Fast Break

NFL

It pays to watch what you eat

Warren Sapp is a very picky eater.

The Oakland Raiders’ defensive tackle refuses to eat out on road trips for fear of getting sick, and he’s not talking about the rare case of food poisoning.

Sapp insisted Wednesday his food was tampered with during his nine-year tenure in Tampa Bay from 1995-03.

“You get your food poisoned,” Sapp said at Raiders headquarters. “They don’t want you out there on Sunday. You don’t think about it. It just got crazy.”

He pointed specifically to three incidents: Before the NFC championship game in Philadelphia at the end of the 2002 season, before a divisional playoff game at Green Bay in January 1998 and at New Orleans during the 1998 season.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Replay ref: Not his call to make

The replay official for the Oklahoma-Oregon football game says he knew that Oklahoma recovered a pivotal onside kickoff late in the game.

But Gordon Riese told The Oklahoman that the specifics of replay rules prevented him from correcting officials who made the wrong call and gave Oregon possession.

Oregon took advantage of the officiating blunder, scoring a last-minute touchdown to win 34-33.

At the center of the dispute was a call on an onside kickoff by Oregon. Replays showed the kick was touched by an Oregon player before it traveled 10 yards, and, therefore, possession should have been awarded to Oklahoma.

The video also showed that Oklahoma’s Allen Patrick actually recovered the ball, although that aspect of the play was not reviewable.

Riese said he chose to follow the rules of the replay system, which meant he couldn’t tell the on-field Pacific-10 Conference officials of their error – even though the referee asked him which team had recovered.

SOCCER

Queen not so easy to impress

Queen Elizabeth II is unimpressed with the play-acting of some professional soccer players, labeling them “prima donnas.”

While bestowing a knighthood Thursday on Premier League chairman David Richards, the talk turned to England’s national game.

“She said to me, ‘Football’s a difficult business and aren’t they prima donnas?’ ” Richards recounted. “I said, ‘Yes, Ma’am, some of them are.’ She said, ‘But it’s a wonderful game.’ “