From Sports to Courts, It’s a Real Food Fight

Concession stands are part of the scenery at sporting events, but the last few days have yielded a curious mixture of sports, food and beverages -- with litigation rushing to join the equation.

Let’s start with the pea soup incident after Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over visiting Arsenal that ended Arsenal’s record unbeaten streak of 49 games in English soccer’s Premier League.

There were charges that an Arsenal player tossed a cup of pea soup at United’s coach, Alex Ferguson, soiling his suit.

Pea soup? That never even happened during the heated Laker-Sacramento days.

Then there was boxer-entrepreneur George Foreman, who filed a lawsuit in Chicago against a coffee company for what he said was the unauthorized use of his name and likeness to promote a brand called George Foreman Gentle Java.

Probably just as well. It would have taken months to roast coffee beans on a Foreman Grill.

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Trivia time: Who threw 70 passes in one NFL game?

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Hockey news: The Kings’ Sean Avery, in a recent interview in Penthouse’s Sporting America, addressed topics that usually don’t come up in hockey stories:

Question: On average, do you think hockey players get the best babes? Better than baseball, basketball or football?

Answer: I’ve seen a lot of the basketball and NFL players’ wives, and they definitely don’t measure up, but I’ve seen their girlfriends, and that kind of pulls them up out of the gutter somewhat.

Q: Name a teammate you’ve had over the years who seems to think that showering after the game is optional?

A: Pretty much every Czech player.

Winning spirit: Yankee coach Willie Randolph, who interviewed for the Mets’ managerial position Monday, figures he’s just the man for the job.

“I’m a winner; I know about winning,” he said. “That’s what you have to rely on. It’s not rocket science.”

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History lesson: Steve Vanderpool of stats.com did some research, noting the four times that teams that won the World Series came from the same state as that year’s presidential election winner.

1972: Richard Nixon (Calif.) (reelected) -- Oakland Athletics.

1936: Franklin Roosevelt (N.Y.) (reelected) -- Yankees.

1932: Roosevelt -- Yankees.

1920: Warren Harding (Ohio) -- Cleveland Indians.

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Media training: Arizona’s Mike Stoops appears to be fighting the learning curve in his first year as a head football coach.

Quizzed by reporters about the departure of quarterback Nic Costa, Stoops replied with a question of his own, followed by a two-word answer: “What do you want me to say? He quit.”

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Trivia answer: Drew Bledsoe, then with the Patriots, completed 45 of 70 passes in a 26-20 win over Minnesota in 1994.

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And finally: Viking quarterback Daunte Culpepper spoke about staying within his limits on “The NFL Today” on CBS:

“This offense is like a car. A Ferrari. A 360 Spyder. I can tell you, man, it’s just, ‘Run the offense.’ You don’t have to make a great play every play. Sometimes you have to throw the ball away. Next play, big play ... Boom!”