Everyone Likes Sam . . . for Now

There’s a new sign near the Cincinnati Bengals’ training facility which reads: “Super Team, Super Sam, Super Bowl.”

A year ago, Cincinnati fans were making other signs in reference to Coach Sam Wyche when the Bengals went 4-11 and lost several close games in the final minutes.

Quarterback Boomer Esiason, not always a Wyche booster himself, knows things could change if things don’t go right in the Super Bowl Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

“Last year they wanted him fired,” Esiason said. “This year everybody wants to hire him. Last year he was ‘Wicky Wacky,’ and this year he’s a genius.

“If we can win this one and do the no-huddle offense, he’ll be the greatest of all time. He’ll be better than Vince Lombardi. If we lose it, it’s ‘Well, they did too many gimmicks again.’ ”

Buddy Bob: Wrote Norman Chad of The Washington Post about Bud Bowl I:

“Bob Costas once was a budding sportscaster; now he is a sporting Budcaster.

“NBC-TV Budcaster Bob Costas. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? And Costas, by gladly joining in Anheuser-Busch’s megalomaniacal, mind-numbing Bud Bowl I promotion, not only cheapens his journalistic reputation but also risks being a handmaiden to the most cynical instincts of corporate America.

“Bob, for all you do for Anheuser-Busch, this Bud’s for you.”

Secondhand dimension: Before anybody thinks some Coca-Cola executive came up with a sudden brainstorm to have the Super Bowl halftime show televised in 3-D, Vito Stellino of the Baltimore Sun reports that the 3-D glasses were originally scheduled for a “Moonlighting” episode that was canceled by the writers’ strike and were recycled for the Super Bowl.

Cats: The Columbus (Ga.) Astros, Houston’s double-A Southern League farm team, have changed their name to the Columbus Mudcats.

The baseball team’s new ownership, under principal owner Steve Bryant of Raleigh, N.C., thought the club needed a name “more in keeping with the area.”

A mudcat is a catfish that lives in muddy water--such as the Chattahoochee River, which flows past Columbus.

Cats II: Some teams use a 2-3 zone to contain an opponent’s big men, but Jess Hutson of the Thiel College Tomcats may be the only coach in college basketball whose playbook contains the 2-2 defense.

Injuries, fouls and academic problems have forced the Tomcats (1-9) to finish their last two games with four players.

“We’ve been dressing seven players, but five of them were injured,” Hutson said. “Our kids get clearance from the doctor to play a game, then go back on their crutches until we have another game.”

Quotebook

Center Brian Skrudland after the Montreal Canadiens defeated Boston to open up a 21-point lead over the second-place Bruins in the Adams Division: “When someone is down in this league, you’ve got to kick him.”