Nightmare Gives Manley a Real Scare

There are anti-drug messages, and then there are anti-drug messages. Defensive end Dexter Manley of the Phoenix Cardinals got one of the latter at 4 a.m. Monday.

Manley, recently reinstated by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue after a one-year suspension for flunking the league’s drug test a third time, told the Arizona Republic that he’d dreamed he had a cocaine relapse.

Said Manley: “That is the honest-to-God truth. I woke up and said, ‘God, I’m in the hotel. God, I’m free.’ It didn’t happen.”

By 6 a.m., Manley said, he was in the Cardinals’ training complex, meeting with team counselor Gary Mack, who told him the dream probably was brought on by the frustration he has felt because of his limited playing time since being reinstated.

Add Manley: After two weeks of practice, he made his first appearance Dec. 9 against Atlanta and was in the game for 19 plays. But against the New York Giants two weeks later, Manley was down to one play.

Teammates said he paced the sideline, sometimes screaming obscenities.

Said Manley: “I’ve never stood on the sideline that long. Never. Gary Mack saved me a couple of times. I got in a real tense way. There were times I wanted to choke (defensive coordinator) Joe Pascale.

“If it hadn’t been for (Mack), I’d have blown my cool. I don’t think I’d be here. I’d have lost control.”

Trivia time: Tonight’s Freedom Bowl marks the second bowl appearance in Colorado State’s history. On Jan. 1, 1949, the Rams lost, 21-20, in the Raisin Bowl at Fresno. Who won the game?

Absolutely, positively: From Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun: “Which game gets to your house first--the Domino’s Pizza Copper Bowl or the Federal Express Orange Bowl?”

Statue of limitations: Dennis Georgatos of the Associated Press pointed out that in the 1986 Cotton Bowl, Texas A&M; defeated Auburn and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, 36-16. In the 1987 Cotton Bowl, the Aggies defeated Notre Dame and Heisman winner Tim Brown, 35-10, and in a Southwest Conference game in 1989, they defeated Houston and Heisman winner Andre Ware, 17-13.

Texas A&M;’s lone loss to a recent Heisman winner came in 1988, when Oklahoma State and Barry Sanders beat them, 52-15.

And tonight? When Aggie Coach R.C. Slocum was asked about BYU’s Heisman quarterback, Ty Detmer, he said: “I think he’s got a little magic to him.”

Dirty air: When Rothmans, a British yacht entered in Australia’s Sydney-to-Hobart race, crosses the finish line today, it will be met by anti-smoking protestors.

The $11-million yacht, with the name of its tobacco sponsor written across the hull, has offended Australia’s anti-smoking lobby, which won a major victory Friday when a ban on cigarette advertising in newspapers and magazines went into effect.

Reuters reported that Dr. Bryan Walpole, state secretary of the Australian Medical Assn., which organized the demonstration, said Rothmans’ sponsorship was “not in keeping with sailing’s clean, fresh image.”

Under international racing rules, tobacco companies cannot be prevented from giving their names to yachts.

Trivia answer: Occidental.

Quotebook: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, listing Jim Valvano as one of his “17 reasons why college basketball is overrated”: “Coach V is never responsible when he recruits scum and the young men act like scum. Coach V gets out of Dodge City before the sun goes down, and now gets paid $900,000 to tell us how great college basketball is.”