He’s in No Mood for Any More Radical Moves

Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on some of his New Year’s resolutions:

“Not to watch any sport described as extreme, ultra or radical. As soon as they break out a ramp or a board of any kind, I’m outta there.

“Never do the ‘Dirty Bird’ in public, no matter how well-served I’ve been.

“Not to buy a used Masserati from an NBA player.

“Not to ask any athlete after a crushing defeat, ‘How does it feel?’

“Not to sign a deal with Nike to put a swoosh on my word processor.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL playoff record for touchdowns in a career?

Why play the game? In beating Quinnipiac, 117-20, on Sunday the top-ranked Connecticut women’s basketball team jumped to leads of 21-2 and 46-4.

Said Quinnipiac Coach Tricia Sacca: “We didn’t get our kids prepared for the first five minutes.”

Or 10, or 15. . . .

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Rout of routs: Quinnipiac was a scoring machine compared to Duncanville Christway, which lost a girls’ high school game to Arlington (Texas) Oakridge, 103-0.

Christway turned the ball over 46 times, shot 0 for 23 and missed two free throws in the Monday night game.

The halftime score was 63-0.

Part of the problem for Christway was Oakridge’s height advantage. Oakridge’s smallest player, 5-foot-4 Whitney Rial, said that when she stepped on the court, her teammates commented: “Wow, you’re taller than all of them.”

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A real lockout loser: Joe Knowles in the Chicago Tribune: “Bruce Teilhaber really misses the NBA. He runs a high-end shoe store in Atlanta that specializes in big, big sizes.

“With no NBA players coming through town, Teilhaber’s business is slack. ‘Who am I going to sell this to?’ Teilhaber disgustedly asked of a pair of size-22 suede loafers.”

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Chopped up: Tony Kornheiser in the Washington Post: “The less said about Sunday’s Dallas game, the better. The Cowboys’ first team shredded the Redskins like the lettuce they put on the sandwiches at Subway.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1977, USC defeated Texas A&M;, 47-28, in the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome in Houston.

USC’s Dwight Ford ran 94 yards to a touchdown, a Trojan record at the time, and quarterback Rob Hertel threw four touchdown passes.

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Trivia answer: Thurman Thomas of Buffalo and Emmitt Smith of Dallas, each with 20.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune on the firing of Bear Coach Dave Wannstedt:

“For him this is not an end of the road but a bend in the road, Wannstedt said, and so saying there were no tears, not from the coach or for the coach.

“He leaves us as he lingered, a decent man unable to arouse his own passions nor ours. But worse than that, unable to beat the Packers for the last 10 games.”