Brother vs. boyfriend
Monday’s Fiesta Bowl has left Laura Quinn in a quandary. Her brother, Brady, is Notre Dame’s quarterback, so logically she should be rooting for him when the Irish take on Ohio State.
Trouble is, her boyfriend is the Buckeyes’ Lombardi Award-winning linebacker A.J. Hawk, who has been quoted as saying, “I try to take everybody’s head off.”
What’s a girl to do?
“I’ve been receiving a lot of flak for her dating him,” Brady Quinn said. “I got her a little Ohio State outfit for Christmas. But don’t get me wrong, my tree was still decorated in Notre Dame colors.”
Revere never had to put up with this
Horse racing has been part of the Massachusetts fair circuit since 1856, but no more. The end came this month when the Three County Fair in Northampton, Mass., said there would be no meet in 2006.
In an article for ESPN.com, Bill Finley said he would miss characters such as trainer Carlos “King of the Fairs” Figueroa, who in 1963 ran a horse named Shannon’s Hope five times in eight days, won all five races and then heard from a very unhappy SPCA.
“They said I was running him too much,” an indignant Figueroa said. “I told them that Paul Revere rode his horse from Boston to South Carolina, and he weighed 190 pounds, carried a whip and was screaming all the way.
“They didn’t say anything to Paul Revere. They made him a hero. I told them they should have made me a hero. Paul Revere never won five races in eight days.”
Yao’s contract a very tall order
England’s Guardian newspaper, which delights in such things, calculates that the five-year, $75-million contract the Houston Rockets have given to Yao Ming means the 7-foot-6 Chinese star is being paid $833,333 per inch.
Must have studied in the penalty box
Stu Grimson, who accumulated 2,113 penalty minutes in 729 regular-season games during a 12-year NHL career that included stints with the Kings and the Mighty Ducks, was an enforcer without peer.
Not any more. Earlier this month, Grimson, 40, graduated from law school at the University of Memphis, where associate professor Donna Harkness was surprised to learn of his tough-guy past.
“Some of my students say, ‘We’ve seen video of him beating the heck out of someone,’ ” she told the Commercial Appeal in Memphis. “That was a shock. He just does not have that kind of an aura now at all.”
Grimson explained why to the Canadian Press.
“I’ve gone from being the Grim Reaper to being the Grim Reader,” he said.
Please, don’t encourage them
The hapless Detroit Lions are enduring their fifth consecutive season of double-digit losses, leading Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press to observe, “We learned long ago not to ask, ‘Can it get any worse than this?’ because that’s like daring the Lions to show it can.”
No experience required
Calling it “some devilishly clever recruiting ploy,” Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News says Colorado’s 19-10 loss to Clemson in the Champs Sports Bowl on Tuesday means that, “Any high school player considering his chance of playing college ball soon had only to look at the Buffaloes to be convinced every job is open.”