It Takes Certain Type to Choose Coaching Over a Cushy TV Job

New Miami Dolphin Coach Jimmy Johnson has joined a fairly good-sized group of men who have left coaching, tried television, then gone back to coaching.

There’s also a group of coaches who have left the sidelines, tried television, then chosen to stay in it.

Joe Gibbs and Mike Ditka, former coaches who now work on NBC’s NFL pregame show, talked about the two professions earlier this week while stuck in New York with little to do because of the East Coast blizzard.

“There are three types of coaches,” Gibbs said. “One is a Don Shula, Chuck Knox or Tom Landry type that seems to be able to do it, and it doesn’t even faze them.

“The second type is the guy, like myself, who works harder and harder trying to win and gets so involved he loses sight of everything else. Then he gets out and realizes there is so much else to life, and he loves it.

“Then there is the third type, the Bill Parcells type. Coaching is just in his blood. He gets out and is bored to tears and wants to get back to it.”

Ditka said he doesn’t really miss coaching but would listen if an offer were presented.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Ditka said. “Neither coaching or television is brain surgery. We’re not putting rockets on the moon, whether we’re in the NFL or working for Fox.”

Ditka was asked if television work is the easier of the two.

“Are you kidding me? You can’t be serious. There’s no comparison. All I have to do now is feed Joe lines.

“The problem with coaching is you may get the best out of yourself, but then the players on the field don’t do their best. The guy in Miami found out about that this season.”

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Ditka has definitely mellowed since his coaching days, but he’s still not afraid to express an opinion.

About the Kansas City Chiefs’ failure against the Indianapolis Colts last weekend, Ditka said, “They weren’t patient enough with the rush, they didn’t take time to establish the rush.

“And they went into the game with a field-goal kicker they weren’t sure about, and then they lost the game because of their inferior kicker, and probably cost him his career.

“The Chiefs’ vulnerability was exposed.”

But if you want really strong opinions, try NBC commentator Paul Maguire.

On the air Sunday, he said, “I’ll guarantee you Lin Elliott will not be wearing a red Chiefs’ jersey next season. . . . Kickers should be paid about $50 a game.”

Maguire, a guest on “The Bob Golic Show” on KMAX-FM this week, said Coach Marty Schottenheimer should have pulled quarterback Steve Bono much sooner than he did.

“Phil Simms saw Bono throwing balls in practice on Saturday, and he threw about nine in a row straight into the ground,” Maguire told Golic and co-host Rich Herrera.

But the real target of Maguire’s barbs, besides Bono and Elliott, was offensive coordinator Paul Hackett.

“It may have been the worst play calling I’ve ever seen,” Maguire said. “You’ve got the best rushing attack in the NFL and you try to pass the ball. Incredible.”

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Talk radio: Coaches hate it. Don Shula said it is one of the reasons he decided to leave coaching. Terry Donahue has told friends the same thing.

Meanwhile, another Los Angeles sports-talk station may soon be biting the dust.

Employees at KMAX (107.1 FM) of Pasadena, some of whom went through the same thing at KMPC, have been forewarned that the station’s new owner, Odyssey Communications of Hawthorne, N.Y., is planning to change the station’s format to music March 1.

“We haven’t made a decision,” said Michael Kakoyianis, president of Odyssey. “We are still evaluating. We want to go with the format that will make us the most money.

“I’m not saying we won’t make a change, but I’m saying we haven’t made a decision yet.”

Sports talk can drive you nuts sometimes, but L.A. does need its own all-sports station.

There is a move to try to save the format, and a sponsor, Mike Radlovic, general manager of a new health club in El Monte, has become a self-appointed leader.

“We were counting on KMAX advertising to get us going,” Radlovic said. “But more importantly, we want to save sports-talk radio in Los Angeles.”

It may be an uphill battle. In the latest rating book, KMAX didn’t get a blip. Meanwhile, San Diego-based XTRA got a decent 1.7 share in men 25-54 in Los Angeles.

“Give us some credit,” said XTRA’s Lee Hamilton. “We’ve outlived them all.”

TV-Radio Notes

Scott Ferrall, the irritating, gravelly voiced night-time syndicated sports talk show host on XTRA, was fired this week by his base station, San Francisco’s KNBR. Seems Ferrall didn’t appreciate reading in a Bay Area newspaper that his boss, program director Bob Agnew, was considering moving ESPN radio’s Fabulous Sports Babe into his time slot. He ripped Agnew up one side and down the other in an expletive-filled on-air tirade Monday night and was fired the next day. Ferrall’s syndicator, Westwood One, is sticking with him for the time being. XTRA program director Howard Freedman said he was unaware of the Ferrall flap.

A new show, “Santa Anita Today” makes its debut on Prime Sports Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The show will feature 11 Santa Anita stakes, beginning with Saturday’s San Fernando Stakes. The on-air talent includes Bill Seward, Kurt Hoover, Jeff Siegel and track announcer Trevor Denman. . . . Robin Roberts makes her debut as the regular host of ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday, when the series kicks off its 35th season. “I grew up watching Jim McKay and never in a gazillion years, growing up in Mississippi wearing pigtails, did I think I would host it,” Roberts said. Included in Saturday’s show will be the naming of five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain as the “Wide World of Sports” athlete of the year.