NAMES IN THE GAMES : Musburger Homesick for NFL

Life after football for Brent Musburger has been a series of Sundays spent strolling art museums and hiking mountains--in other words, hell for a sports reporter who loves the gridiron.

“While I enjoyed being with my wife, I couldn’t get the NFL out of my system,” Musburger says in next week’s TV Guide. “This was the first season I didn’t have an NFL game or show since I covered the Chicago Bears in 1963 as a newspaperman. It was so much a part of my life for so long.”

Musburger will be reunited with the NFL next week during the playoffs when he participates in ABC’s pregame show and then joins Dick Vermeil for play-by-play.

Notre Dame nose tackle Chris Zorich is glad to say goodby to 1990. Zorich was named a first-team All-American for the second consecutive year. He won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s best lineman or linebacker. As a captain, he helped lead the Fighting Irish to a 9-2 record and an Orange Bowl berth against top-ranked Colorado on Tuesday night.

Not good enough, Zorich said.

“I think I’ve had a horrible senior season,” he said with a grimace. “There are goals that I didn’t attain. When you have goals that aren’t reached, you have dreams that are unfulfilled.”

What were Zorich’s goals?

“I wanted to make every tackle,” he said.

Former England soccer Coach Bobby Robson, goalkeeper Peter Shilton and Formula One auto racing driver Nigel Mansell were among the leading sports figures named today by Queen Elizabeth II in her new year’s honors list.