Will His Team Win One for the Bleeper?

Count Randy Hill of Foxsports.com as one who totally enjoyed Bob Knight’s recent foul-mouthed interview, with Iowa Coach Steve Alford taking it all in, for ESPN.

Hill was amused by Knight’s version of setting the record straight in an attempt to discredit “the media” for portraying a rift between the Texas Tech coach and his former player.

“Mistaking the interview for an episode of ‘South Park,’ Knight began cursing up a storm,” Hill writes. “His language was as filthy as a Christina Aguilera music video. ESPN was obliged to use so many bleeps that the interview easily could have been interpreted as a test of the emergency broadcast system.

“Alford absorbed this tirade with a blank expression that, if put into words, might have been translated as, ‘I don’t give a bleep.’ ”

Trivia time: What is Michigan’s record in the Rose Bowl game?

Christmas spirit: After New Orleans kicker John Carney missed an extra-point kick to give Jacksonville a 20-19 victory last Sunday, Saint Coach Jim Haslett complained that the Jaguars had been guilty of “leverage” on the attempt.

Jacksonville Coach Jack Del Rio then suggested that the Saints should worry more about their run defense.

Ouch. Del Rio subsequently apologized to Haslett and told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “It’s Christmastime, and I don’t want to be like Ebenezer Scrooge.”

No flavor: To say that New York didn’t buy into the Knicks’ Scott Layden in his four years as the team’s general manager would be a vast understatement. After several questionable moves and four forgettable years, Layden was fired last week and replaced by Isiah Thomas.

Chris Broussard of the New York Times wrote: “Layden never belonged on Broadway. He was Bob Newhart when Jerry Seinfeld was in order, Richie Cunningham when the job called for the Fonz. Layden ... was bland and conservative when the franchise needed someone with charisma and the ability to make things happen with a finger snap.”

NFL firepower: In an interview with the New York Times, former NFL offensive tackle Lomas Brown said that almost every player he knew in the league owned a gun by the time he’d retired last season.

“Guns are rampant in football,” Brown said. “You have all these players packing guns wherever they go. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

Trivia answer: The Wolverines are 8-9, including a 2-4 record against USC.

And finally: Former Clipper Darius Miles, now playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been mistaken for Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver Plaxico Burress so many times, Miles’ girlfriend jokingly calls him Plaxico.

“I was in a restaurant once and this kid came up to me with a Steelers’ jersey on,” Miles told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I had on a Cavaliers’ hat and shirt and the kid asked if I was Plaxico and could he have my autograph. I’ve been told I look like Plaxico all the time, but don’t let that out because I don’t want any Browns’ fans thinking I’m Plaxico by mistake.”