NFL Wants Exposure, but Not This Kind

The NFL plans to get tough on players who don’t stick to the dress code this season. Those players whose uniforms don’t conform will not be allowed to play.

But there’s nothing really new about this. Back in the 1970s, Raider receivers Fred Biletnikoff and Mike Siani were threatened with fines for failing to pull their socks all the way up.

League officials were informed that Biletnikoff and Siani had skin conditions on their ankles that were alleviated by leaving that area uncovered.

Fine, replied then-commissioner Pete Rozelle in a note, but let’s hope they never get jock itch.

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Add Raider uniforms: On another occasion, tight end Dave Casper was fined $250 for failing to tuck in his shirt in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Casper sent the league office a check for $62.50, one-quarter of the amount, along with a note saying that the rest of the fine should be assessed against the three Pittsburgh linebackers, since they were the ones who kept pulling his shirt out in that game.

Casper got a note back from Rozelle saying that he had viewed the game film and Casper was right.

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Trivia time: How many times has a horse won the first two legs of the Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness--only to lose in the Belmont Stakes?

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Playing it safe: A majority of the players on Zimbabwe’s national soccer team face a disciplinary hearing because they refused to play in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying event in Zaire. The players said they feared being exposed to the deadly Ebola virus.

The players could be reprimanded, fined or suspended, according to Leo Mugabe, head of the Zimbabwe Football Assn.

“We are definitely going to take action against all those players,” Mugabe said.

The Zimbabwe health ministry had recommended that the game be called off. More than 170 people have died during the Ebola virus epidemic in the Central African nation.

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An L.A. story: Cornerback Deon Figures of the Pittsburgh Steelers was shot in the left knee through the door of his car last month while driving in South Central Los Angeles. Figures’ injury required surgery and he does not know when he will be able to return to the playing field.

“People there take target practice, basically,” Figures told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s one of those things that happen in L.A.”

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Campaign on wheels: Look at the race car of David Everly and you’ll see what you’d see on the vehicles of all his competitors on the dirt track: Sponsor logos paid for by tire manufacturers and others looking for a good advertising spot.

Look closely at Everly’s car, however, and you’ll see something you won’t see anywhere else: political advertising.

Brian Gallagher, a West Virginia state delegate who will be a candidate again in 1996, has paid Everly $1,000 to put green, yellow and white signs on the side of the car that say, “Brian Gallagher” and “House of Delegates.”

Everly plans to drive in 19 races in West Virginia and Ohio this year.

Said Gallagher: “It gets me on the sports pages.”

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Trivia answer: Twelve times, the last such Belmont loser being Sunday Silence in 1989.

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Quotebook: General Manager Jan Volk of the Boston Celtics on the dead spots in the parquet floor, which is being moved from Boston Garden to the new FleetCenter: “It’s a closely guarded secret. . . . When we trade players, we tell them, ‘Keep the playbook but give back the dead-spot book.’ ”