He Comes to Play for Shula, Not Praise Him

If Miami wins today, and Don Shula gets carried off the field, don’t expect Doug Betters to be one of those carrying him.

Betters, a defensive end, concedes that Shula is about the best there is when it comes to coaching, but he doesn’t much admire his methods.

“Hey, I don’t like the guy,� Betters told Terry Price of the Hartford Courant. “I wouldn’t go to dinner with him. But I guess I do believe nice guys finish last. Coach Shula wants to win and he doesn’t worry about stepping on people’s toes. In his mind, players are expendable and we all have to be aware of that.

“I have no ax to grind with him. He’s just not the most popular guy around. His attitude is it takes whatever it takes.�

For what it’s worth: Last season, Jay Brophy played for the Miami Hurricanes. Today, he’s playing for the Miami Dolphins. Thus, he could be the first man to parlay a national collegiate title to an NFL title in successive years on teams from the same city.

Note: Brophy has replaced oft-injured A.J. Duhe at linebacker, giving the Dolphins solid B’s on their front seven.

Add Brophy: Disillusioned with football as a freshman at Miami, he dropped out and went to work with his brother at a Mohawk Tire factory in Helena, Ark.

“It (the factory) hadn’t been cleaned in 10 years,� he said. “The stuff would get on your clothes and eat right through. We’d use a whole bottle of liquid cleanser to get it out of our fingernails and our eyes. Guys in that plant were going to be making $4 an hour, $5 when they were 50.�

Of the town, Brophy said: “It was the kind of place you didn’t even want to fly over in a plane.�

At the first opportunity, Brophy took a plane back to Miami.

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Oregon, never accused of being a football factory, has five players on the 49er roster, more than any other school. They are tight end Russ Francis, center Fred Quillan, defensive end Jeff Stover, linebacker Mike Walter and cornerback Mario Clark.

Add Walter: He’s formerly of the Dallas Cowboys, and he told Skip Bayless of the Dallas Times Herald: “For some reason, the players here just have more fun. It’s a lot looser. Of course, we’ve won all but one, but last year when we were 7-0 in Dallas, there was just so much pressure. People just seemed to be pulling in different directions.

“One big difference here is that we take great pride in our special teams. Maybe things have changed, but guys hated to be in special-teams meetings in Dallas. They wanted to be off for lunch.�

Said a 49er official, trying to explain the hamstring pulls of Dwight Clark and Russ Francis and the fatigue of Freddie Solomon earlier this week: “In our defensive drills, they’ve been trying to imitate the Miami receivers and I guess they’re not used to running that fast.�

Boston forward Cedric Maxwell, on the jumping ability of Phoenix forward Larry Nance, last year’s NBA Slam Dunk champion: “Every time he went up for one of his slams, I swear I could hear him calling out, ‘Nance to tower, Nance to tower.’ �

Quotebook Al McGuire, on the NCAA being ordered by the court to pay the legal expenses of Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian: “That makes the NCAA legal department 0 and 18. They ought to be put on probation.�