What Next? Replacement Cheerleaders?

The Buffalo Bills’ cheerleaders, the Jills, recently voted to form the National Football League Cheerleaders Assn., the first union to represent a professional cheerleading squad.

The union hopes to negotiate a contract before next season with manager Andrew Gerovac, co-owner of a fast-food chain that is the squad’s main sponsor.

“I see no need for this. It’s not like they work in the coal mines,” Gerovac said. “They’ve never been instructed to stand under 3,000-degree iron ore in a steel mill.”

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Trivia time: What is the USC basketball record for consecutive losses in a season?

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Zzzzzzz: Schuylkill Haven defeated Pius X, 75-65, Friday night in the eighth overtime of a Pennsylvania high school tournament.

The national record for overtime periods in a high school basketball game is believed to be 13.

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Hold the mustard: Tom Weir in USA Today: “Rumor has it when Don Fehr and Bud Selig lunched together at a Milwaukee deli, it was strictly B.Y.O.B.--Bring Your Own Baloney.”

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General Shula: A sample comment by Don Shula in “Everyone’s A Coach,” the new book he wrote with Ken Blanchard:

“I see myself as a battlefield commander who has the guts to make the right moves to win.”

Bully for you.

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Over-kill: John Bach, assistant coach of the Charlotte Hornets, is known as a motivator. Last week, he wrote the 101st Airborne motto on a scouting report:

“Kill them all; let God sort them out.”

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Desert franchise: NBC’s Jay Leno: “Do you realize with Dwight Gooden pitching and Darryl Strawberry hitting, Betty Ford has a better team now than the Mets?”

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Subtle hint: Joe Gibbs, former Washington Redskin coach, on the sudden dismissal of Joe Rhein as vice president of the Arizona Cardinals:

“When I went there as an assistant coach, I was told you’d know you were fired because the lock truck would show up and they’d change the locks to your office.”

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Where are they now?: Dean Chance, former Cy Young award pitcher with the Angels, was recently named a vice president of the Intercontinental Boxing Council.

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Looking back: On this day in 1959 the Boston Celtics routed the Minneapolis Lakers, 179-139, in the highest score ever recorded in basketball history.

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Trivia answer: Fifteen in 1975-76

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Quotebook: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Visiting spring training this year is like going to a nude beach and discovering that it’s senior citizen’s day.”