Notes : Cincinnati Not Getting Credit It Deserves

One of the chief differences so far between this and other recent Super Bowl weeks is the widespread lack of support for the American Football Conference entry here next Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Everybody I’ve read or run into is picking the (San Francisco) 49ers,” Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm said Sunday night.

“I’ve never seen such unanimity despite the fact that Cincinnati has a better shot, in my opinion, than a lot of other (1980s) AFC teams.”

Unlike the last 4 winters, when quarterbacks such as John Elway and Dan Marino appeared to give AFC teams a solid chance, Cincinnati’s Boomer Esiason and the Bengals’ 15th-ranked defense don’t seem--in the view of most observers--to be a match for Joe Montana and the third-ranked 49er defense.

“I’ll give you one prediction,” Schramm said. “If the 49ers agree (with the majority view), they’ll lose. This is a game of the mind. Nobody’s invincible if you think you are.

The Bengals, first to arrive for the 23rd renewal of the series, began workouts Sunday afternoon at the Miami Dolphins practice facility, which will be their home away from a freezing home this week.

Coach Sam Wyche, who closed the practice to the public, reported no new injuries or illness.

Coach Bill Walsh acknowledged Sunday that he has thought about stepping down as 49er coach next season, but said he will remain with the team no matter what he decides.

“I’m going to remain with the 49ers, quite possibly in the same capacity,” Walsh said, shortly after arriving with the team in Miami.

“When you coach 30 years, you have to look pretty seriously at your life and career. But there are other times when you say, ‘I can’t give it up. It’s what I do.’ ”

Walsh said he would decide soon after the Super Bowl whether to stay as coach or move to an executive capacity.

Eddie DeBartolo, the 49er owner, surprised Walsh and team by acting as the hotel doorman when they arrived in Miami.

“I didn’t realize it was him. I didn’t have time to tip him,” said Walsh, whose team will begin practice at the University of Miami today.

Wayne Sevier, a San Diego Chargers assistant who coached in this game with the Washington Redskins in 1983, is among the football people who reason that it was bad luck for Wyche and his no-huddle offense that they drew the 49ers and Coach Bill Walsh in Cincinnati’s first Super Bowl since 1982.

“Walsh will have a (defensive) plan for the no-huddle, you can count on that,” Sevier said.

For one thing, with 225-pound strong safety Jeff Fuller in the San Francisco lineup, the 49ers can make a conventional alignment look like the nickel defense, or vice versa, Sevier said.

“Fuller is as solid against the run as he is active against the pass,” the San Diego coach added. “He’s bigger than (49er linebacker) Keena Turner, who lists at 222.”

Fuller is listed at 216, though his opponents doubt that he was that small 10 or 15 years ago.

“(Against no-huddle formations) a big safety like Fuller is a tremendous asset to a team like the 49ers,” Sevier said. “I mean, when big (Cincinnati fullback) Ickey Woods is running against a little safety in the ordinary nickel, it’s a mismatch. Fuller changes that dimension.

“It’s similar with (San Francisco linebacker) Charles Haley, who can be either a down lineman or a linebacker. The no-huddle offense loses a lot of its effectiveness against multiple-formation players like Fuller and Haley.

“The 49ers don’t have to worry about bringing in defensive specialists. They’re already on the field.”

Sid Gillman, the Hall of Famer who used to coach the Rams and other National Football League teams, is no fan of the no-huddle attack in any case.

“That’s a haphazard way to run an offense, with people running around out there shouting at other people,” Gillman said.

“Besides, if it’s third and 5, I’m going to send in an extra cornerback, anyhow, no-huddle or not.”

Sevier, who is a candidate for at least one of the coaching vacancies that have materialized in the NFL this winter, expects a relatively penalty-free Super Bowl.

Though the referees throw a lot of flags each fall in the regular season, they normally restrain themselves in the championship game.

As Sevier sees it, there are three reasons for this:

“First, you get a better quality team in the Super Bowl,” he said. “Good teams make fewer fouls.

“Second, these are the NFL’s best officials of the year. Like Super Bowl players, they’re at the very top of their game, or they wouldn’t be here, and they don’t want an official’s call to be the difference. So they make sure that anything they call, they actually see.

“Officials are like the rest of us, and in a hum-drum game in the regular season they’re more subject to bad calls.

“Third, Super Bowl officials, being the best at their profession, are less likely than other officials to call clipping on a kick return.

“That’s the penalty that is most often not a foul. And it comes when blocking angles are changed after the kick returner changes direction.

“Returners run to a designated point of attack--but if the kicking team shuts them down there, they’re coached to run (elsewhere) to daylight. This sets up unforeseen blocking angles.

“What would have been a good block becomes a push in the back--and the official drops his handkerchief. In the regular season, I mean, they do.

“You’re less likely to see that in the Super Bowl.”

Joe Browne of the NFL said TV surveys show that 40% of those viewing Super Bowl XXIII on home television will be women.

“That’s more than double the number of women who usually watch a sports event,” he said.

Eleven South Florida taxi drivers, serving on something called the Super Bowl ’89 Taxi Squad, are acting as role models in Miami this week for other drivers.

It’s part of a Miami Nice campaign.

The drivers were trained in courtesy and other welcome virtues at St. Thomas University nearby. Many Dade County taxi drivers are wearing welcome-to-Miami Super Bowl hats and shirts funded by a $50,000 grant from a Florida corporation.

It remains to be seen if the improvements are cosmetic or otherwise, but fares in Miami do seem more reasonable.

Unless he changes his mind, Alvin Garrett’s ring from the 1983 Super Bowl is going to the highest bidder. In an auction of sorts, the former Washington Redskins wide receiver has taken out a classified ad in The Washington Post in hopes of selling the ring, according to a Post story.

The going price is undetermined, although Garrett said Friday $50,000 is a nice, round figure. Early callers are stuck at about $20,000.

“That wouldn’t be enough,” he said. “We’re just starting it off. It’ll climb.”

The ad began running in the Post this week under “Antiques and Collectibles” and reads, “COLLECTOR’S ITEM--1982 Redskins World Champ Superbowl ring. Very valuable & rare oppty.”

Garrett said he has been unemployed for a month or two and that he needs the money. “I thought about this since a long time ago,” he said. “I guess you have to be me to understand. It’s just a ring. When I got it, it was good to have, but there’s more to life than a gold band and a diamond. . . . You need to have enough money to have shelter, a car to drive, food to eat.”