Stereotype Gets Poor Reception From Rice

Jerry Rice and the Oakland Raiders are done for the season, but at the age of 39 the future Hall of Fame wide receiver offered some thoughts to Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.

“Whenever I go out, it’s one for the older guys,” said Rice, who had 83 receptions for 1,139 yards this season. “I was reading some quotes from Barry [Bonds], and I’m still living the dream.

“It really says a lot about stereotyping, about getting into your 30s, that you can’t play football anymore. I never really gave in to that. I’m still fighting, working hard, and I think it’s paying off.”

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Another view: Former race driver Oscar Koveleski, on the secret of life: “Die as young as possible at a very old age.”

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Trivia time: How many current Clippers went to high school in California?

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Figure filbert: Sports researcher Richard Lukar, founder of the ESPN-Chilton Sports Poll, is not impressed with the increasing TV ratings of NASCAR.

“I’m not convinced the audience numbers are there outside of the Southeast,” he told the International Sports Summit.

Lukar did, however, acknowledge that he was wrong in one assessment of NASCAR.

“I got a Christmas card from them. I didn’t think I would.”

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Remember the Babe: San Francisco Chronicle reader Rob Brennan poses a question to columnist Tom FitzGerald about the Oakland A’s prospects.

“In the wake of the A’s failure to re-sign Jason Giambi, I wonder if A’s fans need to prepare ourselves for the Curse of the Giambino.”

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Expensive hobby: According to Ed Rush, NBA director of officials, Dallas owner Mark Cuban, who was docked $500,000 for criticizing Rush and his officials, “is just a fan. It goes with the territory.”

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From the Yogi file: Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, in accepting an honorary degree from Roger Williams University, told the graduates: “You have a great future, even if the future isn’t what it used to be.”

Earlier, when asked how he liked school, Yogi replied, “Closed.”

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Prison life: Former middleweight boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter spent 16 years in prison for what turned out to be a wrongful 1966 conviction for a triple-murder.

Carter, in Arizona to speak before a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, told Norm Frauenheim of the Arizona Republic what it was like.

“It’s easy to be angry, and everybody in the world seems to be so angry. Well, for 20 years I sat in the very center of anger.

“That’s what a prison is. A prison is anger. It’s humiliation. It’s the bottom of human existence. I sat there, in that. And I didn’t belong there.”

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Trivia answer: One, Sean Rooks of Fontana.

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And finally: Columnist Claire Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer likens quarterback Donovan McNabb’s success to that of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. She wrote:

“The true genius of Albert Einstein wasn’t appreciated until he simplified all the energies of the universe in one simple equation: E=mc2 .

“In the world according to Donovan, E--energy--also equals mc2--maturity, multiplied by not just a little cool, but major league cool, cool times cool.”