The Game That Got to Gibbs

Joe Gibbs, coach of the Washington Redskins, is a low-key sort who usually spends halftimes clinically analyzing first half mistakes and charting a revised game plan for the second half.

Not Sunday. The Redskins were trailing the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-0, and Gibbs was in no mood for analysis.

“I’ve never seen a man that mad,” guard R.C. Thielemann told Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post.

Denlinger: “Unfortunately, no replay cameras are available for halftime tantrums. He apparently flung a chair in the coach’s room for warmups. Then he moved into the players’ area and got rolling before everybody had arrived.

“A second chair got dented, and then he wiped out some oranges and cups filled with water on a table.”

“ ‘Knocked down all the pins,’ Thielemann said.

“Don Warren took an orange to the shoulder. Clint Didier had an early shower. Jeff Bostic was seen after the game examining his trousers for stains. Everybody was laughing and saying how appropriate it had been.

“ ‘Some of us wanted another speech,’ Joe Jacoby said after the 21-14 win. ‘But he said he’d lost his voice at halftime.’

“Said Gibbs: ‘I almost hyperventilated.’ ”

Where They Are Now: Mike Giomi, the 6-9 forward who was kicked off the Indiana basketball team two years ago for not meeting Coach Bob Knight’s academic standards even though he was eligible by NCAA standards, is now playing for Jim Valvano at North Carolina State. He’s the third leading rebounder on the team with 5.9 per game.

When Giomi transferred, ESPN’s Dick Vitale said of the switch from Knight to Valvano: “That’s like going from Gen. Patton to Gomer Pyle.”

Trivia Time: After Roger Staubach hit Drew Pearson with the Hail Mary pass that gave Dallas a 13-10 win over Minnesota in the 1975 NFC divisional playoffs, how did field judge Armen Terzian figure in the action? (Answer below.)

If you watched Sunday’s Dallas-Chicago game, did you get the impression William Perry has put on a pound or two? You were right.

Bears Coach Mike Ditka says The Fridge has ballooned to nearly 350 pounds and has lost at least $38,000 in weight bonuses.

“He’s at a plateau he hasn’t ever been before and it’s cost him,” Ditka said of The Fridge. “I want him to be alive when he’s 29 and I don’t know if he can continue to be at this weight. It’s a matter of discipline. He’s hurting himself, but he’ll be down by the playoffs.”

Ditka added: “He’s playing pretty good right now. There’s a difference between playing good and playing your best. No one could have contained him if he was playing at the same weight.”

Gary Williams, the new Ohio State basketball coach, on a tryout camp he held that attracted 80 members of the student body: “I cut every guy that showed up wearing black socks--immediately.”

Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics, on the defense of the Chicago Bulls: “Their defense consists of the fact that the whole time you’re on offense you’re worried about what’s going to happen the next time Michael Jordan gets the ball.”

Trivia Answer: He was struck by a whiskey bottle thrown by an irate Minnesota fan after the play. He was knocked unconscious but was otherwise not seriously hurt.

Quotebook

Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Lewis Billups, on the fickle fans at Riverfront Stadium: “We didn’t boo them when they messed up a wave they were trying to get started, so they shouldn’t boo us.”