Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Sunday, December 02, 2001

Compiled by Ed Bouchette

They're calling the team in Washington the Redskins again after their five-game winning streak has put them a game behind first-place Philadelphia in the NFC East Division.

Said defensive end Kenard Lang: "People aren't going to be looking at us crazy no more like we're the 'Deadskins.' Now the picture is as big as day and we can paint anything we want to."

Suddenly, Marty Schottenheimer doesn't look like such an old-fashioned coach who allowed the game to pass him by or one that is going to be fired by owner Dan Snyder.

"Marty's a winner," former Redskins tackle Joe Jacoby said. "Everybody says he came back for the money. Well, maybe he did. But there's more to it. There's a pride factor and an ego thing. He's going to win. He's going to make sure they win.

"Seven weeks ago, they were ready to get rid of him. Dan Snyder was trying to get Steve Spurrier from Florida. They didn't give Marty a chance. They gave Norv Turner seven years, and this guy gets seven minutes and they were ready to blow him out of here. It was unbelievable."

Said former Redskins tight end Rick Walker: "You've got to remember, these guys are two years removed from winning the NFC East. We're not talking the Bad News Bears here."

Candlestick rekindled?

The comeback of the San Francisco 49ers might be nothing compared to that of their ballpark.

Remember Candlestick Park? It was renamed 3Com but that company is hurting financially and the naming deal expires after the season.

So, Candlestick might rise again.

Baseball's Giants moved out of the old ballpark into a new one, but the 49ers have been stuck with the place Eddie DeBartolo once called a "pigsty."

Zapped by Sapp

Rams defensive end Chidi Ahanotu has no endearing memory of former teammate Warren Sapp of Tampa Bay.

Ahanotu said the Buccaneers' problems began when they let linebacker and team leader Hardy Nickerson go as a free agent to Jacksonville.

"When they got rid of Hardy, they handed over the mantle of team leader to Sapp, and things never have been the same since," Chidi said. "I felt like a lot of it had to do with No. 99. I was there at the beginning when he didn't even start, and every year he turned into a worse and worse person. As he rode, so rode the team.

"His rules of conduct, the way he acts, that kind of stuff, became the standard for the younger guys."

Can't you just feel the love?

Scary shirt

Ted Washington weighs 355 pounds and may be the last player on the Bears defense anyone wants to see in a T-shirt.

But Washington has designed one for Chicago's defense that screams, "The Bear Witch Project." It displaces the mugs of Washington, Mike Brown, Phillip Daniels, Tony Parrish and Brian Urlacher, with the line: "You Should Be Scared!"

Quick slants

The Lions can still become the first team to go 0-16. Five teams have gone 1-15 in the past 20 years and 10 have gone 2-14.

Bears quarterback Jim Miller, on former Lions coach Bobby Ross: "Quite frankly, if Bobby Ross was the captain of the Titanic, he'd be the first one in the life boat. The guy's a liar and a loser, and that's the way I look at him." Ross once cut Miller in training camp.

Injuries vs. winning: The 7-3 Packers have lost five starters for 8 3/4 games with injuries. Last season, the 4-6 Packers had lost six starters for 30 games because of injuries.

Aaron Gibson, the Cowboys' 380-pound tackle, has a rib injury that developed when he sneezed. "The doctor said it happens to a lot of people." said Gibson, who believed him.

Green Bay can't mourn the fact it traded away Mark Brunell, who will play against the Packers tomorrow night. The Packers, after all, have Brett Favre. But Brunell can again remind Green Bay that they got too little for him, draft picks in the third and fifth round in 1995 from Jacksonville.