December 27, 1982

NEW ORLEANS MICKEY HOLMES had made up his mind not to attend the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. There was no sense sitting in the Georgia press box in Athens, the executive director of the Sugar Bowl said, pretending to be calm and collected when everyone around him would know just how nervous he would become should Georgia encounter any difficulty. The Bulldogs were the nation's No.1-ranked college football team and, as Southeastern Conference champions, they had received an automatic Sugar Bowl bid. But although he couldn't watch, Holmes decided on the day of the game that he would make an attempt to listen. He set out by automobile from his home in a New Orleans suburb and headed north - destination: the first place his radio could pick up the signal of an Atlanta station. ''I was sitting in the car on an overpass where I picked up the game from Atlanta,'' Holmes said. ''I was listening, but the station was fading out, then coming back in. It seemed to fade every time Tech was moving down the field. I kept driving one way or the other to pick it up again.

''I have gone through the valley of death four times and now my posture toward politics has changed somewhat.

Aided by some of the strangest plays in their 23 seasons, the Jets bounded into the playoffs today for only the fourth time in their often frustrating history. Appropriate to the unusual day, it all happened on a warm field indoors in Minnesota in December as the Jets produced a variety show of touchdowns for the 42-14 victory over the Vikings. It was so bizarre that Bobby Jackson was honored with not only the defensive game ball, but the offensive game ball as well. For good measure, the team also threw in three other game balls for Jackson - one for his 77-yard touchdown on an interception, one for running the last 80 yards of a 95-yard touchdown play on a blocked field goal and one for a mere interception that helped position a faked field goal that went for a touchdown, too. Vikings Have Ball Longer The Jets needed strange, but true, defensive plays. The Vikings had the highest number of offensive plays in their history - 94. The Jets could run or pass only 51 times. And the Vikings also had the ball virtually twice as often as the Jets: 38 minutes 17 seconds to 21:43.

The Koch administration will seek state legislation next month to give New York City ambulance crews and emergency room physicians authority to refuse emergency ambulance service to people they decide do not need it. According to an aide to Mayor Koch, Victor E. Botnick, the proposal is intended to eliminate unnecessary ambulance runs to hospitals, reduce ambulance response time and thereby save lives in real emergencies. The Emergency Medical Service, which operates the city's ambulance service, estimates that 25 percent of its runs are for nonemergencies.

As a result of the seven deaths from cyanide-contaminated Tylenol capsules in September, the nation's largest food manufacturers have become just as concerned about the possibility of tampering as their counterparts in the pharmaceutical industry. Many are so worried that they would not even discuss the problem. Although most of the tampering incidents of the past few months have involved drugs, such as Anacin, Dristan and Excedrin in addition to Tylenol, many food manufacturers are concerned that their products could be as easy to contaminate as over-the-counter drugs. In addition, they are worried that the drug tamperings could serve as legal notice that such problems are foreseeable and that further safety measures should be taken. 'No Simple Answer' ''As soon as the Tylenol thing broke, we all began saying to one another, 'What if it happened to us?' and it was a question we couldn't shuck off,'' said Craig Shulstad, director of consumer and public affairs at General Mills Inc. ''Almost everybody in the food industry is reviewing not only their packaging but their product recall procedures. We're all wrestling with the question of where our liability as manufacturers begins - and there's no simple answer.''