He Feels Melancholy About Dayne

Shaun Powell in Newsday: “There aren’t many ways in which a 253-pound man can disappear, unless he’s a running back who can’t find a big hole or role.

“Ron Dayne was supposed to be the one player who’d make a difference between this year and last, and yet the Giants aren’t going to the Super Bowl because of him. It’s more as if it’s in spite of him. . . .

“At Wisconsin, they understandably called him the Great Dayne, but so far in the NFL, No-gain Dayne is a little more accurate. . . . “

“[The Giants] drafted a big, sturdy running back, who carried a team in college and ran for more than 6,000 yards. But in the NFL, Dayne is still looking for two yards on third and one.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Super Bowl single-game record for passes completed?

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Oh, joy: John Eisenberg in the Baltimore Sun: “The Ravens are heading to the Super Bowl for the first time, a relatively new team forging a new set of indelible images, their improbable success casting a summery light amid January’s gloom and chill.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did and it will never feel this good again.”

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Edible hazard: During ESPN’s “PGA Tour Rules” special during the second round of the Mercedes tournament, several players were asked questions on obscure rules.

One was: “A pineapple is inadvertently kicked into a bunker not in the intended swing path. May it be removed without penalty?”

Brad Faxon asked, “Has a bite been taken out of it yet?”

Anyway, the answer was, the pineapple may not be removed.

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Picking on Pitino: Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel: “I better reread Rick Pitino’s book ‘Success Is a Choice,’ because I forgot the chapter about ‘Quitting in Midseason Because We Stink Out Loud.’ ”

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Private tantrum: South African golfer Hennie Otto broke his clubs and threw them into a river after a 10-over-par round last week in the South Africa Masters tournament in Johannesburg.

He escaped sanction from the South African Tour because his “transgression did not take place during a tournament round or in public view.”

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Crude clod: Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post:

“Viking defensive lineman John Randle has been fined by the league office for pretending to urinate on the field after sacking Aaron Brooks. Just a hunch, but I’m presuming he isn’t your role model either.

“Speaking of which, Charles Barkley, who weighed in at 337 pounds the other day on TV, has reportedly swallowed Tony Siragusa whole.”

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FYI: Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm are the favorite male and female athletes among readers of Sports Illustrated for Kids.

Jordan won the award for the sixth consecutive year. Runner-up was Tiger Woods. Cynthia Cooper followed Hamm.

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Looking back: On this day in 1968, Elvin Hayes scored 39 points in leading Houston to a 71-69 victory over UCLA, ending the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak.

A regular-season record crowd of 52,693 attended the game at the Astrodome.

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Trivia answer: Jim Kelly of Buffalo, 31, against Dallas in 1994.

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And finally: Isiah Thomas, in an interview with Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune, commenting on Allen Iverson:

“He’s one of the few players worth the price of admission. He’s truly great in terms of stamina and the ability to compete every night.

“What gets him over the top is that he’s a great athlete who will never say die. He’s tough and fearless. There’s not a thing on the court he can’t do if he wants to do it.”