Trump Finally Finds a Way to Crack NFL’s Inner Circle

When a TV camera showed Donald Trump, once a thorn in the side of the NFL, hugging Cleveland Brown owner Art Modell Sunday, Modell was as surprised as anyone.

“He wasn’t my guest,” Modell said. “I didn’t even know he was coming. He just showed up. He was a guest of the people in the next loge. . . . I accepted his good wishes, and that was it. I didn’t see him before or after the game.”

Trump, Modell and Al Lerner, a minority partner in the Browns, could be seen embracing as Cleveland clinched its 34-30 victory over the Buffalo Bills. According to Modell, Trump was a guest in Lerner’s loge.

Trump owned the New Jersey Generals of the old United States Football League and, after the 1983 season, signed free-agent quarterback Brian Sipe from the Browns. Trump was also instrumental in the USFL’s antitrust suit against the NFL. The USFL folded before its 1985 season.

“Yes, the man was a headache to the NFL,” Modell said.

Trivia time: On Jan. 10, 1972, who scored 39 points for Milwaukee as the Bucks ended the Lakers’ 33-game winning streak, 120-104?

No special treatment: Former Sacramento King Derek Smith, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, on the firing of Bill Russell as a King executive: “I don’t have a problem with Bill. He treated me the same way he treated everybody else--rude, obnoxious and uncaring. If they think they did him any harm by firing him, they’re dead wrong. I’m sure they thought they humiliated Bill by firing him and putting blame on him. But Bill didn’t want that job to begin with. So the owner did him a favor. Now he can get paid and still tee off on time.”

Add NBA: The Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird, on negative comments about him by unidentified teammates: “The one thing about this team is that I’m the leader of this team. The guys that are not playing well are usually the ones that cry. The one thing that bothered me is they don’t have enough guts to stand up to it and put their name in there about who said it. . . . So I just look at it and say they’ve always been quitters, they’ve always had no heart and it’s the same way now.”

Last add NBA: The New Jersey Nets’ Joe Barry Carroll, known as Joe Barely Cares among some NBA observers, on being benched in favor of Sam Bowie at center: “I’m just going to ride this thing out. I don’t want to complicate my life any more than it already is.” Carroll will make $1.2 million this season.

Trivia answer: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Quotebook: Sergei Makarov of the Soviet Union, who leads the Calgary Flames in scoring: “In Europe, we build plays. Here, they try to break them up.”