She’ll See That He Is Thoughtful Son

Flowers, chocolate, jewelry . . . laser eye surgery.

Just a few typical Mother’s Day gifts. No joke.

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots made it an extra special Mother’s Day this year, paying for laser eye surgery for his mother, Barbara.

“In addition to being a great mother,” he said, “she’s always been a great friend.”

Other thoughtful football-playing sons: Running back Priest Holmes of the Baltimore Ravens wanted Sunday to be really special for his mother, Norma, although he couldn’t visit her in San Antonio. So, Holmes hired someone to go to her home, do some housekeeping and cook a special dinner.

Cornerback Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets planned to fly home to Humble, Texas, just so he could see his mother’s face when she sees the new car and refrigerator he bought her.

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Trivia time: When was the last time no Canadian teams reached the Stanley Cup playoffs?

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Avoid that hazard: Wild animals sometimes venture onto the Hans Merensky Country Club golf course in South Africa, but an incident in October sent a chill through area residents.

According to Golf Digest, a German woman was killed by an elephant after she and two others stopped playing and started taking pictures of the animal. The male elephant charged, picked Rita Hahn up with its trunk, threw her to the ground, then trampled her. The animal disappeared into the brush and was never identified.

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Artful dodger: Art Modell, former owner of the Cleveland Browns, is happy in Baltimore, but just don’t ask him about moving his NFL team there.

“Whatever you write,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “they’re going to tear it apart, they’ll butcher it, they’ll editorialize and they’ll pick out a little morsel here and a piece there, and I don’t want that.”

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Lager haas: Don’t assume rising tennis star Tommy Haas loves to throw down a few beers simply because he was born in Germany.

Haas has no favorite beer because he doesn’t really like the brew.

“I know it’s dreadful for a German, but, I don’t know, [beer] just doesn’t go down my throat,” he told Tennis magazine.

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Red card: Coach Dave Dir of the Dallas Burn took aim at the spate of dreaded shootouts in the MLS.

“It’s not my money,” he said, “so I don’t decide how the league is run. If it’s your cash, you should do what you think is best. Personally, it is very confusing in the standings and the tiebreaker has nothing to do with the games and nothing to do with scoring.”

Other than that, they’re just great, right?

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Trivia answer: 1970. The Montreal Canadiens were fifth and the Toronto Maple Leafs sixth in the East Division.

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And finally: Mysterious Croatian tennis star Goran Ivanisevic on his sudden serving problems, and noting he was having yips like Anna Kournikova: “I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like Kournikova. Maybe I should go to jail for a couple of weeks.”