NFL Job Won’t Keep Him Off Fairways

Steve Spurrier says he doesn’t intend to change his nine-to-five workday now that he’s the coach of the Washington Redskins.

“He managed to become one of college football’s most successful coaches at Florida and still get in about five rounds of golf a week,” writes Paul Domowitch of the Knight Ridder News Service. “Usually made it home during the season by 7 o’clock. Can that approach work in the bop-till-you drop NFL? We’re about to find out.

“If Spurrier ends up winning the Super Bowl with his nine-to-five approach, a lot of NFL coaches are going to have an awful lot of explaining to do to their wives and kids.”

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More Spurrier: “I hope he wins,” Denver Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan said. “I can [then] go home at 5:30.”

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Trivia time: What do Gary Alcorn, Ray Felix, Howard Joliff, Rudy LaRusso and Frank Selvy have in common?

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Remember this? The American Le Mans Series, founded in 1999, stirs fond movie memories for Liz Clarke of the Washington Post: “Steve McQueen had top billing, but the real stars of the movie ‘Le Mans’ were his Porsche 917K and its rival Ferrari 512S, whose sleek lines and screaming engines made the film an instant classic among auto racing fans.

“The 1971 movie captured the golden age of sports car racing, in which dashing men and exotic machines tested their limits at breakneck speed through blinding rain and dead of night on the famed course that snakes through the French countryside.”

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He’s in good company: Jim McCabe in the Boston Globe, on Tiger Woods after his Masters victory: “He just played in his 21st major and earned his seventh title. Jack Nicklaus had six victories in his first 21 majors, but he won again in his 22nd [the 1967 U.S. Open], so if Woods fails to triumph at Bethpage Black [course] in June, the match will be all square.”

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No field of dreams: More of the 50 worst sports ideas ever from Patrick Hruby of the Washington Times:

* “Astroturf: giver of injuries; taker of careers; an aesthetic atrocity that looks lousy on television and even worse in person.

“Since its debut in 1965, artificial turf has been responsible for a multitude of sporting sins, including dome baseball and the cancellation of a Baltimore-Philadelphia NFL preseason game. Imagine a Wimbledon played on the synthetic stuff. The horror.”

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Why bother: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Sports Illustrated is having a garage sale, unloading Charles Barkley’s opinions for a nickel each. Bet you can bargain ‘em down.”

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FYI: The Toronto Raptors are only the third team in NBA history to lose 13 consecutive games in a season and still make the playoffs. The others are the 1996-97 Phoenix Suns, who opened the season at 0-13, and the 1976-77 Chicago Bulls.

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Ouch: Philadelphia Phillie Manager Larry Bowa on Coors Field: “This is arena baseball and this is by far the worst place.”

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Trivia answer: They were members of the first Los Angeles Laker team in 1960-61.

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And finally: Minnesota Twin catcher A.J. Pierzynski, on hitting 20 foul balls in his first three at-bats Tuesday: “I guess I was trying to get every fan a foul ball.”

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Mal Florence