Ismail

The New England Patriots apparently have decided to call Raghib "Rocket" Ismail's bluff about playing in Canada. Patriots president Sam Jankovich informed Ismail's agent, Ed Abram, in no uncertain terms yesterday that his club has no plans to match - or even come close - to the two-year, $6 million offer he has received from the Toronto Argonauts, of the Canadian Football League, according to sources close to the negotiations. Jankovich also told Abram that, barring a trade, the Patriots planned to take the Notre Dame wide receiver with the first pick in Sunday's NFL draft even if they haven't signed him by then.

Toronto Argonauts owner Bruce McNall says he would allow Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to play for his team and the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League, but that does not mean the wide receiver/kick returner will be streaking toward the NFL anytime soon. After handing Ismail an $18.2 million, four-year contract, McNall seemed to open the door for a potential quick exit by the former Notre Dame star by suggesting that if Ismail wanted out of the four-year deal, McNall wouldn't stand in his way. In addition, if the Raiders - who drafted Ismail in the fourth round - didn't mind sharing the player, McNall said, he would not object to Ismail's joining Los Angeles after the Canadian Football League season ended in November.

The larger-than-life hype and expectations have made Raghib "Rocket" Ismail a colossus in a Lilliputian league, and his total compensation - $18 million of which is guaranteed over four years - is so out of whack with the rest of the CFL that the ex-Notre Dame wideout/kick returner will earn more per year than the rest of his team combined. And without having played a down - indeed, having hardly practiced with his Toronto Argonauts teammates - Ismail has become the Canadian Football League's biggest drawing card, the linchpin of its TV advertising campaign, and, some claim, its lone salvation.

At times, their relationship is as smooth as sandpaper. Their clashes, it seems, are inevitable. While Nicol Corsey's Deptford teammates get a respite from their demanding track coach, she receives no such breaks. She and the man who has her stewing during practices occupy the same dinner table. "I think it's harder when your dad's the coach," said Corsey, a senior who is one of the premier 400-meter runners in the state. "Sometimes we have problems getting along. " Such tension is often the reality for people, such as Bill Corsey, whose own children are among those who address them as "Coach.

Run, Rocket, run. Run for a mind-boggling 7,376 all-purpose yards and 74 touchdowns in 26 games at Meyers High in Wilkes-Barre. Run to the Pennsylvania state 100-meter championship. And keep on running until you get your time down to 10.57 seconds in the TAC meet in Tallahassee, Fla. Then run right off to Notre Dame and keep on running until you break two kickoff returns for touchdowns in one game, tying an NCAA record that is not shared by Tim Brown, a guy the folks in South Bend compare you to. Run right to the top of the NCAA kickoff-return list with an amazing 37.7-yard average.

Notre Dame's Raghib "Rocket" Ismail, who dances through defenders on a football field, has a pretty fair singing voice as well. So after each Notre Dame victory, Ismail, the game's most exhilarating player, stands on a bench and leads his teammates in singing the school song. But after the most sterling performance of his career Saturday, when he exploded for a career-high 268 all-purpose yards in Notre Dame's emotional 29-20 win over Miami in South Bend, Ind., Ismail cleared his throat and sang the praises of a guy named Jim Russ.

Consider the adage "It is better to give than to receive," then consider this: Valley Forge Military Academy and Wyoming Seminary combined for 4 turnovers in the first quarter of Saturday's game in Radnor. But the teams didn't perfect the art of giving until the second quarter, when the ball was turned over four times in the first five plays. Winter gloves in a large family don't change hands that often. Even so, Valley Forge's second half was as perfect as its first half was flawed, and the Trojans scored touchdowns on their first three possessions on the way to a 21-10 nonleague victory over the team from Kingston, Pa. "That was absolutely the craziest first half I've ever been associated with," said Valley Forge coach Jim Burner.

Even the staunchest Penn State fan is apt to concede that the Nittany Lions don't have many consistently high-yield options on offense. By necessity, senior tailback Blair Thomas again will be Joe Paterno's weapon of choice when Penn State has the ball in tomorrow's game against No. 1 Notre Dame in Beaver Stadium (Channel 10, 2:30 p.m.). The Fighting Irish have a number of instruments of destruction when they go on the attack, but only one brings the coach of the 17th-ranked Nittany Lions to speak in almost reverential tones.

Jimmy Johnson reached out and touched the NFL yesterday. The Dallas Cowboys' Mad Trader feverishly worked the phones in his team's draft room, looking for yet another sucker to fleece. No stone - or front office - was left unturned. "We talked to everybody in the league about doing something," Johnson said. You would think that NFL general managers would have learned to say no to him by now. Trading with him is like buying a used car from a guy named Fast Freddie.

This weekend in Indianapolis, more than 400 college football players with NFL aspirations are going through the annual run-, jump-, and lift-athon known as the scouting combine workouts. Hundreds of pro football coaches and scouts, armed with stopwatches and tape measures, will calibrate how fast and how strong, while orthopedists, internists and even dentists will poke and prod. A less exact, but no less significant test for these NFL wannabes is how they react to the pressure-cooker environment of the combine.

Ismail Merchant, prolific producer of such Oscar-winning films as Room With a View and Howards End, died in a London hospital yesterday of unspecified intestinal ailments. The Bombay-born showman, a supersonic social butterfly who excelled at leveraging friendships into hard cash, was 68. In the cutthroat field of film producers, where stretching a dollar and the truth are job requirements, Mr. Merchant thought big and spent little. He was without peer in relieving investors of money and in snagging the loan of real estate so spectacular that it made his no-budget movies look like a million.

Anyone who has seen Ismail Merchant in action knows that the prolific producer, supersonic social butterfly, and eclectic chef is a more colorful subject for a Broadway blockbuster than the flamboyant Max Bialystock. In the competitive field of film producing - where stretching a dollar, and occasionally the truth, is the job description - Merchant, 65, is without peer in relieving investors of cash and cadging the loan of real estate so spectacular it makes no-budget films look like a million.

It appears the Dallas Cowboys are on the verge of signing wide receiver Raghib Ismail, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Ismail's agent, Jack Mula, acknowledged he is negotiating only with the Cowboys at the moment, though he's still in contact with the Carolina Panthers. "We are negotiating with Dallas right now," Mula said. "But it's not done. " Said Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones: "We are still working on it. Nothing has changed. " Mula, who has given at least four deadlines for a deal in the past 10 days, said he hopes to get everything finalized by the weekend.

At times, their relationship is as smooth as sandpaper. Their clashes, it seems, are inevitable. While Nicol Corsey's Deptford teammates get a respite from their demanding track coach, she receives no such breaks. She and the man who has her stewing during practices occupy the same dinner table. "I think it's harder when your dad's the coach," said Corsey, a senior who is one of the premier 400-meter runners in the state. "Sometimes we have problems getting along. " Such tension is often the reality for people, such as Bill Corsey, whose own children are among those who address them as "Coach.

Maybe it was an elaborate April Fools' Day gag. Maybe it was just a mistake. Either way, Rocket Ismail's scheduled visit to Philadelphia was scrubbed yesterday. Ismail did not take his flight from Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday evening. Neither the Eagles nor his agent could reach the free-agent wide receiver for an explanation. "We're all waiting to hear from him," agent Jack Mula said. Tuesday, Mula said that Ismail would work out for the Eagles "if he gets on the plane.

Raghib "Rocket" Ismail has received permission from Bruce McNall, owner of the Toronto Argonauts, to talk with the Los Angeles Raiders about playing in the NFL. "We are going to see what interest they may have," Bob Woolf, who represents the former Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner, said yesterday of the Raiders. Ismail, who has played two seasons in the Canadian Football League and has two more years remaining on an $18 million contract with the Argonauts, was selected by the Raiders in the fourth round of the 1991 NFL draft.

"When most people set goals, they reach for the stars and land on earth. I like to think I reach for the stars and land on the moon. " - Qadry Ismail It is called visualization therapy and Syracuse star Qadry Ismail lives by it. He has been doing so ever since his senior year at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre, where he learned the technique from Dr. Malcom Conway, a chiropractor and family friend. "What I try to do is set a goal," said Ismail, a.k.a. "The Missile," a senior wide receiver and return specialist who will be one of the main attractions when the 12th-ranked Orangemen (5-1)

Raghib "Rocket" Ismail scored on an electrifying 87-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter yesterday to help lift the Toronto Argonauts to a 36-21 victory over the Calgary Stampeders for their first Grey Cup in eight years. After Calgary closed to 22-21 on Danny Barrett's 18-yard touchdown pass to Allen Pitts at 4 minutes, 21 seconds of the fourth quarter, Ismail took a squibbed kickoff at his own 23 and raced into the end zone untouched. Toronto scored again less than a minute later after Calgary's Kevyan Jenkins fumbled the kickoff.

Consider the adage "It is better to give than to receive," then consider this: Valley Forge Military Academy and Wyoming Seminary combined for 4 turnovers in the first quarter of Saturday's game in Radnor. But the teams didn't perfect the art of giving until the second quarter, when the ball was turned over four times in the first five plays. Winter gloves in a large family don't change hands that often. Even so, Valley Forge's second half was as perfect as its first half was flawed, and the Trojans scored touchdowns on their first three possessions on the way to a 21-10 nonleague victory over the team from Kingston, Pa. "That was absolutely the craziest first half I've ever been associated with," said Valley Forge coach Jim Burner.

Two years ago, Michigan coach Gary Moeller was roundly criticized for his decision to kick away to Notre Dame speedster Rocket Ismail. Ismail scored on 88- and 92-yard kickoff returns, the second touchdown runback early in the fourth quarter providing the margin of victory as the Fighting Irish won, 24-19. Now, in one of those delicious twists of fate so common in college football, Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz faces the same sort of dilemma as his seventh-ranked team (1-0) prepares for a Saturday visit to No. 3 Michigan (Channel 6, 3:30 p.m.)