Hello, Welcome to Echo Canyon
Lee Busby tried to get a couple of friends to go with him to the Tennessee Oilers’ second home game in their home away from home. He didn’t have much luck.
“They said they wouldn’t come out here if you gave them a ticket and dropped them off in a limousine at the front gate,” Busby said Sunday as he sat alone in a sparsely populated section of end-zone seats, watching Baltimore defeat the Oilers, 36-10. There were only 17,737 fans in Memphis’ 62,320-seat Liberty Bowl Stadium.
Meanwhile, the nearby Mid-South Fair, also located at the Memphis fairgrounds, had its runways and rides packed with visitors enjoying the pleasant, sunny day.
The Oilers’ first regular-season game in Tennessee, in Memphis on Aug. 31, attracted 30,171 fans, the smallest crowd on the NFL’s opening day. The team drew 15,171 in its final home game in Houston last year.
Waiting for a new stadium to be built 200 miles up Interstate 40 in Nashville, the Oilers plan to play two years in Memphis.
That’s a welcome visit for some Memphis sports fans, but many others still have hard feelings toward the NFL for refusing to put a permanent team in their city.
“For 25 years, Memphis tried to get a team and they denied us,” Busby said. “There’s such a hate among Memphians because we were denied when they expanded [in 1993] to Charlotte and Jacksonville.”
But Robert Johnson, also sitting alone with lots of stretching room around him, said he was willing to overlook all that to watch the NFL play.
“This is the big league. You don’t get any bigger than this, and I don’t understand why more people don’t come out,” Johnson said.
YELLING AND CURSING
IS A BETTER EXAMPLE
After Sunday’s 35-17 victory over Detroit, in which Saint quarterback Heath Shuler completed 15 of 21 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown, New Orleans Coach Mike Ditka said he didn’t decide until Tuesday to stick with Shuler ahead of rookie Danny Wuerffel.
“I had my mind kind of going in a different direction. I said, ‘Wait a second, what are you going to do? You’re going to keep switching around every time things don’t do right? What kind of example is that to these young men?’ ”
COACH JERRY JONES?
WHY NOT JENNY JONES?
Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer have all coached the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl titles. Could Jerry Jones?
Jones told the New York Times in an interview published Sunday that he has considered it, but hasn’t made the move because “there are just too many coaches who have the experience to get it done better than I could.”
Jones once said 500 people could take the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. He has hinted before that he considers himself among the other 499.
“I consider it sometimes, yes,” Jones said. “But first and foremost I want to be successful and not selfish, and the best chance for this organization to win is by having a full-time head coach who is qualified, so that’s why I probably won’t do it.”
Neither Jones nor other team officials could immediately be reached for comment Sunday. A message left at the team’s headquarters Sunday was not returned. The Cowboys were idle this week.
Other owners and high-ranking league executives said they know of Jones’ interest in moving from the front office to the sidelines.
“It could definitely happen,” said a league executive who has spoken to Jones on the subject and who insisted on anonymity. “I’m not sure if it will, but don’t laugh it off because he has talked about it increasingly the last few months and even the past few weeks.”
Jones fuels his desire to coach by prowling the sidelines nearly every Sunday. He often attends practices and even has several television and radio shows where he lets X’s and O’s creep into the conversation.
THAT’S NOT THE FINGER
YOU USE FOR HOLDS
Early in the fourth quarter of New England’s 31-3 victory over Chicago, Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri kicked holder Tom Tupa in the hand on a field-goal attempt.
The play was nullified by a delay of game penalty against the Patriots, and Vinatieri kicked the ball through the uprights on the next play.
SIGN ROCKY BALBOA,
HE COULD CATCH HIM
Saint defensive coordinator Zaven Yaralian on Detroit running back Barry Sanders: “Really, it’s like throwing a chicken in the boxing ring and have three or four guys try to catch it. That’s how quick he is. You don’t know where he’s going to go. You really don’t.”
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Down, Not Out
Buffalo’s victory after trailing, 26-0, was the third largest comeback in NFL history. A look:
* 32-- ** Buffalo vs. Houston, Jan. 3, 1993 (trailed, 35-3; won, 41-38, OT)
* 28--San Francisco vs. New Orleans, Dec. 7, 1980 (trailed, 35-7; won, 38-35, OT)
* 26--Buffalo vs. Indianapolis, Sept. 21, 1997 (trailed, 26-0; won, 37-35)
* 25--St. Louis vs. Tampa Bay, Nov. 8, 1987 (trailed, 28-3; won, 31-28)
* 11 teams have come back from 24-point deficits.
** playoffs.