Flag and Official Down on Play

Sunday’s Cleveland-Jacksonville game will be long remembered for an ugly incident in the first half when Cleveland offensive tackle Orlando Brown lost his cool and shoved referee Jeff Triplette to the ground.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Jaguar Coach Tom Coughlin said. “At first it was disbelief. I was shocked.”

So were players on both sides and more than 72,000 fans in Cleveland.

Brown became enraged when Triplette threw his penalty flag--weighted with BBs--toward the line of scrimmage and accidentally struck the offensive linemen in the right eye.

Brown initially knelt down in pain as the official rushed to his side to see if he was OK.

“Certainly there was every effort to apologize,” Triplette said. “It was totally unintentional and inadvertent. I have been in officiating almost 30 years and never had anything like that happen.”

Triplette then informed Brown that he had to sit out a play because they stopped the game for his injury.

The 6-foot-7, 350-pound Brown gestured toward his eye as he approached Triplette and then flattened the official with a two-handed shove to the chest. As Triplette, a treasurer for an energy company, was on the ground, Brown towered over him and might have done more damage if he hadn’t been restrained by teammates.

“I saw it coming and I tried to get out there to stop it,” Brown running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar said. “I could tell by his walk. I was too late.”

His eye visibly swollen, Brown never calmed down, and after having a heated exchange with Cleveland Coach Chris Palmer, angrily kicked a yard marker as he was ushered to the locker room by nearly a dozen members of the Browns’ security staff.

Brown, whose actions will surely draw a fine and possible suspension from the league, has had trouble containing his emotions all season and has been warned by Palmer to tone his act down.

The emotional lineman prefers to be called “Zeus” and once turned down an offer to join the World Wrestling Federation. He was fined $5,000 for a late hit earlier this year in a game against New Orleans.

“I would like to apologize to Jeff Triplette,” said Palmer, his disappointment showing with each word. “It was an embarrassing situation for me.”

Many of Brown’s teammates supported him. They didn’t condone his behavior, but understood why he became so emotional.

“I was shocked,” said tackle Scott Rehberg, who was criticized by Brown a few weeks ago for not playing with flu. “I never saw anything like that. It’s wrong to go after an official, but we have to protect the players too.”

Others dismissed any notion that he needs anger counseling.

“If that is the case,” defensive end Derrick Alexander said, “then all of us need help on Sunday because we’re out there trying to kill each other.”

Brown, who would not comment as he walked to his car at halftime, was taken to the Cleveland Clinic to have his eye checked.

I THINK I SHALL NEVER SEE A LINEMAN LOVELY AS A TREE

Lion cornerback Robert Bailey, who claims to be the first player to use the throat-slashing gesture the NFL outlawed a couple of weeks ago, has a new gimmick. He calls it “the bone-breaker” and used it for the first time Sunday.

After breaking up a pass, Bailey slows down, raises one knee and brings both hands down, as if he were breaking a branch over his knee.

McNOWN FINDS A NEW FRIEND

Though Marcus Robinson was the offensive most valuable player of NFL Europe in 1998, the receiver never found his groove in his first two seasons with the Chicago Bears and was in danger of being cut at the end of the exhibition season. But he’s turned in a breakout season as one of the NFC’s leading receivers, and he’s the first person quarterback Cade McNown looks to when he’s dropping back to throw.

Of McNown’s eight touchdown passes, six are to Robinson. He has thrown about three times as many passes to Robinson as to any other receiver. Roommates on the road, they already seem to have a bond it takes some quarterbacks and receivers years to build.

Take Robinson’s second touchdown catch. The play was a two-receiver route, and Robinson didn’t think he was getting the ball. When he found himself alone in the end zone though, he looked over at McNown and caught his eye. A few seconds later, the ball was in Robinson’s hands.

“Marcus has been doing this all year and Cade’s not stupid,” Bear tackle Blake Brockermeyer said. “I’d be throwing the ball to him all the time too.”

FANS FLAKE OUT ON FLUTIE

Buffalo fans might have lost their appetite for Doug Flutie.

Apparently not everyone considers Flutie Flakes the breakfast of champions anymore.

“They’re not exactly flying off the aisles like they used to,” said a clerk at a supermarket near Ralph Wilson Stadium. “We couldn’t keep them on the shelves last year.”

Flutie was last season’s comeback player of the year. This season he’s public enemy No. 1 for many frustrated Buffalo fans even though the Bills (9-5) are still in contention for a playoff spot.

Flutie’s rating has slipped from last season, when he helped turn around a 1-3 team and take it to the playoffs. Flutie’s rating of 74.1 entering Week 15 ranked him 12th in the AFC and 25th in the league.

“There’s five teams in this division, all right?” Flutie said. “It’s considered the best division in the NFL right now by all the--quote--experts, right? How many teams are happy with their quarterback play right now? Indianapolis?”

Well, Peyton Manning is the top passer in the AFC and third in the league with a 92.3 rating.

“So in every market . . . Dan Marino is going through this, I’m going through this,” Flutie said. “In fact, no, I take that back. Maybe in New York they’re happy with their quarterback because he’s three-and-four. And they’re in last place, and they’re kind of happy with their quarterback.”

LEAF CAN TAILOR HIS OWN SUITS

Manning and Edgerrin James, the stars on offense for the Colts this season, know they don’t put up big numbers without help. Manning and James bought digital camcorders and tailor-made suits for each member of their offensive line.

Contrast that to Ryan Leaf. Leaf thought it was getting a little too hot on the sidelines during Sunday’s game against Miami. Instead of retreating to the locker room to change into shorts, Leaf took a pair of scissors and cut the legs off his sweatpants.

The quick-thinking Charger coaching staff was quick to snatch the scissors away before he started running with them.

WHERE’S DEVO WHEN YOU NEED THEM?

After Philadelphia’s Koy Detmer threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Dietrich Jells to give the Eagles a 24-9 lead in the third quarter Sunday, Detmer took three swashbuckling steps toward the Eagle sideline and proceeded swing his arm back and forth as if slapping someone across the face. It’s a new Eagle touchdown dance called “whippin’ it.” But you’ll never guess who Detmer learned the move from.

“I saw Scott Zolak do it in the preseason last year,” Detmer said. “I just got a kick out of it and thought it was pretty neat.”

Scott Zolak?

Said Eagle Coach Andy Reid of Detmer and his celebration: “He’s a beauty, but he’s definitely not a dancer.”

Perhaps Donovan McNabb put it best:

“I have no idea what that is.”

Closing In

Troy Aikman on Sunday moved within one of the Dallas record for most touchdown passes:

Danny White (1976-88): 155

Troy Aikman (1989-): 154

Roger Staubach (1969-79): 153

Don Meredith (1960-68): 135

Craig Morton (1965-74): 89

Eddie LeBaron (1960-63): 45

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--Compiled by Houston Mitchell