He Delivers More Than Hard Hits

Ronnie Lott is on his third NFL team, but the sure Hall of Famer’s influence with New York Jet teammates is undiluted.

For instance, heading into a recent game against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, Lott made sure to give the team a jolt.

“He wanted to make sure we didn’t have a bunch of false chatter, to make sure we understood the seriousness of playing an 0-9 team,” teammate Kyle Clifton said. “I think he did it mainly to make sure we were all awake.”

The safety doesn’t deliver a fire-and-brimstone sermon before every game--”Ronnie Rockne,” quarterback Boomer Esiason joked--but his words ring in the minds of his teammates.

During interviews, players sometimes quote Lott: “Like Ronnie was saying the other day. . . . “

“I hope the guys don’t believe the hype,” Lott said. “In my lifestyle, winning brings smiles.

“Losing is like the Scrooge. This time of year, you don’t want to be a Scrooge. You’d like to have one of those Christmas presents under your tree--and that’s making the playoffs.”

Trivia time: When the NFL went back and figured out quarterback ratings for the best passers in league history, using the current formula, who had the highest single-season rating?

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Who is he, why is he here?Does it sound as though Indiana Coach Bob Knight isn’t sure what to expect from sophomore forward Brian Evans?

“He doesn’t look like a player, and often doesn’t sound like a player,” Knight is quoted in Dick Vitale’s college basketball preview magazine, “and sometimes, I’m not sure he is a player.”

Campaign headquarters: Though public campaigns for Hall of Fame candidates rarely affect the vote, reports Jim Henneman of the Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Giant owner Peter Magowan has launched an aggressive one in behalf of former Giant Orlando Cepeda.

Magowan has sent letters to many of the more than 400 members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America who will vote in the 1994 election. In it, Magowan notes that of the 18 retired players with at least a .295 batting average and more than 300 home runs, Cepeda is the only one not enshrined at Cooperstown.

The letter raises the question of whether Cepeda’s 1975 conviction for smuggling marijuana into his native Puerto Rico is what has kept him out of the Hall of Fame. Cepeda served 10 months in prison. But since then, Cepeda has been a community worker for baseball and the Giants, and last month his reconciliation with Puerto Rico was sealed with his induction into that commonwealth’s sports hall of fame.

Trivia answer: Sammy Baugh, who had a 109.9 rating in 1945 for the Washington Redskins.

Quotebook: A page from the motivating book of Ronnie Lott: “I want to go out swinging. I’d hate to be a person who just lived. You only have one chance in your life to be Mozart.”