For a Super Bowl Warm-Up, This Would Leave Teams Cold

Matthew Lubanko of Newsday suggests a warm-up act for the Super Bowl, calling it the Tundra Bowl. Some of the rules:

“Take the NFL’s two worst teams and force them to play the Saturday night before Super Bowl Sunday in Green Bay, Wis. The National Weather Service says the average low temperature in Green Bay in January is 9 degrees--an appropriate stage setting for the league’s two coldest teams.”

Other hardships suggested by Lubanko include players traveling to Green Bay by train, bus or car pool, no fiber-filled parkas, and no portable heaters on the sideline.

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Trivia time: What is the largest crowd to watch a Super Bowl game?

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Come again? Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoting U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt in regard to the Rams’ commitment to winning in their new home:

“There’s fire in their eyes. Georgia Frontiere and John Shaw know that they have a chance to start fresh, and they are determined to win. I’d say they are obsessed with winning.”

Too bad that fire didn’t burn in Anaheim.

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Tough brake: Tom Weir in USA Today: “For all North Carolinians who are tired of 55-m.p.h. speed limits, it had to be terrible news to hear that Richard Petty won’t be running for governor.”

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Playing the odds: Ron Luciano, former major league umpire, who died last week, once recalled that Earl Weaver, former Baltimore Oriole manager, was his longtime nemesis:

“The last time I saw him was in Chicago. In the top of the fifth inning I threw him out, and I heard Jim Palmer on the bench say, ‘Atta boy, Luciano.’

“I asked him, ‘Why are you so happy?’ and he said, ‘I won the pool--top of the fifth.’ ”

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Silver lining: Peter Leo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on some of the advantages of the Steelers being knocked out of the Super Bowl:

“--You can get a Blitzburgh T-shirt at knockdown prices.

--Now we can turn our attention to the more important sporting event, the America’s Cup preliminaries.”

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The right touch: Mel Kaufman, former Washington Redskin linebacker, on San Diego Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard: “He’s not big on stats, speed and size. He has a special insight, a special feel.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1979 Willie Mays was named on 409 of 432 ballots and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

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Trivia answer: 103,985 watched the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Rams, 31-19, on Jan. 10, 1980, at the Rose Bowl.

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Quotebook: Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal on San Antonio’s Dennis Rodman, who said the Magic center doesn’t rebound as well as he should for his size and strength: “My responding to Rodman is like talking to a Bugs Bunny doll. I don’t like to talk to Looney Tunes.”