That’s News to Promoters in Boxing and WWE

Pro football is this country’s most popular sport. But what about the most hated?

According to a poll conducted by Sports Marketing Group in Atlanta, dogfighting is No. 1, followed by pro wrestling and bullfighting.

Boxing is No. 4. Wonder why? Could it be the lack of integrity, or just the people involved in the sport?

Trivia time: Who set a National League record in 2001 when he pitched 72 1/3 innings without a base on balls?

Devoted husband: Heard the one about the golfer who is playing with three strangers when a funeral procession goes by on an adjacent road?

The foursome is on a green at the time, and one golfer takes off his cap and waits for the procession to pass.

“That was a nice thing to do,” says one of the strangers.

“The least I could do,” the golfer says. “I was married to her for 45 years.”

A triple bogey: In the poll of hated sports, the three golf tours, PGA, Champions and LPGA, finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Associated Press said 1,000 people took part. Must have been more than a few golf widows among them.

Motivation, by George: ESPN Classic will air a two-part “SportsCentury” on the New York Yankees today and Tuesday at 5 p.m. In the show, Graig Nettles says of owner George Steinbrenner:

“He would come in and yell at us, or rip us in the newspaper. And if we played well after he ripped us, he thought that he actually spurred us on to the victory, which he didn’t. But in his mind, he thought he did.”

A silver lining: Randy Hill of FoxSports.com says he has mixed emotions about Rush Limbaugh’s resignation from ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.”

“Every second that Limbaugh spent talking was another second that Chris Berman didn’t,” Hill said.

The big secret: NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” weighed in on the Limbaugh situation.

“Finally, someone has the guts to say what the liberal media doesn’t want you to know -- black people are not good at sports,” said Tina Fey.

More Limbaugh: From David Letterman’s “Top 10 things on Rush Limbaugh’s to-do list”:

* “Apologize for racist remarks by explaining I was high on illegal painkillers.”

* “Check job listings for pompous blowhard.”

Trivia answer: Greg Maddux. Note: Maddux’s streak ended with an intentional walk.

And finally: One topic on Fox’s NFL pregame show Sunday was Emmitt Smith’s saying that in his last season with the Dallas Cowboys he felt like “a diamond surrounded by trash,” a comment for which he later apologized.

Apologies are easy, as Terry Bradshaw attests.

Bradshaw said of his ex-wife, his third, “A skinny thing. I told her, kiddingly, ‘Honey, you look good now that you’ve put on some weight.’ I apologized immediately, but did she forgive me? No, she filed for divorce.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.