In a Way, They Are Both Meat Markets

Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel, who allowed his players to visit the Playboy Mansion on Thursday afternoon, realizes some people might view it as inappropriate.

“It’s a tourist attraction, and the players voted that they wanted to see it,” Neuheisel said.

“There’s always going to be criticism. Vegetarians could criticize us for going to Lawry’s Prime Rib.”

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No thrill rides: On Wednesday, the Washington team visited Magic Mountain. At the Playboy Mansion, one of the Husky players was overheard saying, “All this place needs is a roller coaster.”

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Trivia time: In what year was the first telecast of an NFL game?

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Shampoo needed: Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly, a guest on Fox Sports Net’s “The Last Word With Jim Rome,” was asked who will win the Super Bowl.

“I’m rooting for Oakland to win it all because I’d love to see some sort of liquid hit Al Davis’ hair. Maybe that’s the only way he gets it washed.”

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More Reilly: Also a guest on CBS’ “The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn” this week, Reilly listed the biggest idiots in sports. One was Goran Ivanisevic, who recently had to default from a tennis tournament in London because he’d broken every racket in his bag.

“You would think because you’re down to your last racket and you know if you break one more you’re out of the tournament that you might stop yourself,” Reilly said. “Not this guy.”

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Shocking development: Reilly also nominated a 43-year-old fisherman from Ukraine:

“He had this great idea to hook electrical wires up to his jumper cables and run the jumper cables out to his lake. He then turned on the electrical current in his house. It worked because all the fish came up to the surface.

“But then he waded into the pond and electrocuted himself.”

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Overshadowed: The San Francisco 49ers play the Denver Broncos today in the last regular-season game at Mile High Stadium. The game will also be the last for Jerry Rice as a 49er.

Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News writes, “There is no good reason for Rice to play. Rice belongs to San Francisco, not Denver. We have our own nostalgia to preoccupy our emotions.”

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Write-hand man: Willard Nixon, who died earlier this month at 72, pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1950-58. The club kept him around not so much for his pitching--he ended with a 69-72 record--but for his ability to forge autographs.

Does that mean some of Ted Williams’ autographs may not be genuine?

“They’d bring boxes of balls and stuff like that over to Ted, and he’d say, ‘Give it to Willard,’ ” Don Fitzpatrick, the Red Sox clubhouse man in the 1950s, told the New York Times. “He signed hundreds of balls for Williams.

“That’s why we thought he’d never be traded or released.”

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Trivia answer: A game on Oct. 22, 1939, in which the football Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-14, was televised to about 1,000 New York homes.

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And finally: Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Phoenix Suns and managing general partner of the Diamondbacks, may be one owner who is getting fed up with the sports business and media criticism.

“I’m in a funk right now,” he told the Arizona Republic. “I’m pondering things. I’m not going beyond [pondering], but this is a time of deep reflection. I’m not sure what the next thing is.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before. . . . And the bottom line is, I’m a hell of a lot more respected in other places than I am here.”