12-0 Is Nice, but There’s a Down Side

Jimmy Johnson, after coaching the Miami Hurricanes to a 12-0 season and the national football championship, said this week that he’s staying put, but listed a few things about college football that may eventually chase him to the National Football League.

“I enjoy coaching, that’s the job I want to do,� Johnson said. “Unfortunately, these days, that’s only a small part of it. There’s also the keeping track of drug testing, academic standards, agents and the demands of alumni.�

Add Johnson: He spent a lot of his pre-Orange Bowl time correcting the idea that his team has a lot of non-academic rogues.

He specifically mentioned that his players graduate at the rate of 83%, better than the student body at large. He seemed proud of it.

Yet, the other day, at the annual convention of the American Football Coaches Assn., he said: “There is a certain amount of hypocrisy at some schools. One, they want you to graduate every football player, and on the other hand they want you to go 12-0.�

Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon is now out of the public appearance business.

McMahon, who has made more pitches off the field than on this season, decided he’d had enough when a crowd of 21,000 women at a Toys-R-Us store began rocking his limo, rock-star style, before he could even get out.

“Never again,� he said.

His commitment to a smoother ride figures to be costly, however. He was pulling down as much as $20,000 an appearance.

This year’s Orange Bowl featured the “fumblerooski,� in which the quarterback preceded a series of fakes by discreetly placing the football on the ground. One of Oklahoma’s linemen then simply picked up the ball and rumbled almost unnoticed for a touchdown.

Oklahoma apparently had learned this play in the Big Eight, watching film of Nebraska, which had used it in three big games of its own. But that’s all Oklahoma learned. Nebraska lost all three of those big games.

Keeping the tradition alive, Oklahoma lost this Orange Bowl to Miami, 20-14, “fumblerooski� or not.

Don’t Invite ‘Ems: Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and former champion Larry Holmes are not talking. Well, Holmes isn’t talking.

The contender in the Atlantic City title fight stiffed promoters at a recent press conference and apparently plans no further public appearances until the fight Jan. 22. He is still peeved, evidently, over Tyson’s refusal to shake hands during a December news conference.

Tyson, who makes upward of $4 million a fight these days, can afford the snub. “We’re not friends,� he said, “now that I’ve got a lot of money.�

According to New York Knicks Coach Rick Pitino, newspapers don’t make deals, they break them. “Anytime (a rumored trade) is in print, it never comes about,� he said. “Once they reach the papers, (general managers) get nervous. Someone starts thinking they’re getting the raw end of the deal and they back out.�

Quotebook

Boxing promoter Bob Arum, on Guido Trane, the latest in George Foreman’s Bum of the Month Club: “He’s better than Rocky Sekorski (Foreman’s last knockout victim).�