Quarterback Controversy Elicits a ‘Baugh? Humbug!’

Neil O’Donnell suffered a broken leg during Sunday’s game against Seattle, so now Bobby Brister is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback again.

Earlier, when O’Donnell was injured and replaced by Brister, Pittsburgh Coach Bill Cowher made it clear that O’Donnell would get his job back when he recovered.

A reporter, pressing the issue, asked Cowher, “What if Brister plays like Sammy Baugh?”

Cowher smiled and said, “I don’t remember what Sammy Baugh played like.”

Trivia time: Who holds the NBA individual record for most turnovers in a championship game?

Goal oriented: Coach Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears before his team lost to Houston Monday night, extending a losing streak to six games and falling to 4-9:

“This is a team effort to be lousy. This is a consortium. Everybody has pitched in, and we’ve finally reached the pinnacle.”

Not yet.

Fat farm: Paul Hornung, former Green Bay Packer star, commenting on the Packers’ need for offensive linemen: “You find some big, fat guys, and that’s your offensive line. That’s all you need.”

Tongue twister: From Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe: “Wouldn’t Alaa Abdelnaby be a great clue for ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ especially if you weren’t allowed to buy a vowel?”

Gooey game: The San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins, 27-3, Sunday on a muddy field in Candlestick Park, and 49er tight end Jamie Williams took note of the conditions.

“With eight or nine minutes left, you could feel the field getting softer and softer,” Williams told C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle. “The mud was finding its way through your facemask and down your pants--places where mud isn’t supposed to go.”

Does mud have an itinerary?

Priorities: Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight told Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe why he isn’t interested in coaching in the NBA:

“I haven’t seen an entire NBA game since (John) Havlicek quit playing. I may have seen a half here and there, but that’s it. It’s just not for me. The season is too long. It would cut into my fishing and screw up my hunting. (College coaching) is perfect for me.”

Fresh start: A small footnote to football comeback history was recorded in 1954, when the USC freshman team trailed California’s freshmen at halftime in the Coliseum, 27-0.

Final score: USC 34, Cal, 27.

Trivia answer: Magic Johnson, with 10 against Philadelphia on May 14, 1980.

Quotebook: Laker forward James Worthy when former teammate Mychal Thompson stopped by the locker room recently: “Here’s a mouth from the past.”