Michaels Gets Look at Raiders’ Dark Side

Other than talking about his golf game, there really isn’t much bad one can say about ABC’s Al Michaels.

Outstanding broadcaster, hard-working, solid citizen, family man, good husband and father, that’s Michaels.

It all makes Al Davis’ attack on Michaels this week even that more incongruous. It shows just how sick Davis is. The man has lost his senses. With Davis as their leader, no wonder the Raiders have become the embarrassment of the NFL.

There’s some history behind the feud between the two Als.

In December 1992, a halftime interview Michaels did with Marcus Allen shed some light on what kind of person Davis is.

And two weeks ago Michaels chose to “tell it like it is” on the opening of a Oakland-Denver Monday night game, saying the Raiders’ commitment to excellence is “just a bunch of empty verbiage” and that the Raiders are the “most underachieving team in the league this season.”

Michaels said he was simply being honest with the fans.

Responding more than a week later, Davis put out a

bizarre and vicious Raider news release titled “The Oakland Raiders Respond to Al Michaels Blather.” It reads as if written as a junior high prank.

The release makes wild charges and concludes with the following statement: “Al Michaels has no right to talk about being honest with the fans. Michaels doesn’t have an ounce of truthfulness or morality in his body. Michaels should confess about his own lack of truthfulness and morality in dealing with the fans over the last several years.”

The morality charges stem from an ill-conceived, stupid radio prank--is there any other kind? A Denver station, trying to embarrass a competing station, sent outlandish faxes on the competitor’s letterhead to ABC in New York the Friday before the Oakland-Denver game threatening to disrupt a Monday luncheon being put on by the Denver ABC affiliate.

The faxes claimed Susan Johnson, the former stewardess with whom Frank Gifford had his tryst, was going to be there, and also targeted Michaels and Dan Dierdorf with some dumb requests.

Gifford chose not to attend the luncheon, but Michaels and Dierdorf went and nothing happened. It was all a hoax.

Anyway, the Raiders heard about the hoax and, totally twisting the facts, used fabricated things mentioned in the phony faxes to attack Michaels.

Yeah, it’s as weird as it sounds.

“We’re dumbfounded and shocked,” ABC’s Mark Mandel said in response to the attack. “It’s so weird and so bizarre and so beyond belief, it’s impossible to respond.”

Said Michaels: “I won’t dignify this tripe with a response.”

MORE WEIRDNESS

It was mentioned in this space last week that O.J. Simpson, out of the blue, called sports-talk radio station AM 1150 the Friday before the UCLA-USC game, and then the station issued an apology to anyone who was offended by Simpson’s guest appearance.

That prompted a call from Simpson, who wanted to set the record straight. He said he didn’t call the station out of the blue. The interview had been prearranged.

Simpson said his lawyer, Leroy “Skip” Taft, had set up the interview, and Taft backed Simpson. “We’re not trying to put anyone in a bad light, but it didn’t happen the way it was reported,” Taft said.

Station General Manager Roy Laughlin acknowledged there had been discussions between him and Taft in the past but said he wasn’t sure who had set up the recent interview.

Whatever. It’s just radio being radio.

Besides, who listens?

Simpson said he had never heard of Joe McDonnell before going on the air with him.

That puts him in a category with millions of other Southern Californians.

SHORT WAVES

Recommended viewing: ESPN examines the influence of street gangs on athletics and vice versa with “Turf Wars: Gangs and Sports” today at 4:30 p.m. as part of its outstanding “Outside the Lines” series. One player featured is Miami Dolphin wide receiver Charles Jordan, a former Inglewood Morningside High and Long Beach City College star who belonged to the Family Swans gang. He tells reporter Shelley Smith he will be labeled a gang member for life. There is a segment that focuses on the Dorsey-Crenshaw High rivalry, and another looks at how former Colorado coach Bill McCartney used the recruitment of gang members to resurrect the school’s football program.

Add recommended viewing: Among the stories in the Bud Greenspan-produced “Atlanta’s Olympic Glory,” to be shown on Channel 28 on Sunday night from 7-11, is one on Irish swimmer Michelle Smith, who won three gold medals and one bronze. Because her times improved dramatically and because her husband-coach once was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs, accusations were a big story during the Games. But Greenspan, who strives to accentuate the positive, barely gives the drug controversy a mention. More attention is paid to the heroine’s welcome Smith gets when she returns to Ireland. . . . A profile of Howie Long on this week’s edition of “NFL Films Presents” on Channel 11 on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. is excellent. Set the VCR.

Boxing promoter Bob Arum is promising that Saturday night’s pay-per-view fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Wilfredo Rivera will not start after 8:30 p.m. The undercard begins at 6. . . . CBS, which begins its college basketball coverage with Kentucky-Indiana on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., has named Michele Tafoya as host of its halftime studio show. ABC starts out with Kansas-Maryland on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. . . . Summer Sanders has been named special correspondent for “NBA Inside Stuff.” . . . Vin Scully and Chick Hearn again top the list of nominees for Southern California Sports Broadcasters Awards. Winners will be announced Feb. 2.

IN CLOSING

ESPN ended up with a surprisingly exciting game with Hawaii-Notre Dame last Saturday, and the announcing team of Dave Barnett, rookie commentator Bill Curry and sideline reporter Sean Salisbury was outstanding. Curry’s shredding of the bad officiating was right on.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What Los Angeles is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Figure skating: Skate International 11 4.8 8 Golf: Skins Game 7 4.2 11 College football: Penn State at Michigan State 7 3.7 11 College football: Vanderbilt at Tennessee 2 3.6 11 College football: Grambling State at Southern 4 2.9 8 Figure skating: U.S. Open Pro Championships 13 2.9 5 College football: Syracuse at Miami 2 2.8 8 Hockey: Mighty Ducks at Calgary 9 1.3 2

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Miami at Oakland 4 17.2 34 Pro football: San Francisco at Kansas City 11 15.9 35 Pro football: New York Jets at Buffalo 4 7.4 16 Figure skating: Skate International 11 5.1 10 Golf: Skins Game 7 5.1 9 Figure skating: U.S. Open Pro Championships 13 4.2 6 Golf: Gillette Tour Challenge 7 1.1 2

*--*

MONDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Pro football: Green Bay at Minnesota 7 20.4 31

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Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.