His Favorite Singer Must Be Peggy Lee

It’s probably a good thing Tom Brady never played for Vince Lombardi. A good thing for Brady, that is.

“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there is something greater out there for me?” the 28-year-old New England Patriot quarterback told “60 Minutes” in a show to be broadcast Sunday on CBS. “A lot of people would say, ‘This is what it is.’ I reached my goal, my dream. It’s got to be more than this. I mean, this isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.”

The good news for poor Tom is that all 53 members of the San Francisco 49ers would be happy to relieve him of his agony by switching uniforms with him.

The odor is unmistakable: “If [49er Coach] Mike Nolan truly likes the ‘smell’ of his team,” wrote San Jose Mercury News columnist Bud Geracie, “he must have grown up on a horse farm. The team I saw last Sunday is the worst football team I’ve ever seen. But I’ve only been watching since 1965.”

Add tough crowd: After the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 36-0, on the day the Giants paid tribute to their late owner, Wellington Mara, Tony Kornheiser wrote in the Washington Post: “The Redskins were simply so awful, they would have lost to Wellington Mara’s 40 grandchildren.”

Trivia time: The Arizona Wildcats, defending Pacific 10 Conference men’s basketball champions, were picked to repeat in the annual media preseason poll. Stanford was second, UCLA third. USC was eighth.

How often have the media accurately picked the Pac-10 winner?

The good life: Golf Digest ranks Dennis Quaid No. 1 on a list of Hollywood’s top 100 golfers. Tea Leoni is ranked first among women. Said Quaid: “There are three things being a celebrity is good for: raising money for charity, dinner reservations and tee times.”

On the other hand: Tom Cruise ranks last but is complimented for regularly tipping his caddies $100. That’s probably a finder’s fee for lost balls.

Been there, heard that: After winning their opener in Seattle on Wednesday, the Clippers can sympathize with the media criticism directed at the SuperSonics.

“On an opening night that was as festive as a funeral,” wrote Steve Kelley in the Seattle Times, “the Sonics were outhustled, and outplayed and, yes, outcoached by the outmanned Los Angeles Clippers.”

Trivia answer: In the 13 seasons the media have predicted the Pac-10 champion, they have been correct nine times, or 69% of the time.

And finally: Rocky Mountain News columnist Bernie Lincicome wasn’t a member of the welcoming committee when Phil Jackson came back to Denver for Wednesday’s opener.

“The return of puppet master Jackson to the Lakers [does not] merit much thought,” Lincicome wrote, “other than the rather curious spectacle of a legend licking his own boots.

“A man who gets $10 million a year, three years to fail and someone to blame it all on is not a figure of sympathy. If Jackson restores the Lakers, he is a marvel. And if he does not, it will be Kobe Bryant’s fault.”