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Griese’s audible is answered

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Times Staff Writer

Former Miami Dolphins quarterback and broadcaster Bob Griese had to be longing for the days when he spoke in the huddle and his teammates kept quiet and listened.

During a conference call last week, Griese claimed his former teammates never celebrated the demise of the NFL’s last undefeated team each season, saying, “I don’t think any champagne or any champagne glasses have ever been clicked by any Dolphins. I think that was something that was mentioned in jest and I think the media . . . “

Unfortunately for Griese, at that moment his former teammates buzzed in louder than the machine on “The Moment of Truth.”

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“You were home when you started it, Bob,” safety Dick Anderson joked.

Mercury Morris even referred to photographic evidence: “If you look back at my [pictures], you had Dick Anderson, Mercury Morris, Larry Little, Jim Kiick, Nick Buoniconti and Don Shula. Nick is spreading the champagne all over the place . . . “

Griese was unable to do what had always worked when in trouble -- hand off to Larry Csonka.

Csonka was on the line, but remained quiet on the subject, according to the transcript on the Dolphins’ website.

Trivia time

What team ended the Dolphins’ winning streak in 1973?

Money balls . . . and strikes

Pitcher Randy Newsom of the Cleveland Indians is being offered on the free-agent market by . . . Newsom.

He is peddling his wares through his company, Real Sports Investments. For $20, one can own a share of Newsom, which will net you .0016% of his future major league earnings.

Buyer beware, this is not exactly Phil Rizzuto for the Money Store.

Newsom, 25, was not drafted and has spent five seasons in the minor leagues, although he had 18 saves with double-A Akron last season.

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“RSI contracts with athletes and gives them cash up-front in exchange for a promise to pay a small agreed-upon percentage of their future major league earnings, kind of like insurance,” Newsom said in an interview with Baseball Prospectus.

Investors can only hope his other pitches are a tad better than his sales pitch.

Silencio please

A vow of silence has been ordered by the Vatican.

The Clericus Cup, a Vatican-backed soccer tournament, has become so rowdy that priests supporting their teams have been told they will be barred if they continue to arrive toting drums, megaphones, trumpets, maracas and boomboxes, the London Guardian reported.

Chanting, which has sometimes been in Latin, is also being frowned upon to avoid “disturbing the peace,” the organizers said.

Praying for their teams, though, still was believed to be OK.

Pontiff plea

Pope Benedict XVI said this month that soccer should promote “honesty, solidarity and fraternity,” the Guardian reported.

That may get tested. This year the competition includes a British squad, which brings the cup’s oldest player, 57-year-old John Breen, dean of studies at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome.

“We bring a small British support which tends to express itself with the odd shout of encouragement,” Breen said.

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Soccer fans and officials the world over may wonder about Breen’s definition of “encouragement.”

Trivia answer

The Oakland Raiders, 12-7, on four field goals by George Blanda.

Blanda was 46 at the time. The Super Bowl turns 42 this year.

And finally

Running back Kiick, a key member of the 1972 Dolphins, managed to skirt the issue of whether the Dolphins ever celebrated when undefeated teams lost, saying, “No. 1, I prefer Jack Daniels. I don’t like champagne.”

That’s right, Jim gets no Kiick from champagne.

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chris.foster@latimes.com

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