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By Chick Ludwig
| Saturday, July 19, 2008, 03:43 PM
OR WILL HE OPEN CAN
OF ARTI-CHOKE SOUP?
Can Greg Norman hang on to his two-stroke lead and capture the 2008 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, on Sunday?
Or will he … you, know … pull a …. well, what’s called “a Norman?”
Norman, 53, is a two-time winner of the Claret Jug — his only Major championships. He has 87 professional victories, including 20 on the PGA Tour, 14 on the European Tour and 33 triumphs in Australia. He’s enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame in St Augustine, Fla.
But he’s most famous for his choke-job in the 1996 Masters at Augusta, Ga., where he blew a six-shot lead with a final-round 78 and lost to Nick Faldo.
Now “The Shark” is hunting history with an opportunity to become the older player to win a Major championship.
With rounds of 70-70-72 (212), Chrissy Evert’s husband stands alone atop the leaderboard at plus-2, having survived Birkdale’s brutal, gusting winds.
Padraig Harrington and K.J. Choi are tied for second at plus-4 with Simon Wakefield alone in fourth place at plus-5.
The last time Gregory John Norman led a Major was that fateful spring day in ‘96 when the tall Georgia pines, his wicked swing, his massive ego and his bazillionaire bank account — plus Faldo — trampled him.
Gotta feeling Chrissy Evert-Lloyd-Mill-Norman won’t be smiling on Sunday evening in the shadow of The Queen’s crib.
I look for Columbus-born Ben Curtis — who grew up in Ostrander, Ohio — to come roaring back from fifth place and add the 2008 Claret Jug to the one he captured in 2003.
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By Chick Ludwig
| Saturday, July 19, 2008, 09:00 AM
BILL WALSH’S CRY:
‘SPEAK TO ME VIRGIL!’
===LUDWIG AT LARGE salutes ex-Bengals quarterback Virgil Carter, who paid a surprise visit to training camp in 2007. Now 62, Carter owns an insurance company in LaVerne, Calif., 25 miles east of Los Angeles. His firm writes malpractice insurance for 1,500 chiropractors in California.===
Alone in his third-floor dormitory room at Wilmington College in 1971, Bengals quarterback Virgil Carter was awakened by smoke and fire at midnight.
Teammates had sprinkled gunpowder onto aluminum foil, lit it and slid it under Carter’s door. Worse, they had wedged pennies in the doorjamb so Carter couldn’t get out. It’s called getting “pennyed in.”
“When that gunpowder flashes and you’re in a deep sleep and then you see this smoke, the first thing you think is the place has blown up,” Carter told LUDWIG AT LARGE. “And then you start realizing, no, that’s not the problem. The problem is I can’t get out and I have to go to the bathroom.
“There I am, three floors up, it’s the middle of the night, you don’t have your clothes on and you’re hanging out the window gasping for air and needing to go to the latrine. More so than the smoke, it was the need to use the rest room that was prevented.”
Eventually, after what Carter called “a good 30 to 40 minutes,” assistant coach Bill Walsh came to his rescue.
“Bill came running up,” center Bob Johnson said. “He didn’t realize Virgil was pennyed in, and he starts pounding on the door because there was all this smoke. He was saying, ‘Virgil, Virgil, are you in there? Speak to me Virgil!’
“Finally, they got him un-pennyed and Virgil crawled back in the window. I’m sure it was semi-dangerous. Of course, we all thought it was hysterical watching Bill pound on that door thinking that his starting quarterback was passed out from smoke inhalation.”
Carter, who had joined the team in 1970 via trade from Buffalo, wasn’t upset.
“Oh, no,” he said. “It was just part of training camp distractions. The fact that they would pick me, and I wasn’t a rookie, boded well that they accepted me.”
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By Chick Ludwig
| Friday, July 18, 2008, 11:40 AM
CRAZY, BUT TRUE
===Bob Trumpy, a Cincinnati Bengals tight end and wide receiver from 1968-77, tells this beauty … but won’t reveal his teammate’s name for obvious reasons.===
“We’re at practice. We’re between plays. I noticed this player doing curls, then military presses, more curls, butterflies and then more curls over the next several plays.
“When the offensive period was over, I asked him what he was doing. His response was, ‘That Nautilus stuff is sure making me strong.’
“I asked, ‘How do you know?’
“He said, ‘These footballs feel a lot lighter than 13 pounds.’
“He showed me the little notation by the air hole on the ball.
“It read: INFLATE TO 13 LBS.”
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By Chick Ludwig
| Friday, July 18, 2008, 04:28 AM
DON’T EXPECT BENGALS
TO RE-SIGN CHRIS HENRY
===LUDWIG AT LARGE’S gut feeling is the Bengals will not re-sign Chris Henry. He’s a fine receiver, but the club chose to release him on April 3, and it should stick to it. Henry is a good guy — when he’s in the locker room. But when he’s outside that sanctuary, history shows that trouble seems to follow him. He needs a fresh start. Unfortunately for Bengals fans, Henry’s fresh start could be in Baltimore, Cleveland or Pittsburgh.===
So I dial up Chris Henry’s agent, Marvin Frazier, from the comfort of the Miamisburg War Room on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., and he tells me that Chris is “doing great,” That several teams have contacted him, and the Bengals are one of the teams interested in signing him.
“He’s fine with it,” Frazier said, “as long as everybody accepts him. He’s gotten past everything. He’s paid his dues. He’s done everything he’s supposed to do. This last situation was something that happened. He’s gotten past it. He’s grown up. All he wants to do right now is get on with his life.”
Then Frazier said, “Chris is right next to me,” and he handed his cell phone to Henry for a little chat with The Chickster.
In Henry’s words:
“Oh, man, I was very relieved (about the court case). Just getting that over with was big for me. It just feels good to be done with that stuff and be able to move on with my life. Now we’re just waiting for the league to get back with us with a date to go see the commissioner.
“Just going through this taught me a lot. I want to get back to doing what I love and that’s playing football. That’s basically what I’m trying to do. I’m just going to tell him everything, just be myself and hopefully he’ll give me that chance to prove that to him.
“I wouldn’t mind (returning to Cincinnati). I would like that. There’s no hard feeling on my part with the Bengals. There’s nothing like that. I want to come back and play with Chad, T.J. and Carson, and everybody else.
“Hopefully, I can get reinstated and then get signed by a team and be able to get back out there on the field and be able to get into a training camp. I’ve been working out in Charlotte, N.C.
“You already know what I can do on the field. I’m just trying to get out there and make plays and help any team out that I have a chance to play for.”
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By Chick Ludwig
| Thursday, July 17, 2008, 08:30 PM
HENRY BELIEVES HE’LL
BE REINSTATED BY NFL
===Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry — whose assault charge was dropped in Hamilton County court — hit the airwaves as a guest on “The Monty Show” on Sporting News Radio on Thursday afternoon. The show’s producer, Josh Vexler, said Henry spoke about “his legal troubles, playing football and whether or not the league will reinstate him.” Here are some quotes from the interview:===
On trying to get reinstated: “We’re just trying to set up a meeting with the commissioner and go and take care of that, and move forward from there.”
On the possibility of being reinstated: “I see no reason for him (Commissioner Roger Goodell) not to allow me to play. This last situation was completely out of my hands. I was pretty much attacked, and I had to defend myself. That’s what happened.”
On staying out of trouble: “I don’t plan on going to any (night) clubs or anything like that because that’s not for me right now. That’s something I’ll have to deal with, and it will be no problem because I would hate to not be able to play football because that is what I love to do.”
On playing for Cincinnati again: “Cincinnati is one of the teams that reached out and called just trying to see what was going on with my situation. If that was to happen (returning to Cincinnati) I would love to go back there.”
On if he should be trusted to stay out of trouble: “Yes…because I’m really a good guy. We (Monty & Chris) haven’t had a chance to meet each other. You would get that vibe from me, too. That’s why I’ve got to sit down and talk to any owner or head coach of a team and get them to understand that from me, so that’s what I plan on doing.”
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By Chick Ludwig
| Thursday, July 17, 2008, 04:59 PM
“SEVERAL TEAMS,’ INCLUDING BENGALS
INTERESTED IF HE GETS REINSTATED
ESPN.com is reporting that suspended wide receiver Chris Henry is interested in returning to the Cincinnati Bengals, who released him on April 3, 2008.
Henry’s agent claims a return to the Bengals is a possibility if Henry is reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“We have interest in several teams, including Cincinnati,” Marvin Frazier said in ESPN.com’s report.
According to ESPN.com’s story, Frazier said the Bengals have shown preliminary interest in Henry, whose assault charge was dropped in Hamilton County court earlier this week.
The Bengals terminated Henry’s contract after the player’s fifth arrest in three seasons. With Henry’s legal issues apparently resolved, the door to reinstatement could open.
Bengals public relations director Jack Brennan issued this statement from the club:
“Chris is presently under NFL suspension, and until such time as he may be reinstated, we are not in position to comment. Even in the event he is reinstated, he is no longer our player, and rarely if ever do we comment on any player who is not under contract with us.”
Henry, a third-round draft pick from West Virginia in 2005, has 88 receptions for 1,370 yards and 17 touchdowns as Cincinnati’s No. 3 wide receiver behind Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
After the assault charge against Henry was dropped, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, “All we could say is this would be reviewed at the appropriate time, and all factors would be considered,”
In a July 2 interview with WONE-AM radio’s Sportstalk 980, Henry said he’s learned a lot from his string of arrests and would welcome the opportunity play for the Bengals again.
“I hope so,” Henry said at the time. “I love playing for Cincinnati. I got really tight with a bunch of my teammates in Cincinnati. I would love for that to happen, but you never know.
“I learned a lot about everything that happened, and everything taught me a lesson. Just about being in the wrong places and hanging out with the wrong people. I just need to handle myself like a professional at all times. That’s pretty much what I need to do to stay in the league and get another shot at this. That’s what I plan on doing.”
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By Chick Ludwig
| Thursday, July 17, 2008, 12:00 PM
QB CONTROVERSY, POOR SECONDARY
PLUS TOUGH SCHEDULE SPELLS DOOM
LUDWIG AT LARGE dedicates this blog entry to Cleveland Browns fan Steve Skelton, who wrote me a short but scathing E-mail regarding my recent “Audible” column in which I detailed the unfairness of training camp start dates.
An NFL rule prohibits teams from reporting to training camp more than 15 days prior to their first preseason game.
The Browns open the preseason at home against the New York Jets on Aug. 7. So the Browns get to open camp on Wednesday, July 23.
The Bengals travel to Green Bay for their nationally-televised preseason opener on Monday, Aug. 11. That means the Bengals and Packers aren’t allowed to open their camps until Monday, July 28.
From the comfort of their headquarters in Berea, a lovely suburb that houses Baldwin-Wallace College, the Browns get to conduct SEVEN practices in five days before the Bengals step on the field at Georgetown (Ky.) College.
That’s not opinion. That’s fact.
“Quit whining, Chuck,” writes Skelton. “Life is tough sometimes. The Bengals suck right now and 6 weeks of camp wouldn’t help those bunch of jailbird losers down there. Talent wins games and the cupboards are bare right now. Go Browns—our turn. Steve.”
PREDICTION:
The Cleveland Browns will be the first AFC North team to implode in 2008.
With home games against Dallas (Sept. 7) and Pittsburgh (Sept. 14), Cleveland will start 0-2. They’ll beat Baltimore on the road (Sept. 21), then lose at Cincinnati (Sept. 28) and be 1-3.
During their Oct. 5 bye, quarterback Derek Anderson will be replaced by Brady Quinn for the Monday Nighter at the New York Giants (Oct. 13), and Cleveland will struggle the remainder of the season to get back to .500.
I love the Browns offensive line, but it lacks depth. They have a tremendous defensive line, but the secondary is, uhh, lacking. They spent way too much (a third-round pick PLUS cornerback Leigh Bodden) to acquire DL Shaun Rogers from the Lions — a move they’ll regret because Bodden is the league’s only corner who can shut down Bengals WR Chad Johnson.
Here’s hoping the Browns don’t embarrass themselves on five national TV games.
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Chick Ludwig covers the Cincinnati Bengals. He also writes about his other passions: college football, basketball and golf.
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Greggie’s a changed man. He’ll be fine!