Manley’s Trump Card Is a Joker

Defensive end Dexter Manley of the Washington Redskins, still a holdout, told Christine Brennan of the Washington Post he was looking into other options.

“Maybe I’ll be signing with the Memphis Showboats,” he said. “It’s true that their league folded. Well, maybe I’ll still go into that league. It’ll be just me and Donald Trump. We can go one on one. Or, better yet, I can go to work at Trump Tower. Maybe he’ll let me run the elevator. I think he’d pay me $400,000 a year to run the elevator, don’t you?”

When Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer asked Sam Clancy of the Cleveland Browns if he could lower the boom, the 6-foot 7-inch, 275-pound defensive end said: “I don’t want to blow somebody’s knee out, but I want to destroy a guy one on one. I’ll throw a quarterback on his head. I’ll pick him up and tell him I’ll do it again.”

Nice.

Trivia Time: Fullback Doc Blanchard and quarterback Arnold Tucker of Army both won the Sullivan Award, which is awarded to the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete. Did Glenn Davis ever win the award? (Answer below.)

How good was Earl Campbell? They once asked Coach Bum Phillips of the Houston Oilers if Campbell was in a class by himself, and Phillips said, “I don’t know, but it don’t take long to call the roll.”

The Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns fight was one of the great spectacles in boxing history, but there hasn’t been a rematch, presumably because Hearns wanted no more of the hard-headed middleweight champion.

Veteran trainer Ray Arcel views it differently. He told the New York Times: “When I saw the fight, I knew that Hagler would not fight Hearns again. He took murderous punches. When Hearns hits you, you kinda stay hit.

“Hagler was subjected to more punishment, but Hearns didn’t have the stamina or endurance that was needed. Once the cork comes out, there’s no putting it back. Hagler knocked out Hearns in the third round, but he got hurt. He wouldn’t want to walk on the same side of the street with Hearns again.”

Turning-it-around Dept.: In 1984, Colorado was last in the nation in rushing. The school then went to the wishbone. In 1985, Colorado was last in the nation in passing.

Said Coach Bill Parcells of the New York Giants, a Boston Red Sox fan, after Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd lost his third straight start: “That guy is a couple of quarts low.”

Although some observers have suggested that Bo Jackson is full of himself, Manager Tommy Jones of the Memphis Chicks told the Orlando Sentinel: “Bo is popular with his teammates. They love the guy. He doesn’t strut around as if he were better than them. He is one of them.

“The other guys constantly marvel at what Bo is going to do next. They see him hit a ball 565 feet in Greenville one night, the longest, hardest-hit home run they ever saw. And then they see him hit a two-hopper to third base. The third baseman gets it, makes his throw and Bo beats it by two steps. That’s something you don’t see every day.”

Trivia Answer: Yes, but not the Glenn Davis of Army. Glenn Davis of Ohio State, world record-holder and two-time Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, won the award in 1958. Quotebook

Chi Chi Rodriguez, driving his golf cart past Arnold Palmer who is behind a move to have carts banned from the Senior tour: “It’s OK, Arnie, I’m using Pennzoil.”