Bengals defensive back Darryl Williams. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        When Bengals Darryl Williams and John Kitna were Seahawks teammates in the mid-to-late 1990s, they went bowling every Thursday with eight other teammates at a bowling alley in Seattle.

        Williams had organized similar outings for six to eight Bengals when he was a player here in the early 1990s. Among the regular bowlers were cornerbacks Rod and Roger Jones, and safeties Fernandus Vinson and Bracey Walker. They'd meet at Walt's Center Lanes in the Newport Shopping Center.

        He is planning to reprise those outings in another week or two.

        How many Bengals will be joining in?

        “More than you think,” Williams said. “Kitna, Chris Carter, JoJuan Armor, Cory Hall. I think we'll get a bunch of guys.”

        If they weren't playing football in Jacksonville today, Williams said, some of the bowling Bengals would be tuning in to ESPN's live national telecast (5 p.m.) of the PBA Tour's Greater Cincinnati Classic at Super Bowl in Erlanger.

        Darryl Williams has two bowling balls in the trunk of his car. One is his strike ball, the other is his spare ball. Even though he hasn't bowled a game in three months — he's been bitten by the golf bug — when the cold winds come to Cincinnati, he'll be ready to take the bowling balls and his buddies, the defensive backs mostly, indoors for some kegling.

        Jon Kitna's bowling ball, the fingertip ball he used in three straight annual charity tournaments he had held in Seattle to benefit the Boys and Girls Club, is at his parents' home Tacoma, Wash. He couldn't tell you where exactly it is, just that it is there and his parents, longtime bowlers themselves, could find it and send it to him when he needs it.

        The quarterback would beat defensive back Williams at the bowling alley. Or so Kitna is saying in the middle of the Cincinnati Bengals' locker room.

        “There's not a lot of things I'm pretty open about being the best at, but this is one of them,” says Kitna, who was taught as a boy by his father to count the alley boards from right to left and to then pick out the one he wanted to roll over with his strike ball en route to the 1-3 pocket.

        Williams, who was born and raised in Miami — not exactly a hotbed of the sport — had been introduced to the game in his “second or third year” in the NFL by Miami Dolphins DB Bobby Hart.

        Hart was serious about the game, had “five or six” bowling balls and all the accoutrements that go with the sport. He taught Williams how to hit his mark, too — to throw the hook that would make the pins explode and never leave the 5-pin standing and on those occasions when the 10-pin was tapped but still left standing, to use his spare ball to get the all-important mark to keep building his score.

        Williams learned well. His high game is 265, and he figures he's the equivalent of a 180s-average bowler. In a separate conversation, Kitna has gauged himself similarly.

        “What's the problem over here?” asks Williams, walking toward Kitna's locker.

        “You know what the problem is,” Kitna answers. “"I'm the best bowler in here. You know that, D.”

        “You're going to sit there and lie to this man?” responds Williams.

        “Are you gonna lie?” asks Kitna.

        “I told the man the truth,” responds Williams.

        “You know that I'm the best bowler,” Kitna repeats.

        “Just 'cause you had a tournament in Seattle doesn't mean you're the best bowler,” Williams says.

        “I'm the best,” Kitna says again. “I was the best bowler in Seattle, and I'm the best bowler here.”

        Somebody tells Williams that Kitna had said earlier he had bowled a personal-high 272 in the Seattle charity tournament.

        “That must be after I left,” Williams says.

        “You were there,” Kitna says. “Remember, I was going from one lane to the next lane to the next lane?”

        “You bowled a 272 going (si) lane to lane?” (ei) asks Williams, whose incredulousness is now in high gear.

        “They brought the TV cameras down,” Kitna says.

        “Listen to what he says!” responds Williams, derisively.

        “Remember they brought the cameras down and everybody was yelling, "Kitna's got six in a row! He's got a chance for the car! He's got a chance for 300!' Remember Glenn Foley came running down the lane, came running down the alley, trying to scare me on my approach?” Kitna asks.

        “You went lane to lane, striking down the lane,” Williams mocks.

        “No, no, no,” says Kitna. “Remember, I had to bowl on, like, three different lanes because there weren't enough bowlers there?”

        “Listen to the man!”

        “He ain't going to lie to you very much longer,” says Kitna. “We don't need no tournament. Me and you.”

        “Me and you. Wanna do it today?”

        “No, not today.”

        Somebody reminds Williams that Kitna doesn't have his bowling ball.

        Williams ignores it.

        “Why can't you do it today?” he asks Kitna.

        “My kids are sick,” Kitna answers.

        “Arghhh!”' Williams groans, then laughs robustly.

        Kitna grins, realizing immediately how lame his excuse must have sounded.

        “I'll see you next week,” Kitna tells Williams.

        “Set something up to take care of all of this!” Williams tells a locker room visitor.

        “Best out of five!” Kitna says, “Best out of five!”

        Kitna, obviously, is aware of the PBA Tour format, in which the bowlers in the round of 32 bowl down to five players via best-of-five matches.

        “I have no problem with that!” barks Williams.

        “Get it all in the paper,” Kitna says. “Everything.”

        “No problem,” says Williams, grinning.

        And then, as Williams turns to head for the DB's lockers, he says to the visitor, “There's a reason why he left his bowling ball in Tacoma.”

        It is just loud enough for the quarterback to hear.

        Kitna shakes his head and laughs.

        The wheels are turning: Federal Express or UPS?

PBA Tour final here today
High school bowling making a comeback

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