MVP Choice Has One Man Seeing Red

Jerry Magee in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “They gave the truck to the wrong guy. If Kurt Warner wants to demonstrate some of that Christian charity he talks so much about, he should tool over to Steve McNair’s house and hand him the keys to the Ford XLT Triton V8 he was awarded for the Super Bowl MVP.

”. . . In the area that is most vital to winning and losing football games, the red zone, the former grocery boy [Warner] was like a shopper looking for green beans in Aisle 3 when they were over there with the ketchup in Aisle 6. He was lost.

“He was a one-for-13 passer, and a man shouldn’t be celebrated for that. Even on double-coupons day.

“McNair was the guy who gave this game a special dimension, lifting it up until it became something few football games do, theater in the highest sense.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 Conference record for the highest free-throw percentage in a season?

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Bird brain: Indiana Coach Larry Bird when asked if he would “pick Michael Jordan’s brain” before deciding whether he would go into the Pacer front office, as Jordan recently did with Washington:

“Hell, no. I’ve got my own brain. It don’t work very well, but I’ve got my own brain.”

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A real workout: Guests at Phoenix’s Biltmore Resort & Spa can rent electronic mountain bikes, complete with motors that riders can turn on when they tire of pedaling, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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Double standard: Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune commenting on John Rocker: “Be a baseball player and be politically incorrect and you get kicked out of spring training and the first month of the season.

“Be a comic and be politically incorrect and you get your own late-night series.”

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Good night: Headline in the New York Post: “ROCKER BYE BABY.”

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Fast-food rendezvous: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “During the Rams’ victory parade, five men approached Georgia Frontiere’s convertible and asked her to marry them, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“One offered to meet her at a White Castle hamburger stand. Frontiere passed.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1982, skier Steve Mahre, twin brother of overall champion Phil Mahre, became the first American man to win a gold medal in Olympic or World Championship competition when he edged Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark by 0.51 of a second in the giant slalom.

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Trivia answer: Rod Foster of UCLA, .950 in 1982.

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And finally: NBA star Penny Hardaway is having a home built in Florida’s exclusive Isleworth community, where Ken Griffey Jr., Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara live. Some of the highlights from Newhouse News Service:

“Forty-thousand square feet of stunning indulgence that would include a 6,000-square-foot master suite, a 3,500-square foot living room, a 25-seat movie theater, a four-story grand stairway, a 12-car underground garage, a full-sized basketball court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a miniature golf course in addition to the ordinary fare (sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi, video arcade, wine cellar, weight room and waterfall).”