Irvin Had No Trouble With Oral Reports

Michael Irvin played football at Miami. So did Jeremy Shockey. Neither is very shy.

Irvin, who was talking about Shockey on Dan Patrick’s ESPN radio show Monday, said, “My first day at Miami, after I got through signing up for all the classes you need to take, they took me over to this other building. That’s where I signed up for Trash Talk 101.

“That was the one class I aced.”

More Shockey: In New York magazine, Shockey, the New York Giants’ second-year tight end, was quoted referring to Bill Parcells as a “homo.”

Parcells, interviewed by Jimmy Johnson for “Fox NFL Sunday,” was asked about Shockey.

“Sometimes you run into guys that are enthusiastic and not really worldly in the ways of the media, but by and large I don’t take anything like that personally,” Parcells said.

Irvin has a different view.

“He tries to come across as this dumb guy from this little town in Oklahoma,” Irvin said. “But he knows what he’s doing. When’s the last time you saw a tight end doing commercials?”

Jeremy’s world: Shockey, interviewed by ESPN newcomer Jamal Anderson, was asked whether he had a problem with homosexuals.

“No, no problem,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you do behind closed doors. I just say, ‘Don’t do it in front of me,’ that’s it. I understand it goes on and stuff like that, but how I was raised in a small town, you never saw anything like that.”

Trivia time: What school ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak in basketball?

Attacking the curse: In an HBO documentary titled “The Curse of the Bambino,” to be shown Sept. 16, the woes of Boston Red Sox fans are examined. The Red Sox haven’t won a World Series since Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920.

In the show, actor Denis Leary, a lifelong Red Sox fan, says, “I am against cloning, but since we have him already, why don’t we just clone Ted Williams and get, like, 10 Teds. Get, like, the starting lineup of all Teds. The Yankees have all the money, let’s get all the clones.”

Heady stuff: Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune offers this:

“Question: What kind of shampoo does Ted Williams use?

“Answer: Shoulders.”

Trivia answer: Notre Dame beat UCLA, 71-70, on Jan. 19, 1974. The Irish didn’t lead until the last shot.

And finally: XTRA program director Don Martin, explaining why his station is so excited about carrying Oakland Raider games this season, cited a Street & Smith Sports Business Journal poll that showed the Raiders are, by far, L.A.’s most popular NFL team.

The Raiders were voted the No. 1 favorite by 26.5% of the voters. The San Francisco 49ers were second at 12.8%, followed by the St. Louis Rams (7.4%), Dallas Cowboys (7.3%), Green Bay Packers (6.4%), Pittsburgh Steelers (3.4%) and San Diego Chargers (2.8%).

If the Raiders continue to play as sloppily as they did against Tennessee on Sunday, that lead may begin to dwindle.

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