas. So that was a natural.”