Lions Know a Rerun When They See One

They played another 59 minutes, but the Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions probably knew after the first two plays of Sunday’s playoff game that it would be a rerun of Washington’s 45-0 regular-season victory. And it was, the Redskins winning, 41-10.

First play: Pass by Detroit’s Erik Kramer batted down at the line of scrimmage. Play doesn’t count because right guard Ken Dallafior is cited for a motion violation.

Second play: Kramer sacked by Charles Mann, who obliterates rookie tackle Scott Conover and causes a fumble that Washington’s Fred Stokes recovers at the 11, setting up a quick touchdown.

Two plays. How many messages?

“Two,” Mann said. “We wanted to send Kramer a message that he wasn’t going to get to stand back there all day. I mean, he took only three steps when I hit him. And we wanted to send a message to their rookie offensive tackle I beat that it would be a long day.”

Said Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes, at the end of a long day: “Wow. Did that look like a rerun of the last time, or what?”

Trivia time: Mark Rypien could become the third quarterback to win a Super Bowl for the Redskins. Who were the other two?

Great expectations: Veteran Washington lineman Russ Grimm is going to his fourth Super Bowl in 10 years, but he said: “This one feels a little bit different than the others because we were expected to get there. We expected it. The media expected it. We knew if we didn’t get there, we’d feel like dogs.”

The cup runneth over: Ann Meyers, the former UCLA basketball star, is one of the former winners of the Honda-Broderick Cup, emblematic of the top female college athlete in the country.

Called on to speak at the annual dinner honoring the award winner in Anaheim the other night, Meyers talked about how much the cup meant to her and how it had retained high status in her home, right next to the Cy Young Award won by her husband, Don Drysdale.

“Of course, with two kids around, that always takes on a dose of reality, too, when you look at the cup and see baseballs and socks tossed in there,” she said.

The beat goes on: East Carolina football players, whose team was 11-1, weren’t happy when Coach Bill Lewis left after the Peach Bowl victory over North Carolina State to become coach at Georgia Tech, but they felt considerably better when offensive coordinator Steve Logan was selected to replace Lewis.

“I’m ecstatic about having the same offense,” junior wide receiver Ronnie Williams said. “He’s a mastermind, a Bill Walsh Jr. It’s his offense and we’re not going to miss a beat.”

Eagle grounded: Eddie (the Eagle) Edwards, the bespectacled British ski jumper whose ineptitude provided comic relief at the 1988 Winter Olympics, failed to qualify for next month’s Games in France but is still hopeful of competing.

He has written to Princess Anne, president of the British Olympic Assn. and a member of the International Olympic Committee, pleading his case.

“I am still fighting, and I am not going to give up until the opening ceremony on Feb. 8,” Edwards said.

Cover-up? Hassiba Boulmerka, who won the 1,500-meter race at the World Championships in Tokyo last August, denied a report in an Italian newspaper that she will move to Italy to avoid political problems in Algeria.

Leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front, which controls the Algerian parliament, have denounced Boulmerka for “running with naked legs in front of thousands of men.”

Boulmerka said she intends to stay “no matter who the leaders are” and how many men are watching.

Trivia answer: Joe Theismann and Doug Williams.

Quotebook: Chi Chi Rodriguez on his reluctance to use the long putter: “If I’m going to miss putts, I want to look good doing it.”