Perhaps It’s Because He Sings Off-Keyshawn

New York Jet veterans tried to get one of the team’s rookies to give them a song when he reported to camp last week, but No. 1 draft choice Keyshawn Johnson wasn’t about to start playing entertainer.

As he explained to George Vecsey of the New York Times, he politely declined to provide a version of USC’s “Fight On.”

“I’m not here to sing songs,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to do it. It doesn’t work that way. I wouldn’t ask anybody to run in front of a bus. I don’t sing.”

The Jets will be satisfied if he is in tune for his debut Saturday night against the Giants.

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Trivia time: Among current NFL coaches, who has been with his team the longest?

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Left sockless: Ashley Judd, actress and sister of singer Wynonna, is a University of Kentucky alumna and avid Wildcat basketball fan who attended every Kentucky game of the NCAA tournament.

Judd told Inside Sports: “I’ve been around all different kinds of accomplished people, from my mom’s Nobel Prize-winning friends to music stars and legends. They don’t knock my socks off the way basketball players and Rick Pitino do.”

Add Judd: On a movie set recently, the actress says she was cold, and a boy offered her something to keep warm. “It was a Carolina sweatshirt,” Judd said. “He was a cute little child, but I’d just as soon freeze to death.”

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Just imagine: It was 80 years ago today that a classic pitching duel took place at Fenway Park, with Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox beating Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, 1-0, in 13 innings.

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He’s no film fan: Former San Diego Padre John Kruk appears--stars is too strong a word--with Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin and Wesley Snipes in “The Fan.” He wasn’t overwhelmed by Barkin during filming of the movie.

“She wanted me to sign two balls for her kids,” Kruk told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “She said, ‘Honestly, I don’t know who you are, but my kids love you.’ I said, ‘That’s good--because I really haven’t seen anything you’ve done either.’ ”

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Hoops: Spotted in the Vancouver Sun: a quarter-page ad with the bold heading: SEE THE USA AGAINST OUR DREAM TEAM.

You guessed it. The World Cup of hockey is just around the corner.

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Rocky start: The Colorado Rockies, no-hit by the Florida Marlins’ Al Leiter in May, lead the National League in batting.

The last team that was no-hit and went on to lead the NL in batting was the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950.

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Trivia answer: Jim Mora of the New Orleans Saints, now beginning his 11th season.

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And finally: Terry Donahue, in the CBS broadcast booth and not on the sideline when UCLA opens its football season against Tennessee on Sept. 7, expects to feel strange.

“It will be like an out-of-body experience,” Donahue said.