Jamaicans Are Singing Their Own Praises

The Jamaican Olympic bobsledders, whose spectacular crash at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary helped make them famous, are in France for another go at it.

The Jamaicans walked away from the Calgary crash shaken, but intact and determined to try again.

Dudley Stokes, a 29-year-old former military helicopter pilot, his brother Chris, Devon Harris and Michael White are in France along with four newcomers from the Caribbean island, where the only ice you see is in cocktail glasses.

Add Jamaicans: The team has held a reggae night, with limbo dancing, and has put out a record, “Dreader Than a Sledder,” as a sequel to their 1988 Games hit “Hobbin’ an’ a Bobbin’.”

Now, they say, it’s time for the serious business of rocketing down a refrigerated track at 75 m.p.h.

“We need to show definite progress here,” Dudley Stokes said. “It did hurt when people treated us as a joke, so to set people straight it’s important to get good results.”

Trivia time: When the Lakers won an NBA-record 33 consecutive games in 1971-72, how many were played on the road?

Child’s play: Not all important decisions made in football games are determined in advance by coaches in lengthy meetings.

Marty Schottenheimer, coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, said his decision to try a field goal with 10 minutes left in a playoff game against the Raiders was inspired by a computer game that he played with his son.

“We were in the fourth quarter of the computer game, and I had a fourth and a yard and a half with two minutes to go,” Schottenheimer said. “I went for it and he stuffed me. Then he proceeded to go down the field and a kick a field goal with 10 seconds left to beat me.”

So, when Schottenheimer was faced with the same situation against the Raiders, he didn’t hesitate. The Chiefs kicked a field goal, eventually winning, 10-6.

Head case?Buffalo Bill running back Thurman Thomas’ search for his missing helmet before the Super Bowl game was ridiculed by Steve Hubbard of the Pittsburgh Press.

“So it seemed fitting when a guy with a swelled head couldn’t find his helmet for the first two biggest plays of his life,” Hubbard wrote. “Thomas wants more recognition? How about the Guinness Book of Records? World’s Biggest Jerk.”

Dunkmania: Scoring averages and shooting percentages have have dropped every season since 1984 in the NBA, and improved defenses have something to do with it, according to a report in The Sporting News.

However, more players are dunk conscious now, which has a negative effect on the outside shooting skills of players.

“Everybody wants to dunk,” says Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. “You see the kids on the playgrounds and the rims are bent from everyone dunking the ball, or just grabbing the rim. Players don’t work on the outside shot like they used to.”

Trivia answer: 16.

Quotebook: ESPN football analyst Joe Theismann, confused somewhat when remarking on whether Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs has earned the “genius” label: “First of all the word ‘genius’ is inapplicable. A genius was Norman Einstein.”