Stram loved the mike
Even though Kansas City Hank Stram coach loved publicity and the microphone, getting him to be the first coach to wear a microphone in the Super Bowl wasn't easy.

It was January 1970, when the Chiefs were playing the Vikings in Super Bowl IV at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. I was on the NFL's media staff for that game and my assignments was interviewing the Chiefs' coaches, players and owner Lamar Hunt for television. Stram would coach the Saints from 1976-77.

Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, who started as a cameraman, can tell some stories about the Super Bowl that are entertaining. One of my favorites is his version of getting Stram to be miked for the game.

"Hank had the whole top floor of the Sonesta Hotel, with one bedroom just for his clothes" said Sabol. "I always said he was the only man to win the Super Bowl  wearing a toupee and a sports jacket made out of the same material -- beautiful jacket, bad toupee"

Stream was a very vain guy, and underneath his suit he wore a vest made of scuba material just to keep his stomach in. That's what he was wearing when Ed (Steve's father and the founder of NFL Films) went up to see him in his hotel suite on Saturday before the game.

"When we got up  to the room, he was wearing that scuba vest and these little tight shorts," said Sabol. "He was watching college football, and he had this incredible spread of food and crudités -- Crab Remick, Shrimp Louie, pralines....

"My dad said, “Hank, we've miked you once for a game, and we think it would be great for history if you could wear a mike for the Super Bowl.' Hank had this vocabulary where he'd use funny words. (He called my father and me 'Big Schmush' and  ' Little Schmush' for some reason.). He'd also referred to himself in the third person as 'The Mentor.'.

"So Hank said, 'The Mentor will consider that, but there's going to have to be some coin of realm that change hands if The Mentor were to wear a microphone in this World Championship of Professional Football."

The Sabols didn't know what that meant because they didn't pay anybody in those days.

"Hank said, 'Schmush, some dead presidents" said Sabol." 'Something I can fold up and put in my wallet. That's what I want.'

"My dad thought about it and said, 'How about $250?

"Hank said, 'That won't even pay for The Mentor's dry cleaning!  Schmush, you'e going to ahave to do better than that.'

"We eventually got up to $750 and that was a big deal back then. Hank agreed to do it, but only if we would bring it in cash right into the locker room. Can you imagine doing that in this day and age? Bringing a wad of cash into the locker room to pay the coach?

"Anyway, Hank wore the mike, he was terrific. He was so confident that the Chiefs were going to win, it was like having a comedian on the sidelines. Everything was a one-liner, He was so , I couldn't keep the camera steady. It was jiggling because I was laughing so hard."

Here's some samples of Hank during the game:

"Keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!.

"65 toss power trap. What I'd tell you boys?"

He understood he was on the biggest stage possible and he was an entertainer.

This was going to be his greatest moment.

Saints owner John Mecom said hiring Stram was the worst decision he ever made." I found out Hank's first priority was not pro football -- it was self-aggrandizement and the promotion of Hank Stram," said Mecom.

Mecom recalled when he ruffled Stram's feathers in an effort to make a joke: " I was in Hank's office for a chat, and  I spied a piece of wearing apparel resembling a ladies corset, which Hank obviously wore. I picked it up and said, 'Why Hank, did you get lucky last night?'"

Mecom said his relations with Stram were never the same after that.

Stram was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003, so weakened by diabetes that Lenny Dawson, former Chiefs quarterback, pushed his former coach onto the stage at Canton in a wheelchair. His induction speech was then played from a previously recorded videotape. He died on July 4, 2005, in Covington.

Chris Paul

Chris Paul will undergo arthroscopic surgery for a cartilage in his left knee on Monday and could miss one to two months, sources close to Paul told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday night.

The all-star point guard suffered the injury after he fell into a photographer on the baseline after trying to catch an errant pass from Hornets forward David West. Paul came up limping on the play.

Paul told reporters he had initially twisted the same knee in a win over Golden State on Wednesday night.

Test results revealed a partial tear to Paul's meniscus. There is still doubt to extent of the injury, but it is not believed to be season-ending.

Paul is expected to miss the All-Star Game because of the injury.

The Hornets will lean on rookie pointt guard Darren Collision during Paul's absence. Paul also missed eight games earlier this season because of a sprained ankle.

Collison fills in for Paul in win

Rookie Darren Collison scored 17 points and had a career-high 18 assists as the Hornets edged the Grizzlies 108-106 in overtime on Saturday at Memphis.

Subbing for injured Chris Paul, Collison, the team's No. 1 draft choice, doing his Paul imitation, finally showed the Hornets how to win in overtime. The Hornets host Phoenix on Monday night at the Arena.

Pal missed the Memphis game because of a bruised right knee. He suffered the injury at Golden State on Wednesday. Then. on the last play of regulation against Chicago,  Paul chase an errant pass when he went out of bounds striking a camera on the same spot he got injured two nights earlier..

"It's just short term," said Hornets coach Jeff Bower. Also, reserve James Posey was out because of a strained Achilles.

"I give the credit to Paul," said Collison ."I get the chance to watch him everyday in the pick-and-roll. I was being a lot more aggressive in the pick-and-roll, finding my gaps. I am small (6-feet, 160 pounds) and quick that I can use that to my advantage,"

Emeka Okafor hit 21 points, including 19 after half time as the Hornets’ overcame a 21-point deficit in the third  quarter and won their third game out of the last four. The rally was one point shy of the Hornets' franchise record of a 22-point rally to defeat Boston in 1995.

David West scored 22 points while Peja Stojakovic had 20 points, Rookie Marcus Thornton of LSU scored 14 points.

"It was a great win for us on the heels of Friday night's difficult loss," said Bower.

Check out Ed Staton at edcoachstaton@yahoo.com and visit his web site, Louisiana Sports Talk, for your Saints, LSU and Hornets merchandise.