While Others Pack, Packers Simply Play

Mike Royko wrote in the Chicago Tribune that with some NFL franchises in a moving frenzy, the Green Bay Packers aren’t going anywhere because the team is basically owned by the people of Green Bay, Wis.

“This is the way it should be in every football-crazed city. They [fans] should own the teams, not some prissy bookkeeper like [Chicago Bear owner Mike] McCaskey, or a double-talking hustler like the guy who dumped Cleveland, or the blowhard who took the Colts from Indianapolis, or the other megabuck [owners] whose loyalty is comparable to that of a leech.

“If the 1,898 Packer stockholders can renounce greed, envy, gluttony, the works of Satan, and other vulgar cravings, why can’t it be done in other cities?”

Add Royko: “If there is one team that truly deserves to be called America’s team, it is the most unlikely community [Green Bay] to have a major league sports franchise of any kind.”

Trivia time: Which was the last Big Ten school to be ranked No. 1 in the final college football polls?

Yes, sir!After Buffalo Bill Coach Marv Levy had prostate cancer surgery, he got a call from Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who had the same operation.

The general gave Levy some advice: “Walk--soon and a lot.” Replied Levy: “General, if you tell me to march, I’ll march.”

Bug incentive: The Chicago Blackhawks are comfortable in their new home, the United Center. However, they had a bigger home-ice advantage in their old home, Chicago Stadium.

“In the other place, we were chasing cockroaches out of our stalls,” Blackhawk center Jeremy Roenick said. “You couldn’t wait to get on the ice and get away from the cockroaches.”

Clip and save: UCLA and Stanford were picked to finish 1-2 in a preseason Pacific 10 Conference basketball media poll. Bob Jacobsen of the Arizona Republic disagrees:

“The Wildcats will race through the Pac-10. And maybe even win an NCAA tournament game or two. Or three or four.”

Who me, baby?Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe: “By his shameless shilling of postpubescent, one-dimensional talents, not to mention his ludicrous glorification of simple dunks, Dick Vitale has emerged as the single most harmful influence in the entire history of basketball.”

Perspective: After Greg Maddux won his fourth consecutive Cy Young Award, the Atlanta pitcher was asked if the award should be renamed in his honor.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Cy Young won 500 games.”

Actually, he won 511.

Looking back: On this day in 1925, Red Grange, playing his first game as a professional with the Chicago Bears, was held to 36 yards rushing in a scoreless tie against the Chicago Cardinals.

Trivia answer: Ohio State, in 1968.

Quotebook: Cincinnati Bengal broadcaster Dave Lapham on 6-foot-1, 315-pound Oakland Raider defensive tackle Jerry Ball: “He’s a shotput with legs.”