The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 43

3ORT Cos Angeles (Times San Diego County cc p.iit in Tuesday, December 16, 1986 Mi.in.i.j,. iiyjii. Jim Murray Suddenly, It's Turning Into a Crapshoot ell, let's see, the playoffs. Football's answer to Ml United Press International John Williams (right) and attorney Joel Loeffel-holz wore smiles after mistrial was declared. JOHN WILLIAMS AFTER THE SCANDAL -TV He's Finally Putting Pieces Back Together Rookie Wants to Work Hard, Be Family Man, Trust No One By GORDON EDES, Times Staff Writer Joiner Stood Idle as Streak Came to End By MARC APPLEMAN, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO-If the Chargei-s' game against Seattle Sunday proves to be Charlie Joiner's last at home, Coach Al Saunders will have second thoughts about having kept him on the sidelines.

"In retrospect, if it was in fact Charlie's last game at home, I wish he would have gotten in," Saunders said Monday. Joiner, the NFL's all-time leader in receptions with 747 and receiving with 12,121 yards, spent the game in uniform. And on the sidelines. Despite breaking a bone in his right hand against Houston the week before, Joiner, 39, practiced last week and was able to play Sunday, according to Joiner, Saunders and Charger trainer Mark Howard. Yet, he did not play a single down.

His 194 regular-season consecutive-game streak, dating back to Nov. 25, 1973, with the Bengals, ended. "That the streak and last possible home game) was never a thought that crossed anybody's mind," Saunders said. "I didn't think of it." In typical Joiner fashion, he was not critical of the decision to keep him on the sidelines. After the game, Joiner did admit to being "disappointed" at not getting to play, according to a San Diego newspaper.

But when reached at home Monday, on the players' day off, Joiner said: "I wasn't thinking about the streak Raiders may be out of the playoff picture before they even start play on Sunday. See Mark Heisler's story, Page 7. or that it might be my last game. I can't make personal concessions when you are trying to win the ballgame. You have to stick to the team concept." Joiner has a one-year contract and there has been speculation (again) that he will retire after the season.

Don't tell that to Joiner, who has caught 31 passes this season. "I haven't told anyone I'm retiring," Joiner said. "That's just speculation on the part of reporters. I'll be ready for next year." And he was "ready if they called me" Sunday. "It wasn't a conscious effort to play any individual at one time," Saunders said.

"The way the game was going, there wasn't a need for substitutions." Saunders said that wide receiver Trumaine Johnson was playing well, the Chargers did not have the ball much in the second half, Joiner's practice time with the first team was limited last week and that Joiner had trouble cradling the ball. However, the Chargers repeatedly said last week that Joiner was practicing and would be able to play against Seattle. "You have to realize the man has a broken hand," Saunders said. "But there was no problem with him playing if he had to play." Said Joiner: "It's difficult standing up and catching the ball in practice), but when you are in a game you forget about the hand and just catch the ball." Said Saunders: "I was surprised that it didn't work out that he'd play. But he wasn't involved in the play selection and personnel that went in the game.

That's the way it came up. I didn't consciously think of that and offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese must not have." Saunders said he plans to play Joiner in the season Please see JOINER, Page 9 The Raiders can get in if about eight teams lose and there's a star in the East and if Jupiter and Uranus are in juxtaposition in the heavens in the fourth house of Capricorn. Don't count Cincinnati, Seattle, New England, Kansas City, L.A. or Miami out. Hey, sports fans, how about a Miami-San Francisco Super Bowl? Don't laugh.

It's possible. Miami, which was once 1-4 in the league with one loss 28-50 and another 45-51, and two other losses in which it surrendered more than 30 points it's given up 30 or more points seven times this year is still alive after seven losses. San Francisco, which has lost to the Rams, Vikings, Giants, Redskins and Saints (Saints!) and been tied by Atlanta (Atlanta!) is safely there. I think the crapshoot nature of the NFL playoff picture quite illustrates the lunacy of college football trying to promote a tournament to decide one ultimate winner each year. Here you have the controlled environment of only 28 teams and you get anarchy at the win window.

How do you know you get a "champion" anyway? Suppose the Chicago Bears win it again? The only place they will have played a quality AFC team will be in the Super Bowl, assuming a quality AFC team wins its way there. Their schedule will have included games against Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Houston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas and Atlanta, the registered doormats of the game. They managed to miss the Giants, Washington and 49ers in their own conference and any of the tough Western Division teams Broncos, Raiders, Sea-hawks in the other. STEVE DYKES For The Times Doing now what he does best for Cavaliers, Williams (18) goes hard to the boards in a game against the Clippers. I "I think Hot Rod can be outstanding in this league," Cleveland Coach Len- ny Wilkens said.

"He's like a complete player. He plays both ends of the floor. "He rebounds for you, blocks shots, i plays without the ball. He can score, he 1 can give it up pass, and he can run the court. Our feeling here is, 'Let him get on with the rest of his life.

That other stuff is over and done with. Let's move RICHFIELD, Ohio The man, carrying a bag of Halloween candy, approached the patio table where John Williams and his 3-year-old son, John were sitting in a local Holiday Inn. Smiling, the man extended the bag of candy to the child, who shook his head and said no. John Williams nodded approvingly. "I'm teaching my kids that you don't take nothin' from nobody," John Williams said Monday, recounting the incident.

That lesson takes on an added urgency, and poignancy, when you have been accused of being on the take. John (Hot Rod) Williams has been. On March 26, 1985, he was arrested on sports bribery charges and accused of being part of a point-shaving conspiracy. Eventually, criminal charges were brought against eight people. Tulane University suspended its basketball program.

And John Williams, who had envisioned a future in the NBA, instead was facing jail in Louisiana. It took 15 months and one mistrial, but Williams was retried last June and acquitted of all charges. And the NBA, which had refused to let him play last season, after he had been drafted in the second round by the Cleveland Cavaliers, was satisfied by the verdict and restored his eligibility. "I knew it was going to come," said Williams, who played two summers of minor league basketball while his life was in limbo. "It was just going to take time." It has taken no time at all for the 6-foot 11-inch, 230-pound power forward to establish himself as one of the league's most talented rookies on a team full of first-year players.

The Cavaliers have five. Going into tonight's game against the Lakers, Williams is the Cavaliers' second-leading scorer with a 16.3-point average, and leads them with 8.5 rebounds a game and 44 blocked shots. His first time in Madison Square Garden, he scored 26 points and took down 18 rebounds. Against the Boston Celtics, he made two key free throws in the closing seconds of a Cleveland win. Last Saturday night, he blocked six shots in a win over Philadelphia.

John Williams and his wife, Neicy, have two children, John Jr. and John-francis. Why the similarity in names? "I want my boys to have my name," Williams said. "I want them to know who their father is. "I know how hard it is to grow up without a father.

I couldn't leave my kids for nothin'. "I care for my kids. Nothing in the world can make me split from them." In Sorrento, a tiny Louisiana town about 50 miles northwest of New Orleans, Williams was born to a mother who died when he was 7 months old. Please see WILLIAMS, Page 7 Hoy to Receive Jail Sentence Today By TOM FRIEND, Times Staff Writer Temple Too Much for UCLA A mK. to i sincere effort to try to put the whole thing into a perspective that will make some kind of sense." The felony charges from Hoyt's arrest were reduced to misdemeanors as part of a plea bargain, and Hoyt agreed to spend 60 days to a year in jail.

Hoyt, who turns 32 on Jan. 1, has been arrested three times in the last year three times for possession of marijuana and twice for possession of Valium tablets. The Please see HOYT, Page 2 baseball, will soon decide Hoyt's future in the game. "See, there's going to be a lot of facts that will be able to come out after the sentencing," Frank said Monday. "And the facts will be helpful for anyone about to make a decision concerning LaMarr.

There will be some things we'll present to the court which I hope will help the court to have a better appreciation of LaMarr's situation. "I'm not sure the facts will be that enlightening, but it'll be our SAN DIEGO-LaMarr Hoyt, the Padre pitcher arrested for transporting illegal drugs into the United States last October, will be sentenced today in U.S. District Court here. Hoyt and his attorney, Howard Frank, will be entitled to read statements at the sentencing in front of U.S. Magistrate Roger Curtis McKee.

Frank says his statement will be of some consequence, particularly because Peter Ueberroth, the commissioner of Baseball used to have the ideal setup for choosing its all-world team. The game had 16 teams, 8 to a league, and each team played each other team in its league precisely 22 times, 11 at home and 11 on the road. Its championship series was a seven-game test. Its champion never had a strong odor of Gorgon-zola rising from it. Expansion has watered that down to an extent.

An intra-league playoff of only five games was deemed too inconclusive a test after 162 games and was lengthened to seven. The point is, football cannot be that meticulous in its choosing of champions. Given the nature of the beast, it cannot define its final winner down to a scientific certainty. But while I'm on the subject, there is one thing it can do to cut the cards and make the deal more honest. It can do away with the overtime field goal.

That is an abomination that makes a mockery of the 60 minutes of tug-and-strain and cerebral football that has preceded it. Field goals in the 40-to-50 yard range today are as routine as tap-in putts. That means the coin flip determines about 10 out of 10 overtime games. The receiving team has only to advance the ball to a little past midfield to lock up the victory. There is a large body of thought that holds that the "sudden death" complex for the fifth-quarter games is wrong to begin with.

Unless both teams get a possession, it is an inconclusive outcome for a game, at best. At worst, it is unfair. In this day of "nickel back" defenses and "prevent" formations, it is no trick at all for a skilled quarterback to negotiate half a football field in overtime. When seven backs peel back at the snap of the ball and begin running toward their own goal line, the quarterback can help himself to seven yards at a crack, maybe more if he calls a running play. Please tee MURRAY, Page 6 LaMarr Hoyt Anchorage the Chosen By THOMAS BONK, Times Staff Writer PHILADELPHIA The UCLA Bruins discovered their Temple of Doom, all right, and they didn't have to look very far to find it, either.

Maybe the Bruins are on their way back to national prominence like they say, but early this morning, they were merely on their way back to Los Angeles. They are carrying with them the awful truth that to be prominent again, they are going to have to play a lot smarter than they did in Monday night's 76-65 loss to the Temple Owls. In just three short days, the Bruins are clearly back down to Earth. After opening the season with three wins, they suddenly seem confused about something as elementary as attacking a zone defense. "Now, people will think the North Carolina game was a fluke," center Greg Foster said.

So it is a slightly disturbed UCLA team that limps home carrying back-to-back losses and all the emotional baggage that goes along with it. Please see UCLA, Page 4 City for Olympic Bid Other 1994 Candidates Bypassed By RANDY HARVEY, Times Staff Writer Officials from Reno-Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake City and Portland, did not exactly disagree that Anchorage has the best chance of any U.S. city to win the bid for the 1994 Winter Olympics. But they might have if given the opportunity. In designating an official candidate, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) last month voted not only to support Anchorage but to do so without hearing proposals from other interested cities.

Given a choice between the democratic process and political expediency, the USOC chose the latter. USOC President Robert Helmick preferred to call the decision logical. Not even the losers denied that, although their understanding Please see ANCHORAGE, Page 6 These Pioneers Nearly Pulled It Off By BUD GREENSPAN One evening before you sit down to watch television and have nothing better to do, pour yourself some champagne or beer and raise your glass in a toast to a group of Alaskans who did America proud in Lausanne, Switzerland, last fall. There, this contingent of more than 100 men and women from Anchorage, most of whom paid their own way to Lausanne, showed the high rollers and deal makers from six other cities bidding for the 1992 Winter Olympic Games what talent, pride and courage are all about They brought tears to the eyes of those of us who on rare occasions think back to the noble pioneers who prevailed at Valley Forge and survived the awful trek over the desolate plains to Calif ornia when America was young. Please see PEOPLE, Page 6 7 rK Morning Briefing Page 2 Scott Ostler's Column 3 College Basketball 4 USIU Basketball 4 TheBQC 7 The Day in Sports 8-9 Walden to Coach at Iowa State Washington State football Coach Jim Walden is moving to Iowa State, saying the school's commitment to sports has won him over.

Please see Page 5. Bears Defeat Lions Kevin Butler kicks a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the game as the Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 16-13. Please see Page 2..