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All They Need Is a Marriage Counselor

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Times Staff Writer

Disgruntled running back Corey Dillon, who sat out the Cincinnati Bengals’ 34-27 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday because of a strained groin, was recently asked about his contract status.

“Ain’t nothing concrete,” he told Cincinnati reporters. “You sign a contract with your wife, and you can get rid of her, can’t you?”

That reminds us of something former NFL coach Bum Phillips once said. Asked by NBC’s Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all road trips, Phillips said: “Because she is too ugly to kiss goodbye.”

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Phillips was kidding; Dillon was not.

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Trivia time: What is the NBA record for most points scored by one team in one half?

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Silence is golden: For a feature on Bill Parcells, ESPN interviewed three of his former quarterbacks -- Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler and Drew Bledsoe. They all talked about how Parcells continuously yells at his quarterbacks during practices.

Said Bledsoe: “You’d look forward to the game so you could get some peace and quiet.”

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Always a target: Simms recalled one time when Parcells chewed out the New York Giant offensive line. He was glad that for once he wasn’t the target of Parcells’ venom.

“Then he turned to me and said, ‘It’s all your fault,’ ” Simms said. “He said if I was a better leader and tougher on them, they’d block better.”

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Johnny get your gun: Florida Marlin Manager Jack McKeon was asked by David Letterman last week about any unusual tactics he used during his many years of coaching and managing in baseball.

McKeon said when he was a third-base coach in the Carolina League, one player would never pick up the sign to stop at third.

“I told him I was going to shoot him the next time he tried to score and got thrown out at the plate,” McKeon said. “I went to a pawn shop and bought a gun that shot blanks. The next time he missed the sign and rounded third, I took six shots at him. That took care of that problem.”

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His own fireworks: McKeon told Letterman that wasn’t the only time he used the gun. When he was managing at Omaha in 1960 and his team played at Denver, fireworks would be set off every time the home team hit a home run, something that wasn’t done much back then.

“So for the next game, every time we’d hit a home run, I’d whip out my gun and, ‘Pow, pow, pow,’ ” he said. “You could get away with a lot more in those days.”

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Looking back: On this date in 1984, Wild Again held off Slew O’ Gold and Gate Dancer to win the $3-million Classic in the first Breeders’ Cup, held at Hollywood Park.

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Trivia answer: 107, in the first half by the Phoenix Suns in a 173-143 victory over the Denver Nuggets on this date in 1990.

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And finally: TBS studio analyst Brian Bosworth on Clemson’s Tommy Bowden’s handing his dad, Florida State’s Bobby, a 26-10 loss on his 74th birthday: “Think there is a gift receipt with that, so [Bobby] can return it?”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.

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