He Is Hoping That It’s in the Cards for Dickerson, Raiders

Count former Chicago Bear defensive end Doug Atkins as one who hopes Eric Dickerson produces for the Raiders.

Speaking to Raider owner Al Davis at a Pro Football Hall of Fame luncheon in Canton, Ohio, Atkins said: “I hope that guy Dickerson you got from Indianapolis has a record year. I’ve got 140 of his rookie cards, and they’re worth $200 each. That’s a bigger bonus than George Halas ever gave me.”

The unoriginal: Sporting his own press kit, prepared by a Las Vegas press agent, and “adviser” Akbar Muhammad in Barcelona, U.S. super-heavyweight boxer Larry Donald seems to be thinking beyond the Olympics. But he won’t get very far, in the view of the Cincinnati Post’s Paul Daugherty, until he stops spouting bad poetry in an attempt to imitate his idol, Muhammad Ali.

“Any time you want to see a bunch of sportswriters roll their eyes,” Daugherty writes, “turn off the beer taps. Or be a fighter who wants to be the next Ali.”

Trivia time: How many players throughout NFL history have also won Olympic medals?

Friendlier skies: The Dallas Cowboys’ trip to Tokyo last week for an exhibition with the Houston Oilers had Chad Hennings, Dallas’ rookie defensive lineman and a former Air Force pilot, recalling his days at the controls of the A-10 attack plane he flew during the Persian Gulf War.

“Our departure (for Japan) in the early-morning darkness reminded me of the military, when we were awakened at what we call 0-dark-30,” Hennings wrote in a diary he is keeping for the Dallas Morning News.

Comparing the speeds of the A-10 and the Boeing 747, Hennings noted that he would have arrived in Tokyo about two hours behind his teammates had he flown his Air Force jet instead of taking the team’s charter.

“Plus,” he added, “I wouldn’t have been able to watch four movies.”

Add friendlier: Perhaps nobody in the NFL contingent in Tokyo made a more lasting impression on the Japanese than Oiler owner Bud Adams. According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, Adams jumped on stage during a Japanese drum ceremony and pounded the drums. He also flipped a stick in the air twice, actually catching it both times. Later, as the Japanese performed dances, he got back on stage to join the festivities.

Adams’ zest for Japanese culture wasn’t lost on Oiler quarterback Warren Moon, whose contract remains unsettled.

“After a couple of bottles of cold sake, I’ll have Bud right where I want him,” Moon said.

Add Zmeskal: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, lamenting the fate of gymnast Kim Zmeskal: “Mamas, don’t let your baby daughters grow up to be gymnasts. A little girl leaves her mommy and daddy and goes to train with a big bear coach. She puts school and boys and everything else on the back burner. And if she’s really good and really lucky, she can have her world fall apart at the Olympic Games. All this at the age of 16.”

Plenty left: A Huntsville, Ala., company placed an ad in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle pitching Zmeskal prints at $69 each, plus shipping and handling. The prints feature Zmeskal’s portrait surrounded by drawings of her on the balance beam and doing a floor exercise routine. In the background, there is the notation “Zmeskal, K., USA, 10.0.”

Trivia answer: Twenty, the best known being Jim Thorpe, who won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at Stockholm in 1912, and Bob Hayes, the 100-meter champion at Tokyo in 1964.

Quotebook: Houston Oiler receiver Ernest Givins, when asked to explain and perform his end zone celebration during a news conference in Japan: “It’s called ‘the Electric Slide.’ And if I did it in the type of shoes I’m wearing, I’d probably fall and break my neck.”