No Blessing by Mike for ‘Jones Boys’

Mike Ditka in the January issue of Inside Sports: “Dallas may be able to run away with the league this season; a lot of things are falling the Cowboys’ way. But they aren’t really the Cowboys--they’re the [Jerry] Jones Boys.

“And what Jones is doing is going to destroy what this league was and what it should be. For that reason, I can’t bring myself to pick them to go to the Super Bowl.”

They’ll be there, Mike, if they beat Green Bay today.

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Trivia time: How many times did the Los Angeles Rams play in the NFC championship game and how did they do?

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I don’t think so: Ron Weaver, the 30-year-old from Seaside, Calif., who passed himself off as 23-year-old Ron McKelvey on the University of Texas football team, is listed in the Texas football guide in the “Newcomer” section.

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Perseverance: Bobby Wadkins has the dubious distinction of having been on the PGA Tour the longest without a victory. He has 21 years of service and, for compensation, has earned $2.4 million.

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Paranoia persists: Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on an imminent shake-up in the Rams’ scouting department. He wrote that General Manager Steve Ortmayer “strongly and heatedly” denied the shake-up rumor.

Thomas added, “Memo to Ortmayer: You’re not with the Raiders anymore. Relax.”

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Party animals: There is already one sure winner in the Super Bowl tournament: agent-attorney Leigh Steinberg. Steinberg represents players on all four teams, including three of the starting quarterbacks: Troy Aikman of Dallas, Jim Harbaugh of Indianapolis and Neil O’Donnell of Pittsburgh.

No wonder Steinberg has a pre-Super Bowl party every year. For this year, he has taken over the Phoenix zoo and has invited about 1,500 people.

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Sideshow: Michael Jordan in USA Today after the Chicago Bulls had defeated Seattle Wednesday night in a game from which Dennis Rodman was ejected:

“Have you ever been to a race-car event? Everyone wants to see the race, but they want to see an accident at some point.

“Well, everybody wants to see the Bulls, but they want to see Dennis go crazy. I think they got their money’s worth.”

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Rocky-like team: Ken Rosenthal of the Baltimore Sun on the Buffalo Bills: “They’re the punching bags of the NFL, but they never quit. They’re Glenn Close rising out of the bathtub in ‘Fatal Attraction,’ but they never quit.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1968, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II at the Orange Bowl, 33-14. Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr completed 13 of 24 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown.

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Trivia answer: The Rams made 11 appearances and won only two games, 24-17 over Cleveland in 1951, and 9-0 over Tampa Bay after the 1979 season.

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Quotebook: Gary Gaetti, 37, who hit 35 home runs and drove in 96 runs for Kansas City last season, on signing with St. Louis: “I feel as good as I did when I was 36.”