Morning briefing

Olympics fans’ crash course

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are still eight months away, but the Chinese already are getting an education in sports etiquette.

China is using a public-education program to teach its citizens that during Olympic events, it’s not cool to shout obscenities, litter, spit, take pictures or let their cellphones ring at inappropriate times or -- at any time -- to insult its former wartime enemy Japan, according to Associated Press.

The Chinese are also getting lessons in unfamiliar sports such as baseball, sailing and field hockey.

“The most basic and important thing we teach the fans is about when to cheer, when to snap photos and when to clap,” Zhai Yue, deputy editor of Sports Vision, a magazine published by the government’s Beijing Sports Bureau, told the AP.

“Many Chinese don’t understand why they can’t take photos when athletes are about to serve or hit the ball,” he said. “They think it’s the best moment to take the shot.”

Trivia time

USC, which will play Illinois in the Rose Bowl game, has retired the uniform number of each of its seven Heisman Trophy winners. But Illinois has retired the number of only two football players. Name the two and get extra credit if you can also name their numbers.

Stadium coverup

A “small army of rent-a-cops and Jersey troopers” at Sunday’s Browns-Jets game curbed -- but by no means eliminated -- a notorious tradition of New York Jets fans’ urging women to bare their breasts in the spiral ramps of Giants Stadium.

The halftime ritual had drawn national attention in recent weeks, and the added security partly quelled the behavior in East Rutherford, N.J., the New York Post reported.

So did the wet, frigid weather.

As fan April Castronovo told the paper, “In this cold weather, you’d have a better chance to see God.”

Even so, “the gantlet of abuse continued,” the New York Times said, “with hundreds of men chanting obscenities at a handful of women in the crowd to expose their breasts.”

Hockey hookup

The cable channel Versus plans to show photographs of U.S. troops stationed in Kosovo during tonight’s NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.

The idea came after some troops took photos of themselves watching an Oct. 23 game between the Penguins and New York Rangers and sent them to the Penguins, who forwarded them to Versus.

Tonight’s matchup also will be shown to the troops in Kosovo, where it will be 1 a.m. Wednesday when the game starts.

No choice

After the hapless Miami Dolphins fell to 0-13 at the hands of Buffalo on Sunday, Bills general manager and former coach Marv Levy said he understood the Dolphins’ plight.

“I keep quoting Winston Churchill,” Levy said. “When you’re going through hell, keep on going.”

Alonso returns

Perhaps you can go home again. Formula One driver Fernando Alonso announced he’s returning to the Renault team, with which he won world championships in 2005 and ’06.

The Spaniard left Renault to join the powerhouse McLaren Mercedes team this year, a marriage initially viewed as bolstering Alonso’s bid to win a third consecutive title.

But the year turned sour as Alonso, 26, had a chilly relationship with teammate and rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton and team manager Ron Dennis.

It didn’t help that McLaren was involved in a spy scandal that resulted in the team being fined $100 million. Alonso finished third in the points this season behind Hamilton and champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.

Alonso will join Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault, which parted ways with its 2007 drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen.

Laughing at ourselves

ESPN tonight plans to present the best of its “This is SportsCenter” ads, those funny, quirky “mini-mockumentary” commercials touting its daily news show.

The ads feature the show’s broadcasters interacting with familiar athletes, celebrities and mascots.

Some of them are interviewed on the “best” show, including pitchers Roger Clemens and Trevor Hoffman.

Trivia answer

Red Grange (No. 77) and Dick Butkus (No. 50), according to Stats LLC.

Butkus, incidentally, did not start wearing his famous No. 51 until he joined the Chicago Bears.

And when Grange once was asked why he wore 77, he replied: “The guy in front of me got 76, the guy in back of me got 78.”

And finally

Taking note of suspended NFL star Michael Vick’s sentence of 23 months in prison for his role in a dogfighting ring, Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., e-mailed to say “that’s 161 dog months.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com