Now He Is Making Up for His Rookie Mistakes

Bill Johnson, currently a defensive tackle with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a third-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 1992.

Doug Dieken, the Browns’ radio color commentator, heard about a rookie who was sleeping in his car, too afraid to spend money to get himself a place to live.

“He would sleep in his car and he would point the car to the east so that when the sun came up, it would wake him up in time for practice,” Dieken told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“That’s an amazing story when you think about it. He went from sleeping in his car to wearing $700 suits.”

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Trivia time: The College All-Star game matching the NFL champion against the College All-Stars in Chicago was discontinued after 1976. When was it inaugurated and what was the first result?

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X minus Y equals? Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune writing on the bowl championship series ratings:

“Ummm, hang on a second. I just have a few last-second calculations to do here.

“Let’s see, now. If I cross the quartile rank of Tennessee with the computer average for Kansas State and reduce the adjusted deviation for the differences between the hypotenuse of the Seattle Times and Jeff Sagarin’s home address. . . .

“Well, of course. Ohio State is No. 1.”

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Had to happen: Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News: “It has come to this at the University of Arkansas, where the Razorbacks are 7-0 under Coach Houston Nutt. The home stadium is now called, ‘The Nutt House.’ ”

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Not a clue: Tom Fitzgerald, right wing for the expansion NHL Nashville Predators, on the team’s fans:

“They don’t know a lick about hockey. They never leave in the third period because they think there is a fourth one.”

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Spare us: ESPN’s Chris Fowler, commenting on Lee Corso, his partner on the “College GameDay” show, to Rudy Martzke of USA Today:

“He is the most recognized college TV personality. Keith Jackson is the king of college football, but Lee is as close to Dick Vitale as there is.”

That’s a compliment?

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No argument: The late author Erma Bombeck once said: “Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1966, Philadelphia’s Timmy Brown returned two kickoffs, 93 and 90 yards, for touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 24-23 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

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Trivia answer: The teams played to a 0-0 tie in 1934. In the series, the pro teams won 31 times, losing nine with two ties.

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And finally: Bob Smizik in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The Pirates have minimally raised their ticket prices, which is understandable.

“The increase, however, would have been more palatable if they had announced cash refunds if the team disgraced itself again by quitting in the final month of the season.”