No Wonder NFL Has Saddled Up With Colts

The struggle for perfection is always a good story. But columnist Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star thinks the volume of the NFL drumbeat for the Indianapolis Colts is a bit loud considering that, at 10-0, the team is still a long way from equaling the 17-0 mark of the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

But he thinks he understands the league’s excessive fanfare.

“This is not only the best story in the NFL,” wrote Kravitz. “It’s the only story in the NFL. At least the only good story.... “What else is there? The [Terrell Owens] KO in arbitration? The retirement talk surrounding Brett Favre? The relocation chatter by the owner of the New Orleans Saints? ... It’s little wonder, then, that the NFL has latched on to the Colts’ unbeaten start like drowning men desperately lunging for a piece of passing driftwood.”

Almost a Bruin: As a prep All-American from Roosevelt High in the early 1960s, USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, a Heisman Trophy winner for the school, was all set to play for UCLA. Except the Bruins were not sure they wanted him.

“They thought I was too small,” Garrett says in “Conquest,” a new book on the Trojans by Times staff writers David Wharton and Gary Klein. “They asked me to go to junior college.”

At the last moment, USC coach John McKay stepped in to offer Garrett a scholarship.

Almost a Ute: Before he enrolled at USC, O.J. Simpson went to the University of Utah on a recruiting trip. It was the summer of 1966 and Utah coach Mike Giddings, a former USC assistant, wanted Simpson. The coach handed the future Heisman Trophy winner over to several players for a get-acquainted session. Among them was an offensive lineman named Norm Chow, who would eventually become the Trojans’ offensive coordinator under Coach Pete Carroll.

According to Giddings in “Conquest,” Simpson committed to Utah that day, signing a letter of intent. But when Simpson returned home, a tenacious USC assistant, Marv Goux, persuaded him to enroll in junior college for one more year in order to join the Trojans.

Trivia time: How many times did UCLA play USC in football before finally winning a game?

Money ball for fans: When the Detroit Lions responded to receiver Charles Rogers’ four-game suspension for substance abuse by filing a grievance against him, Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press wrote:

“When I heard that the Lions were asking Charles Rogers to give them back $10 million of his $14-million signing bonus, my reaction

Albom wrote that before Detroit lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-7, on Thanksgiving Day.

Trivia answer: Eight. After losing four and tying three, UCLA beat USC, 14-7, in 1942.

And finally: Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News on last Sunday’s game between the Norv Turner-coached Oakland Raiders and the Washington Redskins: “The team that should fire Norv Turner is playing the team that did fire Norv Turner.”