Keyshawn Doesn’t Always Talk About the Good Stuff

He was the best and the boldest of the New York Jets, young and cocky, the author of a best-selling autobiography that announced on its cover how highly he thought of himself, universally admired for his talent but scorned for separating himself from his teammates. Who did he think he was, wearing white shoes?

He was Joe Namath.

In retrospect, he was as tame as “Peyton Place,” ahead of the times perhaps but not these times.

Even then, Joe Willie was largely a media creation. Robert Lipsyte, in his 1975 book “SportsWorld,” saw through it, writing, “. . . .he’s basically a tall, dark, friendly neighborhood wise guy who loves his mother, clings to old friends . . . “

Change a few details, Lipsyte could have been writing about Keyshawn Johnson.

Now that Hideki Irabu has been relegated to last week’s story in New York, Johnson’s arrival for today’s start of the Jet training camp is the talk of the town.

“They’re going to throw the book at me,” Johnson said before catching a plane out of Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

The book, of course, is “Just Give Me the Damn Ball!” which he wrote after last season, his first in the NFL.

But I didn’t call Johnson to talk about his book. I called to talk about the three-day football camp he sponsored recently at UC Irvine, paying all expenses for 150 inner-city youths.

For once, he was reluctant to talk. He didn’t publicize the camp, just as he doesn’t publicize his program to provide 16 free tickets for underprivileged children at each Jet home game.

“I’m usually the one to say, ‘If they’re not writing about you, they’re not thinking about you,’ ” he said. “But I’m not looking for p.r. out of these things.”

He’s looking, he said, to give young people chances he didn’t have growing up in South-Central L.A.

Boo him. Tell him to grow up. Throw the book at him. But while you’re doing that, remember he’s basically a friendly neighborhood wise guy. Thirty years from now, I’m guessing we’ll look back and say we were lucky his neighborhood was ours.

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Good news in boxing? . . .

Oscar De La Hoya appeared at the Hollenbeck Youth Center on Tuesday to film HBO’s public service announcement for a remedial reading program . . .

He was accompanied by Time Warner executive Seth Abraham, who said he believes boxing’s losing streak--Andrew Golota vs. Riddick Bowe I and II, Roy Jones Jr. vs. Montell Griffin, Lennox Lewis vs. Oliver McCall, Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield, and Lewis vs. Henry Akinwande--will end Friday night . . .

That’s when Johnny Tapia meets Danny Romero in Las Vegas on HBO to unify the junior-bantamweight title . . .

I have my doubts about Tapia, who sounds like a disqualification waiting to happen . . .

“If he wants to get down and dirty, we’ll get down and dirty, and they can take my money,” he said . . .

He’s almost as intense as Larry Bird, who had the rare distinction of drawing a technical foul while coaching in a summer league game in Atlanta . . .

Kobe Bryant vs. Jermaine O’Neal is the main event in the Fila Summer Pro League at the Long Beach Pyramid on Friday night, when the Lakers meet a combined team of Trail Blazers and Warriors . . .

Put an asterisk by that. The headliners don’t always show . . .

Seeking a headliner, you can forgive Bob Kramer if he was cheering for Andre Agassi to lose Wednesday night in Washington . . .

Kramer, director of the Infiniti Open starting Monday at UCLA, hoped Agassi would enter if he felt he needed extra work next week after a 70-day layoff . . .

It would take an expert returner like Agassi to cope at UCLA against four of the five fastest servers on the tour, including Mark Philippoussis at 142.3 mph . . .

That’s nine mph faster than Terry Allen drives . . .

Gary Stevens needed only 16 days to return to riding at Hollywood Park on Wednesday after arthroscopic knee surgery . . .

On Sunday in the Hollywood Juvenile, Stevens will ride K.O. Punch for Wayne Lukas. The trainer didn’t have a serious Triple Crown contender this year but believes this horse might be one next year . . .

Unable to identify the croak of a bullfrog during the U.S. Women’s Open, Australia’s Karrie Webb said, “I thought it was a cow.” . . .

No one is likely to make that mistake at Willie Nelson’s annual Farm-Aid concert in October. It’s at Texas Stadium, which he’s getting rent-free from Jerry Jones.

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While wondering what it is with basketball players named Dennis, I was thinking: He’ll never be the Great Scott again, the Better Scott is going to Greece, I like a Scot, Colin Montgomerie, to win the British Open.