They Talk His Game at Georgia

Chicago Bear kicker Kevin Butler, a star all-around athlete at Redan, Ga., High School, explained to the Chicago Sun-Times how he wound up at the University of Georgia.

“I had a chance to go play soccer and football at Duke, but then they mentioned school and I couldn’t do all three,” Butler said. “When I went to Georgia they mentioned football quite a bit and they brought up school every now and then.”

Add Butler: Of his disagreement with Green Bay safety Tiger Greene after he had kicked a 52-yard field goal, he said: “They were saying stuff before I kicked it, and then when I made it, Greene came up and walked right into me, bumped into me and started calling me all kinds of names. They mentioned by momma.

“I usually give it right back to them, but there were no linemen around me, so I just laughed and walked backwards.”

He confessed that the Packers had a right to be upset.

“I’m a jerk on the field and I’ll admit it,” he said.

Add Bears: Said Coach Mike Ditka after shaking up his lineup for Sunday’s game against the Raiders: “We have certain individuals who do not feel urgency to get things done. They worry about how high their socks are, if the white shows a lot, whether they got their shoes on right, decals painted on right, little wrist bands, a little eye black. They forget to play football, but they look good.”

Trivia Time: Who was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year last season? (Answer to follow).

Wrote Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Either my wood drill is on or Dick Vitale is back.”

Schmitz, on Dick Vermeil: “He must be suffering from burnout as an announcer.”

Gale Sayers, on Bo Jackson: “One game doesn’t make a season. They may be going overboard on him. He looked good on Monday Night Football, but he has to play a full season. The great ones play with injuries. He isn’t playing now.”

The Name Game: From Hubert Mizell of the St. Petersburg Times: “If the muscle-bound actor had married the daughter of the University of Louisville football coach, her name would have been Suzanne Schnellenberger Schwarzenegger.”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Calvin Peete Jr., son of the slender golf pro, weighs 240 pounds and is a member of the Northwestern wrestling team.

Just Asking: Has John Robinson set some kind of record by coaching both starting Pro Bowl tailbacks, Eric Dickerson of the AFC and Charles White of the NFC, in the same season?

It has been eight months since Sugar Ray Leonard came out of retirement to beat Marvelous Marvin Hagler, but Leonard still watches the fight on tape nearly every night. “It’s like a cup of coffee,” Leonard told William Gildea of the Washington Post. “It’s energizing. For me, it’s like a shot of caffeine. Kind of gets me pumped up. I could watch it all the time.”

Trivia Answer: Chuck Person of Indianapolis.

Quotebook

Tree Rollins of the Atlanta Hawks, on going scoreless in five straight games: “Well, I wasn’t going to win the scoring title anyway.”