Pregnant Pause Helps ‘Dandy Don’ Zap His Pal

Frank Gifford says in an A&E; “Biography” that in 1990, when he was already a grandfather, Don Meredith was the first person he called after learning wife Kathie Lee was pregnant.

“There was this long pause,” Gifford says before Meredith is shown saying, “I told him not to worry, I’d find out who did it.”

Gifford says that when Kathie Lee became pregnant with their second child three years later, Meredith again was the first person he called.

This time Meredith is shown saying that he told his friend, “Oh no, I killed the wrong guy.”

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Trivia time: What position did Gifford play at USC after transferring from Bakersfield College in 1949?

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Money play: The late touchdown the Philadelphia Eagles scored in the Super Bowl to make the final score 24-21 was a big score for the Las Vegas sports books. It meant New England, a seven-point favorite, didn’t cover.

“Almost every book probably needed New England to win but not cover,” Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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Careful, careful: Baltimore Raven Coach Brian Billick, a regular guest on the Fox Sports radio network morning show heard on XTRA, was recently asked this question by co-host Andrew Siciliano:

“Understanding the NFL tampering rules and the fine line which you must walk, would you in any way at all be interested or would you as a coach accept the challenge of maybe coaching a wide receiver who has a really big Afro and likes to feign pulling his pants down at Lambeau Field?”

Said Billick: “I appreciate the generalities, because we certainly don’t want to identify a specific player like Randy Moss in Minnesota, just for example.”

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Truth be told: Dan Le Batard, for his ESPN the Magazine column, interviewed former Viking Robert Smith about Moss.

Smith, who acknowledged having run-ins with Moss, said, “Anybody who knows what sports are about would want Randy on his team. I saw an online poll: Fifty-five percent said they’d want Randy as a teammate. The other 45% are liars.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1992, Magic Johnson, three months after announcing he was retiring from basketball because he was HIV-positive, was selected most valuable player of the NBA All-Star game after scoring a game-high 25 points and dishing off nine assists to lead the West to a 153-113 victory.

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Trivia answer: Defensive back. As a sophomore in 1949, Gifford had only 12 carries as a halfback for a minus-seven net yards. Gifford, mainly a defensive back in 1950, was an All-American halfback as a senior in 1951, after Jess Hill replaced Jeff Cravath as the Trojans’ coach.

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And finally: Terrell, a Kentucky-bred colt, is getting ready to make a comeback at Santa Anita. The horse has not run since winning an allowance race by seven lengths nearly a year ago. Terrell, named after the Philadelphia Eagles’ Terrell Owens, is a son of Distorted Humor, which seems appropriate.

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