At Least He Can Say His Name Is Alongside Sayers’

Adrian Murrell of the 1-15 New York Jets has the dubious distinction of being the first player since Gale Sayers in 1969 to gain more than 1,000 yards for a team that won one game.

Even with Sayers, the ’69 Chicago Bears were 1-13.

Said Murrell, gloomily, “I don’t know if that’s an honor.”

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Trivia time: Which are the only NFL teams to go winless in a season while playing a minimum of 12 games?

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Separate lives: Daniel Lacroix of the Philadelphia Flyers’ spends a lot of time in the penalty box. He is also an accomplished artist who recently painted a scene of children in Flyer jerseys on a frozen pond.

Karen Crouse of the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel writes: “The surprise to some is that he uses water colors, and not blood.”

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Perfect match: Syndicated columnist Norman Chad: “George Orwell once wrote, ‘Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence.’

“And to think, Orwell was never a Raider season-ticket holder.”

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Rapping Shaq: Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune on Shaquille O’Neal’s new CD, “You Can’t Stop the Reign:”

“Uh, when did the reign start? . . . Last I looked, Shaq still has 10 fingers and no rings, and like the L.A. weather, that won’t change any time soon.”

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Gloomy union: E.J. Ourso, a retired New Orleans businessman, recently announced he hoped to buy the Saints.

According to Ron Reid of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ourso “would seem to be ideally suited to owning the [3-13] Saints. Ourso made his fortune, estimated at $50 million, in the funeral parlor business.”

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Ouch! In a letter to Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, a reader writes: “I understand that Andrew Golata’s handlers are toying with the idea of calling him ‘Sweet Chariot.’ Just because he’s always swingin’ low.”

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Bulletin! Nick Canepa in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “Marge Schott, recovering from pneumonia, is in stable condition. For the first time in her life.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1977, the Oakland Raiders defeated the Baltimore Colts, 37-31 in overtime, in an AFC Divisional playoff game on Ken Stabler’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Dave Casper.

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Trivia answer: The 1960 Dallas Cowboys, 0-11-1, and the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 0-14. Both were first-year expansion teams.

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And finally: Former Northwestern basketball guard Geno Carlisle, who was dismissed from the team earlier this season: “It may sound cocky, but the only player in Chicago who is better than me is Michael Jordan.”

Scotty Pippen, for one, may not be too happy to hear that.