Ex-Cougs well-grounded
WHILE THE WASHINGTON STATE football team is having trouble with the ground game, a couple of former Cougars running backs are making positive news in Canada.
The Edmonton Eskimos’ Mike Pringle, who played parts of two seasons with WSU in 1986 and 1987 before transferring to Fullerton State, tied the Canadian Football League career rushing record Friday in Edmonton - then was tackled for a loss on his final carry, leaving him a yard short of the mark of 16,116 yards. The record is held by former Saskatchewan star George Reed … also a former Washington State football player.
“I kind of wanted to get George another free trip,” Pringle, 36, said of Reed, who is attending Eskimos games until Pringle passes him. “The record is going to fall … and then it will all be behind us.”
Pringle also has a shot at Reed’s record of 135 touchdowns, needing just two to equal the mark.
Despite all the excitement over his chance to make his mark in history, Pringle said he is treating it just like another day at the office.
“If I didn’t worry about the first 16,000 yards I got, I am definitely not going to worry about the last 100 or so that I need,” he said.
Pringle’s date with CFL destiny is now scheduled for Saturday against the British Columbia Lions.
Russian roulette
From Pete McEntegart of Sports Illustrated.com:
“The primetime airing of the U.S. Open women’s final between Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva drew only a 2.2 Nielsen rating on Saturday night. Even of those viewers, some 78 percent could only identify the winner as, ‘Not Anna or Maria.’ “
Trading places
Andrea Kremer of ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” interviewed former Carolina Panthers defensive end Shawn King, who spoke about trying to beat NFL drug tests by using substitute urine.
“One time I lost my substitute urine when I got stoned and dropped my Gatorade bottle” where the urine was stored, King told Kremer. “So I called a girlfriend and asked her for a favor.
“She FedExed me a urine sample, but I failed the test because I came up pregnant.”
Judging Joe
Howie Long of Fox took issue with speculation about whether Redskins coach Joe Gibbs could cut it in a “young man’s game.”
“I find it entertaining when people question whether the game has passed Joe Gibbs by,” Long said on “NFL Sunday.” “Many aspects of the offense that he put in place over 20 years ago can be seen in today’s game.
“The other question was how is he going to deal with today’s athletes? He’s been working with (NASCAR driver) Tony Stewart the last few years! Football players are a piece of cake.”
Added Terry Bradshaw: “Maybe Tony Stewart ran Joe Gibbs back into coaching.”
The last word …
“When you lose 10 in a row, it’s a complete team effort.”
Art Howe, New York Mets manager.