He Didn’t Do Any Waxing, He Got Waxed
His team lost to Houston on Sunday, and Kansas City reserve running back Todd McNair covered a lot of ground.
Running downfield in the third quarter as a member of the Chiefs’ kickoff team, McNair was sandwiched between two Oilers. He suffered a mild concussion and lay unconscious on the turf for several minutes while team officials huddled over him. Finally, he was led to the sideline in a wobbly state.
And in his native state, New Jersey.
Monday, McNair told Doug Tucker of the Associated Press: “I was dreaming. I was back home in Jersey with my girl. I was waxing my car down, and then I was driving my car. It was warm. The windows were down.”
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, it remained cold and rainy.
Add dream state: Said McNair: “They said I came off smiling and telling people I was going back in. But I don’t remember any of that. I got to the sideline and I saw the players and the fans and I thought, ‘Hey, I’m dreaming that I’m in a game.’ ”
Team officials said McNair will be able to play Sunday at San Diego.
Said McNair: “Everybody was shook up and scared, but today they’re joking. They’re calling me ‘Sleepy.’ ”
Was he scared?
Said McNair: “I wasn’t scared because I wasn’t there.”
Trivia time: Name the only team to lose two games and be ranked No. 1 in the AP college football poll.
New help: After the Dodgers introduced Bob Ojeda and Brett Butler at a news conference Monday, Orel Hershiser recalled a conversation he’d had with his 6-year-old son, Quinton, during the weekend.
Said Hershiser: “I picked up the paper and said, ‘Gee, we got Butler.’ Quinton said, ‘Why do we need a butler? We already have a live-in.’ ”
Junkyard Dogs: Before the recent Georgia-Georgia Tech game, Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution asked Georgia’s athletic director and former football coach, Vince Dooley, to describe his “funniest memory” of the rivalry.
Dooley recalled that in 1966, a group of Georgia fans brought a cannon to the game.
With Georgia trailing, 7-6, Bulldog kicker Bobby Etter was about to make contact on the conversion attempt when the cannon went off, distracting him.
Georgia won, 23-14, but Dooley recalled: “It was the first extra point he had missed all year. The next day those fans buried that cannon in the Chattahoochee (River). We never had any thought of having a cannon here again.”
Bring on Trottier: No self-respecting hockey fan will believe this, but Lemieux is having a great year.
The horse, Lemieux.
A 3-year-old colt named for Pittsburgh Penguin star Mario Lemieux, the two-time NHL scoring champion, won the $5,000 Open Invitational Trot at the Meadows harness racing track near Washington, Pa., Sunday night. It was his second consecutive victory.
That makes six victories in 21 starts. Meanwhile, the horse’s namesake continues to recover from a back infection that has kept him out of action.
Trivia answer: Minnesota, in 1960. The Golden Gophers, declared national champion before the bowls, lost to Washington in the 1961 Rose Bowl and finished 8-2.
Quotebook: Philadelphia 76er forward Charles Barkley, 27, when asked about Boston’s aging front line of Larry Bird, 34, Kevin McHale, 33, and Robert Parish, 37: “I’d rather have older guys who are great players than younger guys who stink.”