They’re More Concerned About Fangs Than Fans

In yet another example of just how far Raider fans still have to go to become completely unhinged, we present this tale from India.

It seems authorities in Delhi have had to call in 16 snake charmers as a precautionary measure during the current cricket match between India and Pakistan.

That’s right, snake charmers.

Apparently, the lunatic fringe that wants to see no rapport between the countries has threatened to disrupt proceedings by releasing cobras and other venomous snakes in the crowd.

Even in the headiest days of Kenny “the Snake” Stabler, Raider fans never went that far.

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Trivia time: What was Cleveland’s baseball team called before it became the Indians?

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Inexhaustible: NASCAR owner/driver Bill Elliott can’t get over what it costs to keep a car going around in circles. Well, OK, ovals.

” The money absolutely blows me away,” he told the Charlotte Observer. “At Charlotte, say it costs $1 million to lap the track in 35 seconds. To take a second off that, it might cost an additional $3 million. To take another half-second off, it might cost you . . . well, it doesn’t double, it just goes out of sight.”

But apparently not out of mind.

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Ponying up: How wealthy is Australian billionaire Kerry Packer, an avid polo player and fan?

Wealthy enough to have a $20-million line of credit at more than a few casinos around the globe.

Wealthy enough to own probably the most impressive strings of polo ponies in Australia, Argentina and England.

And wealthy enough, according to Polo magazine, to once have ordered his Aussie television network, Channel Nine, to send four elevated TV cameras and a state-of-the-art broadcast vehicle to a match in England just so that chukker- by-chukker play could be beamed back to Packer’s bedside in a Sydney hospital, where he was undergoing kidney dialysis.

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Good grief: The Portuguese soccer club Sporting Lisbon recently asked its fans to wear mourning clothes at a home game, flew the club flag at half-staff and had club officials don black armbands.

To honor the passing of a great player or coach? Not a chance.

It was done to protest refereeing decisions the club claims have ruined its championship hopes.

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Trivia answer: The Spiders.

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And finally: Tennis commentator Mary Carillo believes the sport could learn something from boxing.

“The kids terrorizing women’s tennis these days need Muhammad Ali lessons, and they need them now,” she was quoted as saying by the Sporting Life magazine.

“I’m getting a little crabby listening to teenager after teenager tell me that she is the greatest or that she’ll soon be the greatest, or that the current or past greatest isn’t so great. . . . Listening to these kids can be brutal. When they talk about each other they sting like bees, but when Ali spoke, he remembered to float like a butterfly too.”