Cheap Seats

The Pack is sacked

A grocery store employee in Dallas fired for wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey to work wants his job back.

Sam Young, who “very much dislikes the Cowboys,” said employees at Minyard Food Stores had been told to wear Cowboys shirts to show support before Sunday’s NFC championship game. That dress code, said Minyard president J.L. “Sonny” Williams, was in place because “we’ve had association with Emmitt Smith through Coca-Cola for the last three years.”

When Young wouldn’t take off the Packers shirt, a manager said, “Then I have no choice but to fire you.”

Seems pretty harsh. They could have just demoted him to the dairy case.

Now he’s really Jefferson Street

Joe Former Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Joe Gilliam Jr. can often be seen begging on the streets of Nashville.

Gilliam, who in 1974 became the first black to start an NFL game at quarterback, has been arrested on several drug related charges since leaving pro football.

“I’m not really as bad as I seem. I’m over the hump,” said Gilliam, 45. “I smoke some crack, but I haven’t done any heroin in five years.”

But Rose Gilliam said her estranged husband can make people feel sorry for him.

“He’s not going to change unless he wants to do it himself,” she said. “You are contributing to his problem by giving him money. It’s embarrassing to hear him ask people to buy him cigarettes and toilet tissue. He knows so many people and they’ll give in to him.”

Gilliam recently was an assistant coach at Lane College in Jackson, Tenn.

Now that’s what you need - a crack-smoking assistant coach to build character in those kids.

What do you call a dead agent? A start

Looking for a candidate for humanitarian of the year? Henry Joseph of the San Diego Union-Tribune nominates hockey agent Rich Winter for what he had to say about star client Esa Tikkanen and what he risks by continuing to play on an injured knee: “The knee is a mess, and maybe Esa will need a knee replacement at 50. But so what? He won’t be playing hockey then.”

And he won’t need an agent then, either, Rich.

So I took my 1-iron …

A swarm of bees attacked golfer Keith Fergus and his caddy on the practice range at Tucson National after the third round of the Nortel Open.

Fergus fled along the first fairway and caddy Artie Granfield - who was stung more than 50 times - jumped into a lake. Fergus received multiple stings on the head, neck and arms, but returned the next day to close out the tournament with a 3-under-par 69.

Club personnel said the bees had a hive in a shed at the driving range - a honeycomb 24 inches long, 18 inches wide and 8 inches thick. They were Africanized “killer bees” noted for attacking without provocation.

Without provocation? What do you call some guy swinging a Bubble driver in your flight path?

The last word …

“(Jimmy) Johnson said when accepting the Miami Dolphins coaching job Thursday that being a television slub makes him a better coach. I suppose it is the same thing that makes Sonny Bono a better congressman.”

- Chicago Tribune columnist Bernie Lincicome

, DataTimes