It’s the Place to Go for a Really Big Shoe

Friedman’s Shoes in Atlanta is the choice of many professional athletes--with fat wallets. Brentson Buckner, defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has 15 pair of shoes made of ostrich, each costing $1,500.

“You can’t step out in public just any kind of way,” Buckner reasoned.

Dallas offensive tackle Erik Williams has bought 50 pairs of size-17 shoes.

“I send him special powder blue, red crocodile,” said Bruce Teilhaber, Friedman’s owner. “If you’re 6-7 and 300 pounds, who’s going to call you names?”

*

Trivia time: What was unusual about the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers of the NFL?

*

Premature? Famed NBA player Bob Cousy questioning the placement of Laker center Shaquille O’Neal on the NBA’s all-time top-50 list:

“He basically hasn’t won anything significant, and even his individual numbers haven’t been that extraordinary. I think, frankly, they did Shaq a disservice.”

*

Wait a minute: Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald refers to the Dolphins’ Dan Marino as “the greatest quarterback of all time.”

He has the statistics, but is he better than Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Otto Graham, Sammy Baugh and John Unitas, to name a few?

*

One-dimensional: Kevin Garnett, the 20-year-old standout of the Minnesota Timberwolves: “I eat, sleep, dream about basketball. My veins pump basketball. Cut me and orange comes out.”

*

Just cruising: In pursuit of the land speed record, Craig Breedlove flipped his car going 675 mph. Said Jay Leno: “The cops gave him a break. Only wrote him up for 640.”

*

How fitting: Running back Brian Knuckles plays for the Western Illinois Leathernecks.

*

Remarkable recovery: Adolfo Zapata collected $195 a week in workers’ compensation benefits between Nov. 1 and Dec. 17, 1995, after claiming he injured his foot while working for a catering company in June 1995.

However, he was spry enough to finish 240th in the 1995 New York Marathon on Nov. 12. Videotape of the race discovered his scam and he was arrested Wednesday for allegedly faking injuries to collect workers’ compensation.

*

Looking back: On this day in 1973, UCLA routed Washington, 62-13, at the Coliseum.

*

Trivia answer: The team never played a home game, but finished the season with a 6-3-1 record.

*

And finally: John Steigerwald in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Is there a more meaningless stat in sports than an NFL receiver’s consecutive games with at least one catch?

“How can you be a wide receiver in the pass-happy NFL and not make at least one catch per game? How many consecutive games has Jerome Bettis played in which he’s had at least one carry?”