He Didn’t Know He Was Traded to the Bronkos

Rick Mirer, the new Chicago Bear quarterback, discovered Wednesday that jersey No. 3, the number he had worn at Notre Dame and with the Seattle Seahawks, had been retired in Chicago in honor of a Hall of Fame fullback.

“I’m upset I can’t wear No. 3. Bronko Nagurski already did that,” Mirer, apparently in a joking mood, said during a news conference.

Perhaps Mirer also can be used at fullback. He’s virtually the same size as the once-feared Nagurski. Mirer is listed at 6 feet 2 and 215 pounds. Nagurski was 6-2, 225.

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Trivia time: What is the largest crowd to watch a regular-season NBA game?

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Sprint hype: Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey, who trains in Austin, Texas, on his 150-meter showdown June 1 in Toronto against Michael Johnson, who trains in Dallas:

“Michael is not even the fastest man in Texas. It’s going to be an incredible spectacle, and I’m going to fly. We’ll have a little chat at about 152 meters.”

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Clip and save: How will Dennis Rodman be regarded when he eventually retires from the NBA? In an interview with Dave Newhouse of the Oakland Tribune, sports psychologist Tom Tutko said:

“All Rodman’s contributions as a player won’t be recognized. He’ll be remembered as a freak.”

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Add Rodman: According to the Washington Post, Canadian studies have focused on a gene that apparently can be manipulated to increase a worm’s life span, prompting Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times to write:

“Which means another season of Dennis Rodman.”

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Traffic jam: Michael Ventre on MSNBC: “The reason you can’t get through to American Airlines these days is because Don Nelson is busy booking guys on flights.”

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FYI: For more than 30 years, the NFL office was at 410 Park Ave. in New York City. Now the NFL has relocated to 280 Park Ave. That address was the home of the AFL when the leagues battled in the 1960s.

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Trivia answer: 61,983 at the Silverdome in Detroit to watch the Pistons play the Boston Celtics on Jan. 29, 1988.

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And finally: What does an agent do after negotiating a winter’s worth of contracts that involve baseball’s highest-paid player (Barry Bonds, $11.45 million a year), highest-paid catcher (Mike Piazza, $7.5 million a year) and two of its highest-paid free agents (Bobby Bonilla and Jaime Navarro, $43.5 million total)?

Sources at the Beverly Hills Sports Council said that agent Dennis Gilbert was so intense while finishing Bonds’ contract Thursday that he rushed out of the office afterward and drove to his Calabasas home just to change his shirt.

Perhaps he had glanced at his cellular phone bill, which was $2,500 last month.