The Nfl

Like many players, Johnson likes to drape a hand towel over his belt, though he has yet to run afoul of the rule that says no more than eight inches of the towel can show. "You have to tuck it in, and that means you can't wipe your face by just bending down," Johnson says. "You don't have time to take it out, then put it back in before a play is run. So you just throw it on the ground."

Johnson is hardly the only fashion felon in the NFL. Green Bay linebacker Wayne Simmons was fined $1,500 in September for not having his knees covered by his stirrups or pants. In Dallas's season opener wideout Michael Irvin (page 72) affixed to his helmet a small piece of tape bearing the number 22 as a tribute to teammate Emmitt Smith, who was unsigned at the time. The NFL warned Irvin he would be fined $1,500 if he did it again. Also this season, Cowboy cornerback Kevin Smith had to pay $1,500 for a too-long frontal towel, and Miami receiver Mark Ingram was warned for wearing an aqua towel instead of a white one.

Uniform uniforms are fine, but surely the league has better things with which to be concerned.

DISPATCHES
Don't be surprised if Joe Gibbs is back on an NFL sideline in 1995. "They say I'm going to be Charlotte's coach if it gets an expansion team, because my NASCAR team is based there," says Gibbs, the former Redskin coach. "I'm definitely not coaching next year; I'm going to see my son [Stanford linebacker Coy] play football. As far as down the road, I can't answer that."...It turns out the Falcons were right in not playing Eric Dickerson, who for some time had been feeling a tingling in his arm—a symptom of a serious neck injury. After Atlanta traded him to Green Bay, Dickerson flunked his physical when doctors discovered a bulging disc in his lower neck. Dickerson, who says he will probably retire, rushed for 13,259 yards in 11 seasons, second only to Walter Payton's 16,726 in 13 years.

GAME OF THE WEEK
Atlanta at New Orleans, Sunday. Fortunately for the Saints, coming off a 37-14 pounding by Pittsburgh, their kicker, Morten Andersen, is on a three-game winning streak in this series. Last year he beat the Falcons twice inside the two-minute warning, with 47- and 37-yard field goals. Earlier this year he broke a 31-31 tie with a 43-yarder at the gun. "I love putting the exclamation point on a game," says Andersen. "Even in college, I didn't do as well on midterm exams as on the finals. When the game's on the line, I want to be out there, deciding it."

THE END ZONE
The good news: Oiler right tackle David Williams and his wife, Debi, are proud first-time parents. Debi gave birth to Scot at 6:25 last Saturday evening in Houston. The bad news: Williams was expected in Foxboro, Mass., for Sunday's game against the Patriots. He did not show up, and it could cost him $120,000, a game's pay. Oiler coaches were also considering suspending him. "I don't have wings," said Williams. Said his line coach Bob Young, "They ought to suspend him for a week, maybe two. Everybody wants to be with his wife, but if World War II was going on and you said, 'I can't fly. My wife's having a baby,' would we have won the war?" The Oilers beat the Pats 28-14.

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