CHICAGO BEARS vs. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS : Notes : McMahon Takes Acupuncture, Needles Bears

NEW ORLEANS —  Just in case there were any lingering doubts about who was going to dominate Super Bowl XX, Bear quarterback Jim McMahon kicked off the week by disclosing that he has a bruised rear end that will keep him out of today’s practice.

He added that he is being treated by an acupuncturist he could identify only as “Hiroshi-something.”

Hiroshi’s accreditation seems to be somewhat incomplete, since he tried to accompany McMahon here on the Bear charter and was turned back.

McMahon got his most recent treatment Monday at the Bear facility in Lake Forest, Ill., just before the team left.

“I didn’t understand much of what he said,” McMahon said. “Willie Gault met him when he was running track in Tokyo. He’s been helping treat some of our guys.

“He showed up at the airport, but they wouldn’t let him on (the Bear charter). The guy just flew in from Tokyo today.”

McMahon appeared at a press conference upon arrival, wearing a blue blazer-gray slacks outfit, designed to keep Bear brass happy. He also added chrome-frame sunglasses secured by a silver-lame cord looped around the back of his neck, and chewed gum with his mouth open, so you could tell who it was.

He said he suffered his injury in the second quarter of the Ram game when Doug Reed hit him with a helmet.

“I was limping pretty noticeably most of the time after the half,” he said. “But in that kind of a ballgame, I’m not coming out.”

Coach Mike Ditka said he hoped McMahon will be practicing by Wednesday. McMahon insisted that he’ll start Sunday, even if he doesn’t practice at all.

“I don’t plan on sittin’ this one out,” he said.

Patriot wide receiver Irving Fryar, who missed the AFC championship game with a cut finger, reportedly after a quarrel with his wife, has resumed practicing and accompanied the team here.

He said: “Irving will be full speed this week and ready to go.”

Coach Raymond Berry said Stephen Starring would start and that he will decide later how much Fryar will play. Fryar, a Pro Bowl return man, is expected to return punts.

A farewell to proportion: With two first-time Super Bowl participants competing and passions running high, scalpers are predicting a $500 ticket.

The Boston Globe asked for 23 writers’ credentials.

The Chicago Tribune sent 27 writers, editors and photographers.

A Tribune editor, while making the assignments, recalled that the paper never had more than two reporters in Vietnam, and covered the recent Geneva summit with four.

USA Today asked the Raiders’ Lyle Alzado if he’d like to be a guest columnist. Alzado said he would, but could he phone it in from Cancun, where he’d gone for a shoot?

USA Today took Dan Fouts instead.

Instant cliche: Jim McMahon wears a Blues Brothers fedora on the sidelines and the next thing you know, CBS’s Brent Musburger is wearing a similar hat on the pregame show.

McMahon wears his Rozelle headband, and the next day headbands break out all over Chicago.

They’re selling Rozelle headbands in hotel lobbies here. Eddie Andelman, a Boston radio talk-show host, did his show from here wearing a headband on which it read: “McWho?”

What happens today? Does everyone start getting acupuncture?

McMahon better not jump off a building.

Add cliches: When NBC’s Michael Weisman announced that his network will have a minute of dead air, writers in several cities asked their local utility officials if the sewer systems could hold up under a mass rush to the bathroom.

Miami Coach Don Shula, after his team committed six turnovers and gave up 255 yards rushing to the Patriots:

“I think New England, in order to beat the Bears, has to continue to do the same stuff they’ve been doing. That’s cause a lot of turnovers. The Bears are outstanding defensively. They’re not going to let anyone run on them like New England ran on us.”

Walter Payton left reporters with a couple of mysteries to ponder when he arrived with the Bears.

Noting that it will be the 20th Super Bowl, he said: “I’m glad it’s an even year.”

Asked why, he said: “It’s just a little superstition. I don’t want to get into it.”

He also declined to elaborate on a report published earlier that he was dedicating his first Super Bowl appearance to the memories of three players who died young: Joe Delaney of the Kansas City Chiefs, Brian Piccolo of the Bears and David Overstreet of the Miami Dolphins.

“They gave the ultimate--their lives,” Payton said. “Later on, I’ll talk about it.”

He will have three more days of the media blitz to talk about a lot of things, including his teammates’ wish to “win it for Walter.”

“It seems to be that way,” Payton said, sighing. “Everybody on the team says, ‘We want to win this for you.’ It makes me feel like an old man. I really feel 18 or 19 years old.”

But, like a lot of other people in town, Payton seemed to be most concerned with getting tickets for the game. He grew up in Columbia, Miss., which he said is “about 85 or 90 miles away.

“I have a lot of family in the area, so it’s going to be like home for me. We’re allotted only 20 tickets, but if I had 120 I’d still be about 40 short.”

Payton said he is getting over the flu.

“I’m fighting it off,” he said.

Probably caught it against the Rams two weeks ago.

Staff writer Rich Roberts contributed to this story.