CHICAGO BEARS vs. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS : Notes : McMahon Still Trying to Prove His Point

Bear quarterback Jim McMahon said Tuesday he expected to speak to team president Michael McCaskey about the status of acupuncturist Hiroshi Shiriashi.

Shiriashi, the trainer for the Japanese national track team, recently treated McMahon for a back and buttocks injury. The treatment, McMahon said, was helpful and seemed to relieve the pain and pressure of the injury better than conventional methods.

But on Monday, as the Bears prepared to leave for New Orleans, Shiriashi was told he couldn’t travel on the team plane. McCaskey made the decision, saying he didn’t believe this was the time for Bear players to begin experimenting with acupuncture.

Shiriashi also treated several other Bear players about a month ago.

Said McMahon: “I’m just going to ask (McCaskey) why he (Shiriashi) isn’t here. If they don’t want to bring him, the players will bring him.”

In a statement released late Monday evening, the Bears had said: “Upper management felt (Shiriashi) didn’t belong on the trip. Fred Caito (Chicago trainer) will treat him the rest of the week. He knows what Jim’s pain threshold is and he knows the extent of the injury.”

McMahon said Tuesday that he had tried acupuncture because he thought he needed to do something. “It started feeling better yesterday and it’s a little better today,” he said. “But I’m nowhere near ready to play Sunday.

“There’s no doubt I’ll play. How long I’ll play is the question. Whether or not this thing is healed enough to play the whole game or not is yet to be determined. I know if I fall on it again I won’t be playing very long.

“We’ve got guys that are nicked and we need them healthy to play this ballgame. I think all of us feel he (Shiriashi) should be here and we’re going to try to get him here one way or another. Even if we have to pay for it, fine.”

In Chicago, however, the Illinois State Acupuncture Assn. said it would fly Shiriashi and Bill Anderson, the association’s legislative liaison and an acupuncturist himself, to New Orleans.

McMahon’s injury occurred in the second period of the NFC championship game while he was scrambling against the Rams. Linebacker Jim Collins hit McMahon as the quarterback slid to the ground. McMahon also said he had been hit while sliding the previous week against the New York Giants in a divisional playoff game.

“When you get hit sometimes by those guys it’s not a whole lot of fun, especially when they’re not supposed to hit you,” McMahon said. “(Bear coaches) told me to start sliding to protect myself and I start sliding and I get hurt. I don’t see the logic in that.”

Shiriashi, who was recommended to McMahon by Willie Gault, a former international track star and now a Bear wide receiver, remained in Chicago Monday and apparently Tuesday, too. But Gault said Tuesday he plans to arrange for Shiriashi’s arrival in New Orleans as soon as possible.

McMahon said he got a letter from National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle about the headband worn by the quarterback during the NFC title game. Warned by the league not to wear an Adidas headband, McMahon printed ROZELLE on a white headband and wore it in the victory against the Rams.

“It was pretty funny,” McMahon said of Rozelle’s letter. “(Rozelle) told me he was disappointed that I introduced his new line of clothes early.”

Bear defensive tackle Steve McMichael said he has his own idea for a headband. It would read: “Space For Rent.”

McMichael, from the University of Texas, is the same guy the New England Patriots drafted in 1980. He was cut by then-Coach Ron Erhardt shortly thereafter, and the Bears signed him as a free agent in 1981.

“(Erhardt) said I might catch on somewhere as a second-teamer,” McMichael said. “I proved him wrong, hah, hah.

“I’ve had more downs than ups,” he said.

McMichael left Texas with a reputation as a free spirit of sorts. Others have substituted the words juvenile delinquent for free spirit .

“A lot of wasted time and effort, and it was my fault,” he said. “Nobody gets anything out of acting like an idiot. I’m talking (about) on and off the field.

“I’m like Willie Nelson now: laid back at 55.”

With the NFL season just one game away from conclusion, Bear defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was asked if he still considered lineman William (The Refrigerator) Perry a wasted draft choice, as he did last summer when practice began.

“It depends on what context it was in,” Ryan said. “You see he did get down to pretty good shape and he is playing pretty good, although he’s not going to get in the Pro Bowl anytime soon.”

The respect among New England players for Coach Raymond Berry is legitimate. This from Pro Bowl offensive guard John Hannah, when asked the differences between Berry and Ron Meyer, the coach he succeeded:

“Let me ask you a question: Do you work better when someone shows you respect or when they’re on your back all the time?”

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but New England wide receiver Irving Fryar wore a gold necklace decorated with two boxing gloves at Tuesday’s press conference. Fryar, who allegedly was involved in a recent argument with his wife that resulted in knife cuts to his fingers and bruises to his wife, smiled when reminded of the chain. “I’ve had this for a long time,” he said.

It was a gift from his wife, he said.

New England’s Garin Veris, a rookie defensive end from Stanford, will make his second Super Bowl appearance Sunday.

How so?

He was a security guard at last year’s game at Stanford Stadium.

Media overkill is the rage at the Super Bowl. The Chicago Tribune sent 27 writers, editors and photographers. One Bourbon Street visitor was stopped and asked if he’d consent to an interview. “I just talked to one of your guys,” the man said.

Julius Adams, the Patriots’ defensive end, has waited even longer than Chicago’s Walter Payton to play in a Super Bowl: 15 years.

“It feels real good,” he said. “This is my last game and I’m going to play the best I can. I always wanted to get here, and now that I’m here I’m not happy with just being here. I want to win.”

Adams, who will be 38 in April, tried out a few lines:

“We’ve got the second-youngest team in the league. When I retire it’ll be the youngest.”

“(Teammate) Kenny Sims told me he had my bubble gum card when he was growing up. I said, ‘Don’t tell too many people that.’ They already kid me about playing with Joe Namath, John Unitas and some of those guys. Matter of fact, I played against George Blanda.”

“When I came in I was one of the big guys. Now they’re all bigger. My train is almost ready to stop.”

But Adams, who has played football for 22 years since high school in Macon, Ga., doesn’t want anyone to think he is over the hill. The Patriots’ previous coach, Ron Meyer, tried to tell him that.

“It bothered me for a while,” he said, without naming Meyer. “But the coach who told me that I couldn’t play anymore didn’t know about playing himself. When he left you had about 40 happy players. I was one of them.

“Coach (Raymond) Berry is a relaxed person. He doesn’t worry about himself. He doesn’t worry about whether something is gonna make him look good. He worries about what’s best for the team. If the same coaching staff had been here, we wouldn’t have made it.”

Adams said he is retiring because “at 37 I want to move on to other things. I love playing. I could play another four years if I wanted to. But it’s a young man’s game, I’m healthy and I want to remain healthy.”

He will raise beef cattle in Georgia.

Don’t look for Patrick Sullivan on the field Sunday. The Patriots’ 33-year-old general manager, son of the owner, said: “I always have been, but I won’t be anymore.”

Sullivan was involved in a postgame incident with the Raiders’ Howie Long and Matt Millen after the playoff game in Los Angeles three weeks ago. Long accosted Sullivan to ask why he had been taunting him and other Raider players during the game, and Millen hit Sullivan with his helmet.

“It was evident to me that it would be a problem,” Sullivan said.

Dick Steinberg, the Patriots’ director of player development, doubts that the week-long media crush will bother the Patriots.

“Ever since the Miami Monday night game (Dec. 16), we’ve been traveling with an entourage of 45 or 50 media types, and they’re right in the hotel with us,” Steinberg said.

“Our players don’t burp without some guy sticking a microphone in his face. We had a media blitz even before the season ended. I don’t see how it could be any more demanding than it’s been the last three weeks.

“At least here they’ll be more protected from the media.”

Practices are closed, and interviews are conducted only through Thursday at designated times.

Staff writer Rich Roberts contributed to this story.