It’s All Fun and Games in the NFL

What have they been saying in the NFL for the last 25 years? Here are some selected quotes from “The NFL Since 1960,” published by NFL Properties:

--Former Dallas Cowboy fullback Walt Garrison, asked if Coach Tom Landry ever smiled: “I don’t know. I only played there nine years.”

--New England Patriot defensive end Richard Bishop, asked if opposing players ever talked to him during a game: “Yeah. As a matter of fact, Larry Little of Miami once asked, ‘Who are you, anyway?’ ”

--Detroit Lion Coach Monte Clark: “When Larry Csonka goes on safari, the lions roll up their windows.”

--New England Patriot defensive end Julius Adams, asked if the Raiders were getting away holding during a playoff game: “Let’s put it this way. After every time I rushed the passer, I had to tuck my shirt back in.”

--Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert: “I kind of like Craig Morton. I think he’s an overachiever. The main reason I like him, though, is because he can’t run out of the pocket.”

--Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt, as the Raiders and the NFL went to court in 1982: “The best description of utter waste would be for a busload of lawyers to go over a cliff with three empty seats.”

--Raider linebacker Matt Millen, told that Washington Redskin guard Russ Grimm had said he’d run over his own mother to win Super Bowl XVIII: “I’d run over Grimm’s mother, too.”

Add Quotes: From Miami Coach Don Shula: “Someday, it will come down to the Dolphins and Raiders playing for the American Conference Championship at the Coliseum. There will be six inches of water on the field as the Dolphins drive for the winning touchdown with 10 seconds left. There we’ll be, on the three-yard line . . . the clouds will part, and we’ll look up to see Al Davis standing on the goal line with a garden hose.”

Trivia Time: On the Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris that gave Pittsburgh a 13-7 win over Oakland in the 1972 AFC playoffs, the ball thrown by Terry Bradshaw ricocheted off the shoulder of Raider defensive back Jack Tatum. Who was the intended receiver? (Answer at right.)

Denver Nugget Coach Doug Moe, on ex-Nugget forward Kiki Vandeweghe, now of the Portland Trail Blazers: “He was the only player who couldn’t live up to our dress code, which is to dress as good as me. The village idiot could that.”

Add Kiki: Asked by Todd Phipers of the Denver Post to compare the coaching of Moe and Portland’s Jack Ramsay, he said his first practice at Portland was twice as long as any of Moe’s, and the team was ordered to return to watch videotape that night.

“Videotapes of what?” Kiki asked. Of practice, he was told.

“I don’t need videotapes, I was there,” he said. “With Doug, we’d watch cartoons or something.”

Chicago Bear linebacker Mike Singletary grew up in Texas and went to Baylor, but he told the Sporting News that he loved to watch cold-weather games at Green Bay, Minnesota and Chicago, and he envied the middle linebackers.

“They were standing right in the middle,” he said. “Smoke and everything blowing everywhere. Oh, that’s great. Mud and blood flying everywhere. To me, that’s what it’s all about. I love it.”

Trivia Answer: John (Frenchy) Fuqua.

Quotebook

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on William (The Refrigerator) Perry: “When he goes into a restaurant, he doesn’t ask for a menu, but for an estimate.”