Lacking the intestinal fortitude to follow a friend's suggestion and sample the crawfish at the gas station across the street from the Super 8 in the tiny Louisiana town where Karl Malone went to college, I chose instead to seek out the Jazz star's once-neglected daughter last weekend.
   
A good choice, if I do say so myself.
   
Cheryl Ford seemed happy to talk about the way her life has changed in the six years since a tabloid newspaper announced her open secret -- that she was one of the children fathered out of wedlock and then abandoned by Malone long before he became a basketball star. Of course, she had just finished helping Louisiana Tech wipe the floor with Pepperdine in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, so good moods were rolling around the locker room like balls of athletic tape.