He Makes It Pretty Tough to Be His Buddy

It’s an unwritten NFL rule that no exhibition game can be played until Buddy Ryan has made his first self-serving remark. Good thing the Philadelphia Eagle coach recently got one off.

When asked if he feels pressure going into the 1990 season with only one year remaining on his original five-year contract, Ryan said: “I don’t feel any pressure. I am the football team. I built it from scratch into one of the best teams in the league, and everybody knows it.”

Add Buddy: Asked his opinion of the run-and-shoot offense, which the Atlanta Falcons will use this season, Ryan said: “You mean the throw-and-duck? The quarterback’s going to get hit on every play when they play the Eagles.”

Trivia time: Who are the only two men to win tennis’ Grand Slam?

It had to happen: Pete Rose will serve his five-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution Camp at Ashland, Ky., about 100 miles upstream from Cincinnati on the Ohio River. Associated Press couldn’t resist reporting: “The judge literally sent Rose up the river. . . . “

A pox on the field: The weather was warm and still for Thursday’s first round of the British Open, but veteran English pro Martin Poxon said that after he made a birdie three on the first hole, “I thought, ‘With four days of rain now, I might just win this.’ ”

Who’s the boss?: Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Sun suggests that catcher Matt Nokes recently may have set or tied a modern record. Traded by Detroit to the Yankees the day before Bucky Dent was fired, Nokes played for three managers in three days--Dent, Stump Merrill and Sparky Anderson.

Wild pitch: Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post reports that purists at St. Andrews were not amused when defending British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia played in the Dunhill Cup there last year. Calcavecchia used a wedge instead of a putter on some of the Royal and Ancient Club’s spacious greens, leaving a divot in the combination fourth and 14th.

“If need be, I’d do it again,” he said.

About time: Chicago White Sox pitcher Melido Perez’s no-hitter last week is the first no-hitter Carlton Fisk has caught as a major league player.

News, sports and weather: His doubters and detractors around the NFL may be legion, but third-year Atlanta Falcon Aundray Bruce, whose off-season included two paternity suits, getting involved in a real estate operation now under investigation by the FBI, pleading no contest to pointing a BB gun at a pizza deliveryman and collecting garbage on three Saturdays as punishment for breaking probation, had this to say for himself on the first day of training camp:

“I really feel like I’ve been hit by a breath of fresh air.”

Last word in fashion: How sad can a Cub fan be? The ones who shop at Chicago’s Sports Fever sporting goods store sank to a new low when a shipment of road jersey replicas recently arrived reading, “CIHCAGO.”

Trivia answer: Don Budge in 1938, Rod Laver in 1962 and ’69.

Quotebook: Craig Patrick, general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, when asked how he handled both the GM and coaching jobs last season: “The coach makes the mistakes and the general manager reminds him of them.”