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A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel”

Where: HBO, today, 1 and 8 p.m.

Reporter Armen Keteyian delivers a telling look at the Washington Redskins’ new coach, Steve Spurrier.

Viewers learn that the 57-year-old coach is a follower of Sun Tzu, a Far Eastern philosopher whose book, “Art of War,” professes the importance of winning decisively.

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Spurrier, who won six Southeastern Conference titles and one national championship (1996) at Florida, has been called an offensive genius. Keteyian notes that Spurrier prefers to be known as an offensive “mastermind.”

Of his reputation for having a big ego, Spurrier says, “If our teams didn’t score a lot of points, I may be known as a nice guy.”

One thing that provides some insight into Spurrier’s psyche is a story he tells about his father, a strict Presbyterian minister in Johnson City, Tenn.

“One year he asked our Babe Ruth League team, ‘How many of you believe it’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game?’ ” Spurrier says. “A few kids raised their hands and he told them they were wrong. He said, ‘The game is played to be won.’ ”

At the end of the piece, Spurrier tells Keteyian: “We could still fall flat on our face if we don’t keep pushing, pushing, pushing.”

Keteyian: “You think you’ll fall flat on your face?”

Spurrier: “I don’t think so, but I know it’s possible. I’ve seen so many great coaches who think they’ve got it made, and one or two years later they’re broadcasting, or doing something like that.”

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Another segment examines traveling youth baseball, which makes Little League appear laid-back.

Teams consisting of kids 13 and under play as many as 120 games a season. Two teams featured are the Say Hey Kids of Antioch, Calif., and the San Diego Cobras.

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