He’s What You Call an Option Quarterback

Tom Cushman of the San Diego Union-Tribune, on troublesome quarterback Ryan Leaf:

“So what do the Chargers do? Trade him . . . with all the financial and self-destructive baggage? To what team?

“Cut him? Forgive him [how many more times]? Play him, and see if defenses can pound some sense into him? Send him to Doctor Laura?

“Or just sit back and watch Bobby Beathard and, perhaps, Coach Mike Riley go out the door while the mistake from Montana remains?

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Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 record for the highest punting average in a season?

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Motivation: The late Walter Payton, on how he developed the elusiveness he would later use on a football field:

“When you have an angry sister and angry brother chasing you with a broom and a wet dishrag, you tend to pick up moves you never had before.”

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More Payton: Former NFL running back Earnest Byner, trying to describe Payton’s running style, pointed to his office door and said, “Imagine running into that door 20 to 25 times a game.”

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Now we know: Billy Joe Hobert to the Baton Rouge Advocate, on the Saints’ problems this year:

“This might be un-Christian of me, but if I’ve ever believed in a voodoo hex on some team or some person--I think somebody got one of those Creole ladies mad way back, and she’s still upset.”

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Unsolicited advice: Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post: “Dennis Green has it easy. He coaches in the land of 10,000 lakes.

“Mike Shanahan? He coaches in the land of 1,000,000 Second-Guessers, present company included.”

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Ouch! Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “My favorite [Don] Baylor stat is his major league record 267 times hit by a pitch. This, I believe, gives new meaning to the phrase Beanie Baby.”

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In demand: Michael Ventre of MSNBC: “Saddam Hussein reportedly wants to polish his image with the world community. He’s inviting Jim Gray to interview him.”

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All alone: Peter Finney Jr. of the New York Post, writing on Tiger Woods’ winning the Tour Championship, the seventh victory in his last 10 events:

“For the last six months he has been golf’s untouchable, a NASA rocket blowing high-octane exhaust fumes into the front grills of the Yugos of the PGA Tour.”

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Trivia answer: Kirk Wilson of UCLA, 49.3 yards in 1956.

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And finally: Bob Knight, when asked during Big Ten media day about the prospect of facing former Indiana player Steve Alford, now Iowa’s head coach:

“I have no interest in talking about Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, anybody. You’ve got a question about Indiana, ask it. . . . That’s what the hell we’re here for.

“The only other subject I’d be glad to talk about is fishing. They’re the only two things I really know a hell of a lot about.”