THE INSIDE TRACK : MORNING BRIEFING : This One Should Be a No-Brainer

Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times, writing on Sammy Sosa’s request to restructure his contract with the Chicago Cubs:

“Write the contract for $120 million. Place it on a silver platter with the finest caviar and hand-deliver it to [him]. Bring belly dancers, offer to shine his shoes, bow repeatedly. And hope he doesn’t swat you away like a Milwaukee curveball.

“That should be the swift approach of the Tribune Co. after Sosa’s shrewdly timed renegotiation request, which is terrifying enough to trigger every fire alarm in Wrigleyville.”

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Trivia time: What are the largest margins of victory for USC and UCLA in football?

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Fragile giant: Because he twice broke his left foot, 7-foot-3, 345-pound basketball player Brad Millard of St. Mary’s has played only five games over the last two seasons.

“Pete Newell dubbed him ‘Big Continent,’ ” Gael Coach Dave Bollwinkel told ESPN the Magazine. “I call him ‘Atlantis,’ because the last two years he has been the lost continent.”

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The real homer record: Homer Bush of the Toronto Blue Jays hit his fifth home run of the season Saturday. So what, you might say? It’s the most home runs in a season by a player named Homer.

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Wait a minute: Jason Kidd says that with Penny Hardaway joining him, the Phoenix Suns might have the best backcourt in NBA history.

“I’d say they’re one or two players away,” wrote Scott Ostler of MSNBC. “Among the duos that Jason and Penny would have to beat out would be Jerry West-Gail Goodrich, Magic Johnson-Norm Nixon, Clyde Frazier-Earl Monroe, Sam Jones-K.C. Jones, Isiah Thomas-Joe Dumars and Michael Jordan-Yo Mama.”

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Name game: Bob Tompkins of the Alexandria (La.) Town Talk: “Steeped in French heritage, the University of Southwestern Louisiana has a new name--the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Does that mean USL will now be known as U La-La?”

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FYI: The crowd of 111,523 at Ann Arbor on Saturday that watched Michigan play Notre Dame is a modern-day attendance record, but not the largest crowd to see a college football game.

The 1927 USC-Notre Dame game at Soldier Field in Chicago drew an estimated 120,000, as did the Navy-Notre Dame game in 1928 at the same site.

The 1929 USC-Notre Dame game at Soldier Field attracted 112,912.

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Trivia answer: USC beat Pomona, 80-0, in 1925, and UCLA beat Stanford, 72-0, in 1954.

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And finally: New York Jet linebacker Bryan Cox was disgusted with his play against the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game because he recorded no tackles and one assist.

“That’s one away from a dead man,” he said. “Actually, a dead man is going to make one tackle because somebody is going to trip and fall over him.”