The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 284

nr I THURSDAY JANUARY 19 1989 4U THE MIAMI HERALD SUPER NOTEBOOK Memories keep them going By CURT BROWN Knight Ridder News Serv ice the Super Bowl of big names Joe Montana Jerry Rice Paul Brown Boomer Esiason Bill Walsh also the Super Bowl of two little names Andre Horn and Larry Clark You find them on depth charts In fact Horn and Clark have been dead for two years now Horn 21 was shot 19 times before his throat was slashed in a drug-related slaying in Fresno Calif Clark 49 suffered a massive heart attack ending a life punctuated by heroin and alcohol addiction Yet their memories are very much alive the minds of Cincinnati fullbacks Ickey Woods and Stanley Wilson Woods and Wilson are the one-two goal-line punch of high-scoring offense scored five of the six playoff touchdowns Quietly behind his flowing hair fabled shuffle and burgeoning endorsements Ickey Woods is dedicating his Super Bowl to Horn was my best friend and college buddy and he was murdered before my senior Woods said changed me Me and my home boy talked about getting to the Super Bowl one They made it Sort of going to dedicate this game in his Woods said going to do it for both of us because I was able to make it and he able to make it so do it for This is the darker side of the otherwise sweet saga of Ickey Woods the thundering sequel to Earl Campbell who took the football world by storm this season with 18 touchdowns and that silly dance Woods groaned Tuesday when the umpteenth reporter jabbed a microphone into his face and said: once again the origins of the I was kid growing up see Butch Johnson shoot imaginary six-shooters all over the place after touchdowns so I said: when I get up there let me devise and I came up with this crazy little dance and it caught Until he met the late Larry Clark was in the treatment program with me and I ended up living with him and his wife in their apartment in Wilson said The two had nothing in common Nothing besides an appetite for destructive drugs the thing about the program You meet everyone from sanitation workers to lawyers to movie Wilson said Clark was a 49-year-old red-neck hillbilly from the hills of Kentucky with a funny Wilson was a street kid from Los Angeles The pair did share one trait They were survivors Clark had three open-heart surgeries before his fatal attack been in the program 10 years and while I had one specific problem cocaine Larry had been through everything from heroin to Wilson said Wilson shudders when people bring up the names of three athletes Len Bias Don Rogers and David Croudip whose deaths where linked to cocaine guys did nowhere near as much as I Wilson said With help Wilson stayed clean for a year Then his friend died and another relapse began was my best Wilson said was like a brother and like a father to me It was the first healthy relationship I ever had in my whole life and when he died it was tough and it really bothered Eighteen months ago Wilson checked into a Los Angeles hospital He has been clean ever since grateful to be alive and everything else is a Wilson said Most of all grateful to Clark made a big mention of it but been dedicating my whole season to That season ends Sunday when the big names take the field for the big game Somewhere between the ear holes of two striped helmets however the little names of Andre Horn and Larry Clark will take the field as well on like He groaned again when pressed for details on the Ickey Meets Mickey deal rumored to be coming out of Disney World In truth however Woods mind all the silly questions easier to talk about than his background a ghetto upbringing Fresno one of the prettiest Woods said was tough man and I want to get into But he forget hearing about murder and seeing his bullet-riddled body the coffin at his funeral home just said: up get Woods said want to believe Indeed there is more to Ickey Woods than a nickname and a two-step living a lot better Woods said surprised and stunned to go from where been to the Super Bowl my rookie He nearly as surprised to be here as Wilson the other bull the backfield Wilson was suspended from the National Football League last season when his urine sample showed traces of cocaine Again In all Wilson has been cocaine treatment five times which cost him 2 Vi prime years of his career not to mention his marriage to his high school sweetheart The Bengals first suspended Wilson at the end of the 1984 season and sent him to the Hazelden Foundation been in and out of football and treatment ever since Every Monday Wednesday and Friday they recheck urine Another flunked drug test probably would get him banned year ago at this time I weighed about 255 said Wilson now at 215 even thinking about football when the Bengals called me I was just trying to stay Which easy cocaine was like a slow Wilson said was almost like a sense I had a death wish to kill myself I want to experience death but it was such a slow process like someone pulling your toenails off It was really 1 1 Associated Press No big deal 49ers linebacker Bill Romanowski walks along the dock after the Waverunner he was riding on had to be towed in Tuesday Romanowski collided with another Waverunner on the Blue Lagoon near the headquarters at the Airport Hilton Associated press JRS parking arrangements revised for game From Herald Staff and Wire Reports The NFL released revised parking arrangements Tuesday for game at Joe Robbie Stadium Fans traveling in cars or campers are advised to enter parking lots 5 or 6 by using Northwest 27th Avenue from the north and south then turning into the stadium on Northwest 199th or 203rd streets There is a $10 fee for cars and a $50 fee for the recreational vehicles Lots open at noon Traffic on 199 Street from the east will be allowed only for fans with parking permits Permit holding buses and hmos will be the only ones allowed to use the Florida's Turnpike exits Limo and bus permits for the lots at gates 1 and 2 on the east side of the stadium are available through the Greater Miami Host Committee at 4770 Biscayne Blvd Bus permits cost $75 limo permits $50 Call 375-6800 Game-day employees will park at Calder Race Course and be shuttled to the stadium Betting big business in Britain Betting on the Super Bowl is big business in Britain where expanding interest American football has whetted the national appetite for wagering British bookmakers say they will take in more than 2 million pounds or $35 million on the game That pales comparison to bets on major soccer matches and horse races but is a huge jump from the paltry sums wagered on the Super Bowl just three years ago you mentioned a spread a few years ago people would have thought you were talking about said Randy Haynes an odds consultant for one of the many legal betting parlors England public awareness of American football has Haynes said three years my clientele for football has increased from 50 to 500 absolutely gone through the Spurred by increasing fan sophistication about football and live television coverage of the Super Bowl Haynes and other bookmakers are offering bets ranging from the halftime score to who will score the first touchdown are familiar with names such as San Francisco receiver Jerry Rice and running back Roger Craig so looking to transform some of their knowledge into said Haynes who took $885 on the Super Bowl 1986 and is handling about $53000 this year Some bettors are putting down money on the total points Haynes is offering 5000-to-l odds to anyone willing to wager there will be more than 121 points scored a bet for which there have been no takers and others are simply making up their wagers this is through somebody will ask for a bet on San Francisco to win by a certain margin for Rice to score first and Cincinnati to get six Haynes said try to give him a Bookmaker Angus Hamilton is offering a plan similar to the stock market which clients buy on the total number of points and then make or lose money depending on how far off For example a bettor wagers 10 pounds ($18) on the Bengals and 49ers to combine for 46 points If they total 56 points he wins 10 pounds for each point above 46 and grabs a profit of 100 pounds But if they score only 36 points he loses 100 pounds form of betting appeals to the sort of mathematical people The Thatchente economy has created people in this country who like to deal with said Hamilton who ranks the Super Bowl second only to Wimbledon as a revenue producer for his agency Largent to receive Bart Starr Trophy Steve Largent the most prolific receiver in NFL history will be the first recipient of the Bart Starr Trophy to be awarded at 830 Saturday at the Athletes ActionFellowship of Christian Athletes Super Bowl Breakfast at the Fontainebleau Hilton Largent is the all-time leader in pass receptions (791) receiving yards (12686) 1000-yard seasons (8) and consecutive games with a pass reception (167) Largent a 13-year NFL veteran is involved in the FCA Pro Athletes Outreach United Way Hospital United Cerebral Palsy March of Dimes and the Spina Bifida Foundation 49ers will win in Salary Bowl While every conceivable matchup between the two teams is being scrutinized one that the 49ers win handily the salary matchup Known as one of the best-paying teams in the NFL San Francisco has nearly a $35000 per man edge on offense and a whopping $62000 average lead on defense The average salary for the 49ers starting 11 on offense is $386583 compared to $351958 for the Bengals On defense San Francisco averages $266500 per starter while defensive frontliners average $204083 And you can quote me 49ers nose tackle Michael Carter who was a 1984 Olympic silver medalist the shot put on the differences in training for the two sports: football season you have to think more about conditioning and weight training as opposed to track and field which is strictly conditioning and a lot of quickness more emphasis on individualness in track and field I miss it a lot but trying to put it aside because behind me I miss the one-on-one competition the pressure placed on your shoulders because you are the event I rely on 21 other guys to help me Towel attack Yes a very big game coming up and no the players keep to work on his towel popping with fullback Tom Rathman (44) saying they have any distractions Right probably as his target why San Francisco quarterback Steve Young (8) feels he has Walsh-Wyche: Best friends and more Bill Lyon Philadelphia Irquirer This is all you need to know about the competitive nature of the two coaches who will oppose each other in Circus Maximus XXIII: For four years from 1979 through 1982 Sam Wyche was the quarterback coach for Bill Walsh at San Francisco More revealing is the fact they were sparring partners on the tennis court For them however it was anything but a game They played like Gila monsters It is said that once a Gila monster a particularly nasty and venomous desert lizard sinks its teeth into you it will not let go The only way to separate it from you is to cut off its head Bill Walsh and Sam Wyche have a lot in common with the Gila monster remember one tennis match we had the morning of a road said Wyche wincing still at the memory were going at it crazy just like usual We played until we were literally hanging from the chain link fence we were so tired But of course neither one of us would Of course won finally 29-27 something like that We crawled off We were exhausted barely made the team So maybe given the tendency of the Super Bowl to quickly deteriorate into yet one more stupefying blowout they should forgo the game string up a net at the 50 and let Walsh and Wyche go at each other Certainly no other Super Bowl has offered a coaching matchup like this one between two men so intimately familiar with each strategies and philosophies and idiosyncrasies two men so much alike in so many ways know his approach to things and he knows Walsh says There was a time not long ago when this battle of wits would have been billed as the Wit versus the Half-Wit The Genius against the Dolt Walsh has that silver-maned professorial appearance and the reputation of X-and-0 genius It nickname for Sam Wyche: Usually such reputations are irreversible and such nicknames as permanent as a vaccination scar It that Wyche was boneheaded it was that his team was visited by incomprehensible bad luck He fully expected to be fired But Paul Brown his employer who had hired him in 1984 took exactly the opposite tack The worse the Bengals had played the harder Wyche had worked Brown ordered his coach to back off to ease up to give himself a chance to breathe Henceforth the coach was told he would eat three meals a day and go home at night no more sleeping two or three fitful hours his office Given that reprieve Wyche and the Bengals have gone from tragic to magic think a lot of people that are in our position in our rung along the ladder are looking at what happened to Cincinnati where a coaching staff duress was given another chance and things did turn Wyche said think what it says is that ownership can evaluate their staff on something other than results on the scoreboard And they should Because a team does not win may not be the result of poor But the most convenient the most expedient bail-out is to get rid of the coaches Bill Walsh has no such problem His leave-taking will be at his initiative and there is every indication that it will be after this Super Bowl Typically he will not give a straight answer And despite all his protests to the contrary he will not put the issue to rest either In 10 seasons at San Francisco he has won 101 games The Niners also have been the playoffs six straight seasons a remarkable achievement this age of rampant canty iH scripting the first 25 plays in advance like a maestro marking out scores for the string section It is an image by the way that he carefully cultivates and of which he is jealously zealously protective He can be coy and cutting He will snort his derision whenever anyone brings up the word but he is not above letting it slip out oh-so-casually that this is ahem his third trip to the Super Bowl in this decade The inference is that if you absolutely positively insist on using that damned genius term well after all who is he to argue? Cough-cough At the other pole is Sam Wyche who only a year ago was universally reviled as the dumbest coach the National Football League perhaps all of football His was the Midas touch reverse Whatever stratagem he ordered up invariably was accompanied by a belching backfire and thick black smoke He called a timeout near the end of a game when the opponent had no timeouts left and the opponent won Last season the Bengals were 4-11 and each Sunday seemed to discover some new and exotic way to give away a game they had won The most humiliating the most galling loss of all occurred against mentor The Bengals were about to beat 49ers They led by 26-20 with six seconds left Facing fourth and 25 at their own 30 they eschewed the punt and attempted to run out the clock by running a sweep But the Niners stuffed that play before it ever really got started frantically called time with two seconds left and then Joe Montana hit Jerry Rice for a touchdown From those ashes was created a devastating 1 i A i.