Hopefully, They Will Have an Ear for Music

For the 1989 Super Bowl pregame show, NBC staged a talent contest involving NFL players.

Dick Ebersol, who became the head of NBC Sports later that year, was not a fan of the talent contest.

“You won’t be seeing any more talent contests on NBC,” he said.

Ebersol, however, is not running ABC.

A similar talent contest makes its debut at halftime of “Monday Night Football” tonight.

This is the first of seven segments, spaced over the remainder of the season, in which players will be paired with their favorite musicians, and fans will be asked to vote online for the best acts.

First up in tonight’s contest will be Detroit Lion quarterback Joey Harrington, a pianist, who will be joined by John Popper and Jason Mraz, going up against San Diego Charger defensive end Marcellus Wiley, a rapper, who has DMC and Vic Damone on his team.

Ebersol might have had the right idea.

*

Trivia time: Not the winning act but the most memorable one in the talent contest at the 1989 Super Bowl was what well-known player doing a Randy Dangerfield-type comedy routine?

*

For tough guys only: Keyshawn Johnson, a guest of Chris Myers and Bob Golic on KMPC (1540), was asked if Maurice Clarett is ready for the NFL.

“If I’m a GM,” Johnson said, “I would not draft Clarett because of mental capacity. [It’s] not anything to do with his physical ability to perform, it’s his mental toughness.... This isn’t the NBA.”

*

Easy target: Of Clarett, KFWB’s Bret Lewis said: “He has sued the NFL in hopes of entering the draft, which could lead to a class-action suit. At first Clarett didn’t want to file the suit, but his lawyers explained that a class-action suit didn’t mean he’d have to go to class.”

*

The original line: Sunday’s Morning Briefing contained a line by the late Jim Murray about older ballplayers, which went something like: “When it becomes time to say goodbye, they start to say hello.”

Longtime sports journalist Murray Olderman e-mailed to explain the origin of that line.

“It was first written by Frank Graham of the New York Journal-American about Bob Meusel, a gruff outfielder in his fading days with the New York Yankees’ famed Murderers Row: ‘He’s learning to say hello when it’s time to say goodbye,’ ” Olderman said.

*

Infamy minus one: Ken Mackenzie, a member of the 1962 New York Mets, is apparently glad the Detroit Tigers missed that team’s record of 120 losses in a season.

“They don’t deserve it,” he told the New York Post’s Steve Serby last week. “They’re not bad enough to be the worst.”

Trivia answer: Reggie White.

*

And finally: On Fox’s NFL pregame show Sunday, Howie Long said, “Is anybody else just sick and tired of Rich Gannon’s immature tirades?”

Later in the day, Terrell Owens became the leader in that category.

*

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