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Sunday, October 22, 2000

Remember when Gabe Northern was going to beef up the Steelers' linebacking corps?

That was before a hamstring injury caused him to miss most of training camp, and before the Steelers cut him, losing the $185,000 signing bonus they invested in him.

Northern, though, may be better off because he plays for the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings. And now the Steelers will find out if they made the right decision.

Bryce Paup, the Vikings' main pass rusher, has a fractured right tibia and will miss about six weeks.

Northern will take his place as a pass rusher in their nickel defense, and his first crack at it will come against Buffalo, the team he left as a free agent to sign with the Steelers.

"I can't wait to get out there and show all of the good things that I plan on doing on the field," Northern said.

Northern said he wants to show the Bills they should have kept him.

"It's like if you've got a girlfriend that breaks up with you, you want to get one that is better than her and show her that you should have kept this, you know what I mean?"

Not so super

Coaches who won Super Bowls then went on to coach another team rarely fared well with team No. 2.

The latest is George Seifert, who won two Super Bowls as coach of the 49ers and is 10-12 with Carolina.

The other seven coaches who won Super Bowls and moved on to other NFL teams were Vince Lombardi, Tom Flores, Hank Stram, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren and Mike Ditka.

Parcells won two Super Bowls with the Giants and then an AFC championship with New England and had an AFC championship game appearance with the Jets. Only Johnson had a winning percentage with Miami that approached the one he had with Dallas.

All eight coaches combined had a .653 winning percentage with their first teams compared to .450 with their second.

A real bargain

The Saints picked up La'Roi Glover for the $100 waiver fee from San Francisco and he's more than paid that back.

Glover leads all defensive tackles with nine sacks, prompting Saints defensive line coach Sam Clancy to rank him with Warren Sapp, John Randle and Bryant Young.

"He's in that category," Clancy said. "And, God willing, if he stays healthy he's going to eat this league up. This is only his sixth game. He's not finished."

His nine sacks are tied for third in the NFL, one behind Trace Armstrong and Hugh Douglas.

Thanks for the warning

Detroit Coach Bobby Ross calls what Herman Moore did to Packers safety Darren Sharper last week a "Hey, you" block.

Delivered correctly, it blows a defender cleanly off his feet and onto the ground.

Ross: "A 'hey, you' block is when they don't see you and just before you get there, you holler 'hey.' You get 'em to turn so you can get a legal hit. You hit 'em and then you say 'you.' "

Quick slants

Minnesota's Robert Smith has run for 28 touchdowns in his career and averaged 28.8 yards per touchdown run. That's the highest average of any NFL player whose career began since 1970 and has a minimum of 20 TDs. Barry Sanders is second at 19.6.

The Packers have allowed nine touchdown passes in their past three games. They hadn't given up that many in a three-game span in 14 years.

Chicago quarterback Cade McNown has completed 11 passes of 40 yards or more to Marcus Robinson in 21 games.