Now Gifford Can Tell It Like It Was

Frank Gifford didn’t respond when Howard Cosell wrote some uncomplimentary things about him a few years ago in Cosell’s book, “I Never Played the Game.”

However, in Gifford’s new book. “The Whole Ten Yards,” which hasn’t been released yet, the former USC and New York Giant running back reveals his feelings about Cosell.

“What Howard was--especially when he first came to TV--was deeply insecure,” Gifford writes. “Anyone who looked like Ichabod Crane and spoke with a nasal Brooklyn accent didn’t exactly fit the sportscaster mold.

“As time went on, he became bitter. He became vengeful. Don (Meredith) and I watched it happen. It was like Howard got up one morning to discover that the whole world had turned on him.”

Trivia time: Since the league that is now the Pacific 10 began in 1916 as the Pacific Coast Conference, only two schools have won four consecutive conference football championships. Which are they?

Have a nice day: Tim Belcher of the Chicago White Sox, after walking seven in three innings Thursday against the New York Yankees: “The mound was fine, the balls were fine, the weather was fine, the umpiring was fine, and I was horrible.”

Losers’ lament: Terry Blount of the Houston Chronicle, writing on the city’s underachieving teams: “The fate of our city. Houston still is waiting for one team to win a championship. The Astros, the Rockets and the Oilers (since they have been in the NFL) all have failed. The University of Houston and Rice haven’t done it either in football or basketball. Let’s face it. We’re cursed.”

Update: Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star writes that former USC football Coach Larry Smith, who lives in Tucson, isn’t going to be a football-crazed TV junkie.

“Instead, he and his wife, Cheryl, are going to drive through Vermont and the Northeast to see the colors of fall, get away and relax,” Hansen writes. “Smith also plans to spend some time at Iowa, where his son, USC transfer Corby, is a redshirt quarterback.”

Real anxiety: New York Yankee Manager Buck Showalter had some anxious moments during Jim Abbott’s no-hitter Saturday against Cleveland, but it had nothing to do with Abbott’s performance. “Everybody was afraid to jinx the thing,” Showalter told the New York Times. “I had to go to the bathroom for four innings, but I was afraid to.”

Trivia answer: California, 1920-23, and USC, 1966-1969.

Quotebook: New York Met Manager Dallas Green, looking forward to spring training in 1994: “You can bet your sweet butt we’ll have plenty of time for drills. Because we ain’t playing golf and we ain’t walking the beach.”