Heading for Big Things

Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche is delighted with the play of Boomer Esiason, who has quarterbacked the Bengals to a 5-0 record, but he’s not ready to nominate him for the Hall of Fame.

“We’re not going to call him a star just yet because I don’t want the head to get large on him,” Wyche said.

This didn’t bother Esiason.

“When he drafted me 5 years ago, I told him I already was a star,” Boomer said.

How-times-have-changed Dept.: There was a day when a track star would jump at an NFL offer, but after the Cleveland Browns expressed interest in 400-meter record-holder Butch Reynolds, his agent, Brad Hunt, said that his client earned “in the $300,000 to $400,000 range” by running in meets and endorsing products.

After Chip Lohmiller of the Washington Redskins missed an extra point and a potential game-winning field goal in the 24-23 loss to the New York Giants, one of the first calls he received was from Norway.

It was from Lohmiller’s father, who had just moved to the country. He told Chip: “Once I leave, look at what you do? I leave, and you miss. Is that a hint for me to come back?”

Add Redskins: Reserve running back Craig McEwen, who wears No. 32, points out that O.J. Simpson wore the same number.

“They call me the Juice,” he said. “Prune Juice.”

Trivia Time: Coley Wallace, who played the lead in “The Joe Louis Story,” is the answer to what trivia question? (Answer below.)

Delores Robinson, mother of TV actress Holly Robinson who attended Sarah Lawrence College with Robin Givens, wife of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, told Newsday: “Everybody hated Robin. They booed her at graduation. She’s a manipulative, scheming opportunist.”

Robinson said she was surprised by the candor of Givens’ mother, Ruth Roper. “She said that now that she had provided a proper education for her daughter, all she had to do was find her a rich husband,” Robinson said.

Add Givens: Said Newsday: “After college, Givens dated a number of famous men, according to friends and published reports. She dated Eddie Murphy. She dated Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. ‘She initiated a couple of meetings,’ says David Falk of ProServ, an agency that represents Jordan. ‘She wanted to meet him because of who he was. She sent us some pictures, and they met a couple of times. He agreed to meet her once or twice and that was really it.’ ”

Idle Thought: Wonder what Mike Ditka thinks when he reads the next day what he said the day before?

Here’s what he said when asked if he thinks the Chicago Bears are a transitional team: “I’d say it’s unusual, really, but it’s not unusual. But, then, it could be rare.”

Colorado State nose guard Greg Baker, on Colorado center Erik Norgard: “We have a hog farm, and I told my dad if we had a hog as good as Norgard, we’d make a lot of money.”

From the NCAA News: “In the absence of a band or tape recorder in the press box, Menlo College has an unusual way of playing the national anthem. The team sings it.”

Trivia Answer: He is the only man ever to beat Rocky Marciano. He did it as an amateur.

Quotebook

Boston pitcher Bruce Hurst, asked by USA Today what he would be doing if he weren’t playing baseball: “Chairman of the board of Hurst Enterprises.”