Owner Gets His Chance to Flex Wallet

Bob Kravitz of the Rocky Mountain News writes that Mike Shanahan will be the new Denver Bronco coach and that owner Pat Bowlen’s coaching hunt is merely a charade.

“For most of his tenure, Bowlen has had to defer to Dan Reeves on important issues,” Kravitz writes. “Now Reeves is gone, and Bowden can flex a little ownership muscle.

“What fun is it being an owner if you can’t put together these long candidate lists and jerk a few people around? This is one of the perks that comes with being rich.”

Trivia time: What is the Super Bowl record for total points?

The silencer: Stan Sutton of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes that Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight lives by intimidation.

“Many a news conference has started by Knight saying, ‘Anybody here got an intelligent question?’ ” Sutton writes. “The silence can be deafening.”

FYI: Enough avocados are eaten during Super Bowl week to make 12 million pounds of guacamole, which is enough dip, at half-cup servings, to satisfy 1,136,000 44-man NFL teams.

Dog pound: Former Chicago Bear defensive lineman Dan Hampton said the current players are responsible for the firing of Coach Mike Ditka.

“Mike Ditka didn’t forget how to coach,” Hampton said. “These just weren’t his kind of players. They quit on him. If they’re going to use a vacuum cleaner there, they are going to need some big bags. That team laid down like a bunch of dogs.”

Figure this: “For showing up at a corporate event, Norman Schwartzkopf gets $25,000, but Greg Norman gets $75,000,” writes Jerry Tarde in Golf Digest. “With all due respect, Greg couldn’t even beat Larry Mize (in the 1987 Masters). Schwartzkopf beat the whole Iraqi Army.”

Rolling along: Rap star Hammer said he is going to help former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield regain the crown he lost to Riddick Bowe last year.

“We’re bringing him back,” said Hammer, who has founded a management agency, Roll-With-It Sports. “He’s too legit to quit.”

Holyfield acknowledged that he and Hammer are friends, but said he would remain with Roll-With-It only as long as he feels it’s in his best interest.

“My loyalty is to no one,” Holyfield said.

Understatement: Humorist Dave Barry on Miami Dolphin Coach Don Shula: “Describing Shula as intense is like describing the universe as fairly large.”

Puck partner: The Philadelphia Flyers might assign rookie Eric Lindros a roommate to help him deal with the ups and downs of being a star.

“We’re looking at it right now,” Flyer General Manager Russ Farwell said. “It’s a matter of not being completely by yourself.”

Lindros, 19, was charged earlier this season with aggravated assault in Canada. Perhaps a bodyguard would be more appropriate.

Words to live by: Veteran relief pitcher Larry Andersen, now with the Philadelphia Phillies, will turn 40 in May.

“Hey, you’re only young once,” he said. “But you can be immature forever.”

Trivia answer: Sixty-six, when Pittsburgh beat Dallas in 1979, 35-31.

Quotebook: Keith Olbermann of ESPN on California wide receiver Sean Dawkins’ leaving school for the NFL draft: “If you want a better deal, go leave Cal.”