It Was an Era in Which Honesty Wasn’t Always the Best Policy

Discussing the New York Jets’ victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, which he “guaranteed” victory before the game, former Jet quarterback Joe Namath told Mike Lupica in Esquire magazine that such boldness was more extraordinary then than it is now.

“It was the times,” Namath said. “I can remember when (Muhammad) Ali told everybody he was going to beat (Sonny) Liston that first fight, and everybody thought he was nuts. We can laugh about it now, but at the time I came along, honesty was unheard of in sports. You gave your honest opinion about things, and it just automatically rubbed people the wrong way.”

Add honesty: Football coaches always have been reluctant to praise the ability of their teams, lest they inspire an opponent to greater effort. But Bob Shannon, coach at East St. Louis (Ill.) High, believes if you’ve got the talent, flaunt it.

“Last year’s team wasn’t very good,” Shannon said of a 13-1 squad that was runner-up in the state playoffs. And this year’s team? “This is a typical championship-caliber East St. Louis team,” he said before the playoffs began.

The Flyers beat Thornton, 55-8, to win the Class 6-A championship. They finished 14-0.

Trivia time: Since baseball’s most-valuable-player awards began in 1931, each winner has been back with his club the next year. Three MVPs were with new clubs two years after winning the award. Who were they?

Nadia’s theme: The story of Nadia Comaneci’s romance with Konstantin Panait, the married man who helped her defect from Romania, was good fodder for New York’s tabloids Wednesday. The Daily News played it on Page 1 with the headline: “Naughty Nadia, Romanian gymnast flips for married roofer.” The New York Post put the story on its gossip page under the heading: “Nadia leaps into arms of married man.”

Greasing the skids?In an attempt to display a light touch, Mike Lynn, general manager of the Minnesota Vikings, recently showed up in the locker room wearing a Popeye hat. He served the players fried chicken, saying it was a substitute for spinach. “One of the things players have mentioned to me is that the only time they see me is when I’m disciplining them or negotiating a contract,” Lynn said. “So I am going to be more visible when we’re not in confrontational situations.”

Into the frying pan: Dave Gavitt, commissioner of the Big East, on the genesis of the ACC-Big East Challenge this week: “Look, basketball needs sizzle in December, too. And the teams need it. They don’t like to play the U.S. Internationals all the time leading up to the league schedule.”

Add ACC: From Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun: “If all his indiscretions in the handling of the basketball program at North Carolina State didn’t get Jim Valvano canned, the slapdash show the coach hosts on ESPN should.”

Trivia answer: Orlando Cepeda, MVP with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967, played for the Braves in 1969; Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies was the MVP in 1932 and joined the Cubs in 1934; Rod Carew was MVP with the Minnesota Twins in 1977 and played for the Angels in 1979.

Quotebook: Gary Burbank of WLW radio in Cincinnati, on the new candy bar named for Bengal quarterback Boomer Esiason: “I think it comes in a sack.”