The Importance of Victory Drilled Into Parcells

New York Jet Coach Bill Parcells is so superstitious that he doesn’t even mind going to the dentist.

“I had three dentist’s appointments earlier this year,” Parcells told ESPN the Magazine. “We won every Sunday after I had an appointment. So after my last appointment, I went back to the dentist even though I didn’t need anything done.

“Had my teeth cleaned. We won again, so I went back again. . . . But then the Colts beat us, so I don’t have to go anymore.”

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Trivia time: Which player signed baseball’s first $100,000 contract?

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Fallen heroes: Woody Paige of the Denver Post on the New York Giants’ ruining the Broncos’ perfect record on Sunday:

”. . . They survived shoddy efforts against San Diego and Kansas City, but were more pitiful than the pond-scum Giants on Sunday.

“The Super Bowl is out of sight unless the Broncos start playing outta-sight again.”

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More Broncos: Mike Littwin in the Rocky Mountain News: “ ‘People got caught up in it [the winning streak],’ Shannon Sharpe was saying. ‘It was like McGwire and Sosa.’

“Yes, as if McGwire had stopped at 60 and Sosa at 55.”

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Football fever: Cleveland Brown President Carmen Policy, on the excitement in the city over the team, which begins play in 1999:

“It’s called the Browns virus. And what I’m working on now is to make sure there is no cure.”

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Sweeping success: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “A four-man team won more than $50,000 over the weekend in a made-for-television skins game in Canada. The sport was curling. True. I swear.”

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A board game: From syndicated columnist Norman Chad: “One of the instant replay formats being discussed [in the NFL] is that of a ‘challenge’--if a coach doesn’t like a call, he’d ‘challenge’ it and the referee would look at a replay.

“If approved, this procedure could mark the first time that a major professional sports contest is decided by a rule adopted from Scrabble.”

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Live with it: Frank Luksa of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Cowboys’ 8-6 record is realistic:

“They are playing as best they can. They aren’t any better than 8-6. To believe the Cowboys are superior to their record is a delusion to which hardheads cling. Harsh reality argues that the old metallic blue mare ain’t what she used to be.”

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FYI: Quarterback Doug Flutie, now with the Buffalo Bills, has never lost a home game as a starter in either the NFL (11-0) or USFL (7-0).

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Trivia answer: Joe DiMaggio, on Feb. 7, 1949.

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And finally: There has always been a dispute as to when the late Archie Moore was born--Dec. 13, 1916, as he insisted, or Dec. 13, 1913, as his mother claimed.

Asked once about the discrepancy in his birth date, Moore said: “I have given this a lot of thought, and I have decided that I must have been 3 when I was born.”