On Defense, He Was Always in the Shotgun

Doug Atkins, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is remembered by Mary Foster of the Associated Press for his intimidating style both on and off the field.

Atkins, 6 feet 8 and 280 pounds, played most of his career with the Chicago Bears, joining the New Orleans Saints at 37 in the late 1960s.

“Atkins would arrive at training camp each summer packing two .44-caliber magnums, several derringers and a shotgun,” Foster wrote. “Sometimes, when the Saints trained in San Diego, he fired his shotgun at destroyers cruising off the coast, claiming that (Ram) Coach George Allen was spying on the team from the ships.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL playoff record for most combined yards in a game?

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World War III? After the Steelers had beaten the Cleveland Browns, 29-9, to qualify for the AFC championship game, the Jan. 8 banner headline in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had type measuring three inches on the paper’s front page:

“NEXT...”

What can the paper do for an encore if the Steelers get to the Super Bowl?

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Super rookie: Detroit Piston Coach Don Chaney on Grant Hill: He’s done the right thing so often this year, I’ve stopped counting. It’s the same court sense Larry Bird had. Except Bird didn’t have this kid’s body.”

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Tuna tales: Another version on how Bill Parcells, New England Patriot coach, got his nickname, “Tuna.”

“The nickname came from Steve Nelson,” wrote Will McDonough of the Boston Globe. “He was in the shower one day and saw Parcells showering and said, ‘Hey, you look like a tuna.’ That was it. The name stuck.”

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Hunting grounds: Nate Newton, left guard for the Dallas Cowboys, played against the Green Bay Packers last Sunday with a dislocated toe. He lined up against Reggie White, the Packers’ All-Pro defensive lineman.

Relates Newton, “The first thing he said to me was, ‘Hi, Nate. How’s your toe?’ Then he bull-rushed me. You know how wolves stalk the caribou? Well, I was the caribou.”

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Tall tales: Wilt Chamberlain was asked by Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe to compare himself to the NBA’s latest strong man, Shaquille O’Neal:

“Shaq dunks for all his points. The man gets 13-15 dunks a game. I was lucky to get two. I used the fade-away, the finger roll, the hook shot.

“I think the man is very strong, but I don’t know if he is as strong as I was.”

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Trivia answer: Ed Podolak of the Kansas City Chiefs, with 350 yards against the Miami Dolphins in a 1971 overtime game.

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Quotebook: Pat Haden, when he was a much-booed quarterback for the Rams, sharing time with Vince Ferragamo, in a public letter to the fans: “I know I’m short, I know I can’t throw deep, and I know I’m not Italian. But please bear with me. . . . I’m taking Italian lessons, eating more spaghetti and trying to talk my wife into changing our name to Hadenlione.”