Magic Number for Bulls This Season Is Not 73

Chicago Bull Coach Phil Jackson has low expectations for his team this season--no record-breaking 73 victories, perhaps 60.

“By no stretch of the imagination are we going to try to win 73 games,” Jackson told the Chicago Tribune. “We had three starters who had operations this summer, and my feeling is Michael [Jordan] has not been as attentive, with the same vengeance, to coming back with that revenge-type notion he did last year. He probably hasn’t trained as much.”

The Bulls were 72-10 last season and went on to win their fourth NBA championship in six years.

Poor Bulls. They’ll probably have to settle for their fifth title in seven years.

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Add Bulls: Jordan has other things on his mind besides NBA championships. He now has a new business--men’s cologne. His partner in the venture is the designer Bijan. The fragrance goes on sale in November.

A 3.7-ounce bottle of the cologne has a suggested retail price in top department stores and men’s shops of $23, matching Jordan’s jersey number.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for the longest punt return?

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The blahs: Columnist Norman Chad analyzing the New York Giant-Jet game on TNT’s “Pro Football Tonight” postgame show last Sunday:

“The Jets-Giants game sort of reminded me of one of those 24-hour head colds where you have all this nasal congestion, and your throat is scratchy, and you have a runny nose, and you can’t stop sneezing, and your eyelids feel heavy, and you can’t hold down any food, and you have a night fever and then two or three weeks later you finally feel sort of all right.

“The Jets played so poorly today, even Jimmy Hoffa left the stadium early.”

Hoffa? Now that’s sick!

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Tired act: Denne H. Freeman of the Associated Press is getting bored with Deion Sanders’ dance step after touchdowns.

“I would be interested, though, in seeing Deion take a shot at doing the Macarena,” Freeman wrote. “The Peppermint Twist is dead, Deion. So is your current dancing performance.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1939, UCLA defeated Texas Christian, 6-2, at the Coliseum. The Bruins finished the football season with a 6-0-4 record. That’s right, four ties--an NCAA record.

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Trivia answer: Robert Bailey of the Rams, 103 yards against New Orleans on Oct. 23, 1994.

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And finally: A life-size cardboard cutout of Green Bay Packer Coach Mike Holmgren was mistaken for a burglar at a service station in Markesan, Wis.

A passerby saw a figure inside the dimly lit store about 3:30 a.m. and called police.

After a few minutes of looking through the windows, police determined that “the suspect” was that old cutup, oops cutout, Holmgren.