Best-Ever 45 Just Catch Away From Being 86’d

Wrote Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post after Super Bowl XXII: “With all due respect to the San Francisco 49ers, these Washington Redskins are the best 45-man team Joe Gibbs ever has coached, and the best 45-man team in the NFL.

“There’s no deeper, no more resilient and no better-coached team in the game today. Neither Joe Gibbs nor Bobby Beathard should have to take another step on concrete for the rest of the winter--football people should be lining up to toss rose petals under their feet.”

OK, but if Darrin Nelson hadn’t dropped that pass on the goal line, it might have been the Minnesota Vikings, not Washington, lining up against the Denver Broncos last Sunday.

Doug Williams, on the 35-point second quarter: “That probably will go down as the greatest quarter in the history of football. I’ve never had a quarter like that, not even in high school. I haven’t even had a half of basketball like that.”

Add Quarters: Times alumnus Frank Finch called with a reminder that the Rams share the regular-season record for points in a quarter with 41 against Detroit in 1950. Green Bay set the mark in 1945, also against Detroit.

In the third quarter of the Rams’ 65-24 victory over the Lions at the Coliseum, Norm Van Brocklin threw 4 touchdown passes--31 yards to Elroy Hirsch, 43 yards to Glenn Davis, 30 yards to Tom Fears and 42 yards to Bob Boyd. Dan Towler ran three yards for a touchdown, and Vitamin T. Smith scored on a 93-yard kickoff return.

Trivia Time: In its two Super Bowl wins, Washington has given up the first touchdown of the game on a pass. Who scored the touchdown in the 1983 Super Bowl? (Answer in fourth coulum.)

Would-you-believe-it dept.: At the Frontier Sports Book in Las Vegas, the line on how many yards John Elway would gain rushing in the Super Bowl was placed at 31 yards.

He gained 32 yards.

The performance of Doug Williams can’t hurt the prospects of Syracuse’s Don McPherson in the draft, but Joel Buschbaum of Pro Football Weekly, after listing all the attributes of the 6-foot, 185-pound quarterback, said: “Lack of height, size and strength are his negatives and three reasons why he still could wind up as a wide receiver. However, he will be looked at as a quarterback first.”

Add Buschbaum: Claiming that UCLA’s Troy Aikman would be the first quarterback taken if the fourth-year junior were eligible for the draft, he said: “Aikman appears to have all the tools. He is big, mobile, athletic, can drill the ball, rarely throws interceptions, has a quick trigger and would have deserved the Heisman Trophy if his only poor showing had not come against Southern Cal in the battle for the Rose Bowl.”

The Name Game: From Keith Drum of United Press International: “Are Stetson’s Hatters the only aptly named college in the country? If they ever got to No. 1, they would be, of course, the Top Hatters.

“Why didn’t other schools choose nicknames as appropriately? Some suggestions:

“Augusta Masters, Creighton Shirts, Butler Maids, Brown Shoes, Rider Trucks, Pan American Jets, Yale Locks, Pacific Oceans, and the Mercer Naries.”

Trivia Answer: Jimmy Cefalo of Miami, on a 76-yard pass play from David Woodley.

Quotebook

Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, rating his dunk over Detroit’s Terry Tyler before a full house at the Silverdome as his all-time favorite: “Our trainer, Mark Pfeil, described it best when he said that even the guys in the upper decks in three-piece suits were high-fiving each other.”