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The defense would like to call …
Craig Hodges, the former Chicago Bulls guard now coaching at Chicago State, has been granted a leave of absence for personal reasons primarily to pursue his lawsuit against the NBA.
Hodges claims he was blacklisted by the NBA after his Bulls contract expired. The lawsuit says the league and the Bulls were embarrassed by Hodges during a White House visit in 1991. Hodges wore African garments and handed then-President Bush a letter “calling for an end to injustice toward the African-American community.”
Since Dennis Rodman now plays for the Bulls, Craig might want to re-think that embarrassment theory.
And he couldn’t even drown his sorrows
Better golfers than John Daly have been skunked in the Skins Game - Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson to name two. But no one seemed to enjoy himself less than Daly did Sunday.
Not only did the big boomer of golf fail to win a skin or a dollar at La Quinta, but he trudged along with shoulders slumped and a scowl - even when the gallery began pulling for him in the final few holes.
After giving up alcohol for two years, Daly recently admitted that he lapsed into a threemonth spurt of drinking before re-pledging to stay away from liquor. He said he has been dry again for several weeks. Alas, his putting luck was just as dry.
Asked how many times he’d used his driver during the weekend on a course where the other three skinsters frequently used irons off the tees, Daly was nearly insulted.
“I used my driver on every hole,” he said. “Well, not the par 3s. But the way I played, I should have.”
His gloom dissolved briefly at the 17th, when he and Tiger Woods staged an impromptu driving contest.
“Tiger and I were actually going to tee up and hit our drives at the same time,” said Daly, but then he reckoned it would be setting a bad example for kids and golfers everywhere.
And the last thing Big John wants to do is set a bad example.
Slip-sliding away
In losing 48-3 to Montana in the first round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in Missoula, the Nicholls State Colonels weren’t exactly stand-up guys.
“This is by no means an excuse,” said Darren Barbier, “but if I took you down to Louisiana and took you on a deer hunt in the swamp, you’d get a wet fanny and I’d stay dry.”
NSU linemen and backs were slipping and “thinking about every step we were going to take,” said defensive end John Emery. And quarterback Brad Zeller’s concern went beyond the footing: he wore gloves.
Nicholls played all season with a Wilson football, but the NCAA uses Rawlings balls during the playoffs.
“I liked throwing the Rawlings ball better with gloves,” Zeller said.
“Those gloves didn’t exactly stop the pass rush,” offered Barbier.
The cup stayeth over
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies spent the season trying to win the Vanier Cup. But after doing it, the Canadian university football champs left the trophy in a Toronto hotel lobby Sunday morning when they headed for the airport.
The last word …
“Praise from winners is like compliments from barbers. The better you look, the better they look.”
- Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo