You Can Be Sure They’ll Hear It in Omaha Too

Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News on Colorado’s surprising 62-36 rout of Nebraska:

“After a decade of misery, gloating is not only permitted, it is demanded....

“The game was less Big 12, bone-crunching football than some kind of flea circus and bicycle race. This is what each team usually does to lesser teams, but never to each other.

“The final score looked like something out of Big East conference basketball and the total yards (1,134) for the two teams would make Brigham Young jealous. This was offense in an instant, just add amazement and stir.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for interceptions in a season?

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It still works: The trick is so old it’s surprising anybody falls for it anymore. But there are always new pigeons, er, athletes.

Recently, the Cleveland Browns’ rookie players and coaches were given fliers telling them to go to a local grocery store for a free turkey. When they arrived, they were given a package of salt wrapped up to look like a turkey.

They didn’t discover they had been had until they got home.

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Blah, blah: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “What’s the most useless part of ‘Monday Night Football’--Dennis Miller or sideline reporter Eric Dickerson? Neither. My vote goes to the halftime show where the TV boys plant a mike on a player or coach. Who can forget: ‘Aw, we really needed that one!’ and ‘Come on!’ [Brian Billick]. Or: ‘Whoo! Whoo!’ [Jerome Bettis]. Insight city.”

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More Ostler: “If you’re ever going to mike someone, how about miking a cheerleader, or the disgruntled veteran player on the end of the bench, or the face-painted fan gulping his ninth beer? Or the player making a drug deal?”

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Miserable matchup: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “Rutgers is so bad it was a two-touchdown underdog at home against an 0-10 team [California].” Cal won to “improve” to 1-10.

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Dynamic duo: Jayson Stark on ESPN.com: “Counting the postseason, the Diamondbacks won 103 games this year. [Curt] Schilling and [Randy] Johnson won 52 of them all by themselves.

“The other 20 men who threw a pitch for them--including Steve Finley, who mopped up for an inning Aug. 30-- combined to win 51.”

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What did he know? The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that Lennox Lewis was so confident of victory in his Nov. 17 rematch against Hasim Rahman that he bet $2 million on himself.

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Exciting news: Ken Rudolph of Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”: “In NASCAR news, Jeff Gordon won his fourth Winston Cup championship.

“Gordon’s excitement over the award was sponsored by Pennzoil.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1927, USC lost to Notre Dame, 7-6, before an estimated crowd of 120,000 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

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Trivia answer: Dick “Night Train” Lane, Los Angeles Rams, 14, in 1952.

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And finally: New York Giant defensive end Michael Strahan, with 16 sacks in 11 games, is threatening to break the NFL season record of 22 set by Mark Gastineau of the New York Jets in 1984.

Sacks weren’t recorded as an NFL statistic until 1982.