The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 47

The Miami Herald Friday Aug 71987 Commentary Football in London: Coaches can stay out Scott Ostler Los Angeles Times nity suit with guns and large sums of money involved they must have thought it was Christmas morning During Wimbledon the tabloids turned Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker into raving sex maniacs simply because each had a girlfriend One shudders to think what the tabloids will do with Dickerson who might have more than one female pal I would advise Eric not to get too chummy with Princess Di or Boy George The game if the Rams make it that far will be the easy part English sports fans are not hard to please They are geared to the pace of cricket the intensity of darts and the scoring and body contact of soccer To these action-starved fans an NFL game even a sloppy lackluster practice game will look like World War III on fast-forward I just hope the grueling ordeal of a week in London knock the Rams out of kilter for the entire season a tough place to open but you have to admire the civility and charm of a country that allow football coaches in its truck stops lousy tourists Last season Robinson took them to New Orleans a week early for a game with the Saints He figured the week away from home would be relaxing for the troops If the Rams had relaxed any more they would have needed headstones The Saints beat 6-0 London can be even more relaxing than New Orleans In fact when it comes to fun times and fast lanes London makes New Orleans look like Dubuque Weakened by the normal tourist activities and a training-table diet of cucumber sandwiches with the crusts trimmed off the Rams will be too drained to fight off the local media tabloid reporters a small army of persistent newsh-ounds often referred to as the beastie boys work so hard at digging up scoops that they often hit themselves on their heads with shovels These journalists have been swarming around Eric Dickerson quizzing him about his personal life The tab boys love sex and scandal angles and when they learned that Eric was mixed up in a pater coaches are not welcome unless booked in advance The part not sure about That probably means football coaches are admitted only when handcuffed and accompanied by a bobby How this anti-coach sentiment came about 1 know Maybe Woody Hdyes passed this way years ago and roughed up a motorist or two All 1 know is this sign is a bad omen for John Robinson and his crew of coaches In a city beset by terrorists and tourists the only species of human not welcome at a truck stop is the football coach Maybe because the English people know about football coaches Even truck stops have dress codes and what proprietor wants his greasy spoon overrun by beefy guys wearing bright polyester shorts and double-knit team-logo golf shirts? Also football coaches tend to doodle on napkins tablecloths and wallpaper Imagine John Madden terrorizing an English roadside diner by violently diagramming plays using squirt jars of ketchup and The Los Angeles Rams are making a serious mistake opening their exhibition season in London Apparently they had no choice They wanted to play in a city where their quarterbacks be booed and Rangoon have a suitable stadium In some ways however London can be tougher than Anaheim John Robinson will be in for a rocky trip certainly 1 was in London recently covering a lawn tennis tournament and I happened to notice a road sign It read Coaches Not Admitted (Unless Booked in Advance)' The sign was posted at the entrance to a roadside rest-and-snack area a truck stop basically about an hour north of London Somebody at the rest area told me the sign had something to do with soccer buses but 1 ruled out that explanation What possible connection could there be between football coaches and soccer buses? None of the football coaches I know even likes soccer No the meaning rang clear Football mustard Yes these people have been tipped off about coaches English people are generally jolly and just about any football coach will put a quick damper on a rollicking happy hour at the neighborhood pub Coaches are chronic worriers passing along their pessimistic thoughts in the form of cliches Ask a football coach how his summer vacation was and say really know until I look at the What does all this mean? not sure but I think there is an indication here that the Rams have pitched camp in a hostile climate If the English people like football coaches how will they react to interior linemen? Or football radio-TV announcers? Besides don't forget the Rams are Wallace Matthews Newsday return sidetracked by WBA rankings Marvelous Marvin Hagler apparently has decided to fight again but he will have to wait behind Mike McCallum for a shot at one of the middleweight crowns he held for more than seven years Hagler who recently returned from a vacation was persuaded last week to take a fight possibly against Iran Barkley of New York for the vacant World Boxing Association title At that time Barkley was ranked No 2 and Hagler No 3 making them the two leading available contenders No 1-ranked Juan Roldan is expected to meet Thomas Hearns Oct 29 for the vacant World Boxing Council title provided Hearns gives up his light-heavyweight title Promoter Bob Arum said that the Hagler-Barkley fight was about for December on Home Box Office Then came the August WBA ratings which upset the whole thing This week the WBA junior middleweight title will be vacated and former champion McCallum will be installed as the No 1-rated middleweight Suddenly the two leading available contenders are not Barkley and Hagler but Barkley and McCallum The volatile Arum who has promotional contracts with Hagler Barkley Hearns and Roldan but not McCallum went through the roof going to sue everyone in he raged never fought a middleweight in his life How does he get a No 1 ranking? This is a conspiracy to mess up my fight looking at a major major lawsuit millions of Jimmy Binns the legal counsel was amused by Arum's threat can Arum possibly complain about McCallum being ranked No 1 when the WBA made John Mugabi a junior middleweight the No 1 contender so he could fight Hagler (an Arum-promoted fight last year? Mugabi was never even a world champion" Binns said is just trying to play every angle He wants only fighters he promotes to hold all three middleweight The battle between Arum and the WBA has left Hagler and his managers Pat and Goody Petronelli perplexed and disappointed The Petronellis have had enough trouble trying to persuade the disgruntled Hagler to forget about a rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard and just fight for one of the three vacant titles Now got to explain to him that been bypassed in the rankings by a fighter who has never beaten a 160-pounder "We were close to fighting Pat Petronelli said finally convinced Marvin to do it Now we know what to do just politics all over again I mean let them be fair about this Marvin Hagler deserves better than Analyzing the drug problem Cheaters will find out that new methods will catch them Stan Hochman Philadelphia Daily News knock the heavyweights become fashionable to knock the heavyweights but what other division currently has as many talented fighters among its top 10? After Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks the No 3 heavyweight probably is Tony Tucker who gave an excellent showing against Tyson despite a hand injury that caused him to stop using his right in sparring 10 days before the bout Then there are Tyrell Biggs Carl Williams and even Tim Witherspoon who began his comeback Tuesday night with a first-round KO over Mark Wills Obviously good fights are out there if the co-managers of Tyson want to make them Tyson and Biggs are supposed to fight Oct 16 although the fight is unsigned After that instead of potentially entertaining fights such as Tyson-Spinks Tyson-Williams Tyson-Witherspoon or even a Tyson-Tucker rematch it appears boxing fans will be forced to suffer the likes of Tyson-Francesco Damiani Tyson-Carlos DeLeon or Tyson-Frank Bruno There has even been talk of heaven forbid 269-pound James Broad as a Tyson opponent next year possibly in Japan co-managers Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs use the phrase as an excuse to match Tyson with these hopeless non-entities and as a way to punish Spinks for pulling out on the unification tournament But in the end the boxing fan is being punished your younger days and how you felt indestructible Young people feel they can do things because of their exceptional physical status Bias is a great example of that what about that pitcher Joe Niekro? a mature professional athlete hunting for the competitive edge even if it apparently means Sometimes the competitive edge comes in strange packaging It that long ago that an American swimmer lost an Olympic medal by using a prescribed antihistamine for a sinus problem that happened to contain a small amount of a banned chemical Now the Olympic folks test for hundreds of substances that fall into five classifications: Stimulants including the common legal cold medications as well as the real stuff like cocaine Narcotic analgesics such as codeine Anabolic steroids like testosterone Beta blockers that include Valium and other tranquilizers snicker for years the shooters depended upon them) Diuretics They are even prepared for the latest craze inhaling steroids Staying one grim step ahead of the chemists Competitors here need not bother to bring civil liberties lawyers testing programs are protected and fall under constitutional rights" Dr Voy explained "because a privilege to participate under the rules of a private organization such as the Olympic Committee athletes are fully aware they are subject to testing They are asked to sign a consent form that states they are subject to testing simply protects our point of view in regards to fair competition "As far as invasion of privacy there are programs that drag kids out of bed in the middle of the night for urine tests That's a different About 95 percent of the American athletes were tested when they qualified for the Pan American team The first three finishers and another athlete chosen randomly after each event will be tested here Tune in Watch the finest athletes run and jump and throw without any stuff trashing through their veins If any jerks are in the field rest assured they will get caught INDIANAPOLIS know how this is going to sound" Dr Robert Voy hedged Wednesday say it anyway born-again non-drug-user is not a good signal carrier to our young people a successful athlete to talk to young people and say these are the mistakes I made The kids are sitting there sneering and saying but you still made it to the and a dangerous signal" Dr Voy would not suggest Dwight Gooden or Keith Hernandez for your next high school assembly Len Bias will not be making public appearances any time soon And if that line smacks of bad taste compare it to linebacker Lawrence confession in a $1995 book that he used crack before ball games in 1985 and borrowed urine from teammates to make a mockery of testing a terrible thing to say" Dr Voy grumbled "Now what? Get up before a high school audience? "They'll turn him off quicker than anything be saying but you be where you are McLain the (former) Villanova basketball player his statements were unbelievable how he was able to play while doing drugs you see kids saying he used that and he made it to the No American athlete competing in the Pan American Games that start Saturday will use stuff of any sort if Dr Voy can help it He is working this gig as the boxing squad physician but he is based at the US Olympic headquarters in Colorado Springs where he has been fighting the good fight against drug use by athletes These games are an anniversary of sorts Four years ago in Caracas the airport looked like the beach scene from Jaws with American athletes stampeding home rather than face drug testing Of the athletes who stayed 15 medal winners were disqualified for flunking tests that had suddenly caught up with the cheaters mostly anabolic steroid gulpers elite athlete" Dr Voy said so much of his lifestyle his education for the sport And to have him cheated by some jerk using performance-enhancing drugs is No jerk will go unpunished here Dr Ron Blankenbaker co-chairman of medical services for the organizing group warns the athletes that the equipment can find the smallest trace of a banned drug He compares it to being able to detect a teaspoon of sugar in a swimming pool of water says Dr John Baenziger of the testing lab a teaspoon in a pool talking about a little less than one part per million "We detect up to one part per billion for some Bad stuff is bad stuff no matter how tiny the amount and Dr Voy has done his part in bringing drug detection a million miles from the Caracas scene "I look at the '83 Games as a milestone" he said "Our first real attempt to stem abuse Prior to that the technology used was not accurate enough to be dependable "It was about time we had something accurate dependable results that would hold up in court we done it then by now sports would simply be the best that chemistry could buy be watching chemical robots and not innate normal human beings giving their all in feats of athletic prowess by developing a means to control the abuse of substances that became a means of gaining their attention for educational programs "That's what drug testing is all about Without the testing not able to get everybody's attention "Since '83 the athletes accept the results as accurate the sanctions fair We run a police action not out to hang athletes one of our athletes tests positive offered an education program given disciplinary action and very little else There is no public disgrace" Most of our elite athletes can read The papers are full of horror stories about what steroids do to your vital parts as you grow older Why then do some of our elite athletes continue to use steroids? the competitive Dr Voy sighed them the competitive edge is worth it Because the rewards seem worth it athletes are heroes In some countries they are indeed folk heroes They think the chance is worth it being young peoplrj think about High ratings for Tyson-Tucker The Tyson-Tucker fight got the second-highest rating of any fight in the 10-bout HBO heavyweight unification series trailing only the April 1986 Larry Holmes-Michael Spinks rematch With a 21 rating Tyson-Tucker was seen in about 3 million of 15 million homes It was a bust at the box office however with only about 5- 000 tickets sold George Foreman takes on the toughest fight of his comeback when he meets unbeaten Orlin Norris Sept 12 at an undetermined location Heavyweight Michael Bent was voted captain of the US boxing team that will compete in the Pan American Games in Indianapolis Who says promoters always use up fighters and then drop them when they get beaten? Former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval is into his second year as a publicist for Bob Arum after his frightening knockout loss to Gaby Canizales in March 1986 Sandoval will work camp for the Hearns fight Former WBA junior lightweight champ Rocky Lockridge goes after Barry International Boxing Federation title Sunday in London i.