Brown’s Logic Seems Somewhat Maddening

John Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 seasons, is a finalist to join the 2006 class of inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to be announced Saturday. Under Madden, the Raiders never had a losing season and won the 1977 Super Bowl by defeating Minnesota, 32-14.

A lot of people will have glowing things to say about Madden, but Tim Brown isn’t one of them. Brown, who began playing for the Raiders in 1988, long after Madden became a broadcaster, took a pretty good shot at Madden on FSN’s “Pro Football Preview Show.”

“I spent a long time in Raiderland,” Brown said, “and when you talk to the old guys who played under Madden, they say, ‘Look, if not for this guy, maybe we win three or four Super Bowls.’ They actually think that he may have hindered them.”

*

Trivia time: Carl Boldt, the subject of Tuesday’s trivia question, played basketball at Verdugo Hills High and the University of San Francisco. What is another connection between those schools?

*

Lone dissenting vote: Barry Sanders made a guest appearance Tuesday on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” which was taped at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit. “One more year,” patrons yelled at the former Lion great.

Chris Rose, the show’s host, told Sanders, “The fans want one more year.”

Said New York Giant defensive end Michael Strahan, a regular on the show: “I don’t.”

*

Easy target: Greg Cote of the Miami Herald claims most football experts were excited about the Super Bowl matchup but now fear “a lousy, mistake-filled game, blaming it on the toxic proximity to the Detroit Lions.”

And from Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, on the NFL’s advising fans to be wary of counterfeit Super Bowl tickets: “First clue: Does it say the Lions are playing?”

*

Another target: The sentence for a fan of the Cleveland Browns who ran onto the field during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, besides three days in jail, included a five-year ban on attending any Brown games.

“And the punishment is?” asked NBC’s Jay Leno.

*

Looking back: On this day in 1996, the Chicago Bulls improved to 40-3 by defeating the Sacramento Kings, 105-85. The Bulls broke the NBA record for most victories with only three losses, passing the 1971-72 Lakers, who were 39-3. The Bulls finished the season with an all-time-best 72-10, topping the record of 69-13 by that Laker team.

*

Trivia time: The nickname Dons.

*

And finally: Boldt did not play his senior year at Verdugo Hills High after being declared ineligible for participating in a city league game one day after the allowable period.

Ronnie Odekirk, who played baseball in the New York Yankee farm system, became the go-to guy that year on the Verdugo Hills basketball team. Of his friend Boldt, Odekirk said, “If he’d been around to play, my teammates would never have passed me the ball.”

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