A Recliner, Sure, but Not an Easy Chair to Get

The New England Patriots have been experimenting with on-field, bench-level seats that give fans the same perspective coaches and players have.

They hope to market the seats, 48 cushioned recliners at the 15-yard line in four corners of the stadium, in time for next season. However, in light of the recent player-fan brawl at an NBA game in Detroit, some have questioned the wisdom of placing football fans so close.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello apparently is not concerned.

“Although [football] fans are enthusiastic, I don’t know how many would take the step of attacking a player in full uniform,” he said.

Plus, he added, these won’t be your typical fans. The seats cost $25,000 apiece.

Trivia time: Of the 64 NCAA men’s basketball tournament games played last season, only one was won by a school from the Pacific 10 Conference. Which school was it and what team did it beat?

Hawkeye pride: On rumors that Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz might be headed to Notre Dame, defensive lineman Jonathan Babineaux told the Des Moines Register, “Why would you go back to the bottom, when you’re already at the top?”

No handshakes please: Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez were in New York on Friday and Saturday for “the Ultimate Experience,” an event at which they mingled with fans who paid $7,500 for the opportunity.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler wrote that he would attend, as long as he didn’t have to shake hands.

“There could be flaxseed residue on a ballplayer’s hand,” he wrote. “I can’t afford to absorb any of that stuff through my palm, become even more muscular and outgrow my sport coat.”

Psych job: Rice psychology professor John Eliot has written a book entitled “Overachievement,” in which he professes, among other things, that top athletes don’t care, nor should they, what others think.

Terrell Owens is one of his poster children.

“As soon as you play with Terrell, you realize his goal is to get everyone to believe in themselves,” he said in an interview with Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News.

Intimidated? Actor Barry Pepper, who portrays the late Dale Earnhardt in the ESPN movie “3” that made its debut Saturday night, quickly learned that Earnhardt’s fans would not tolerate a hokey racing movie about “the Intimidator.”

When Pepper arrived for filming in Charlotte, N.C., and Earnhardt’s hometown of Kannapolis, N.C., fans made it clear they wanted him to get it right.

“People came up to me with all these stories, ‘I went to school with him, I worked at the mill with him ...’ ” Pepper told Associated Press. “I was taken to school from the moment I got there.”

Trivia answer: Stanford beat Texas San Antonio in the first round, 71-45, then fell in the second to Alabama.

And finally: Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times, on the mess the bowl championship series has made of college football: “If aliens ever doubt the existence of intelligent life on Earth, they can point to the BCS as confirmation.”