It’s not as if he’s using his flippers

A Brazilian soccer player’s unusual move is causing controversy.

It’s called the “seal dribble.”

The player, a 19-year-old midfielder known as Kerlon, repeatedly bounces the ball off his head like a seal as he darts around opponents, making it difficult for them to stop him without fouling.

You can find video of it on YouTube -- including a clip of an opponent knocking him on whatever the Portuguese word for rear end is Sunday as Kerlon’s Cruzeiro team defeated rival Atletico Mineiro.

The seal dribble, it appears, makes the other team barking mad.

“It’s a provocation,” Atletico Mineiro Coach Emerson Leao said in an Associated Press report. “He may have to be sidelined for several years if he gets kicked in the face. I hope that never happens.”

Kerlon’s response?

“I’ll never stop doing the play,” he said. “They’ll need to create a new law if they want me to stop.”

We say: Save the seal dribble. It’s even more fun than a nutmeg.

Trivia time

When was the last time USC’s opponent this week, Washington State, defeated a No. 1-ranked football team, and which team was it?

He’ll still go fast

In the tradition of such Jewish baseball stars as Shawn Green, Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, NHRA Funny Car driver Mike Ashley has chosen not to race Saturday in observance of Yom Kippur.

The Jewish Day of Atonement, marked by prayer and fasting, begins Friday at sundown and ends Saturday at nightfall.

“Racing is not the only thing in life, and definitely not the most important in the big picture,” Ashley said. “I take what I do on the racetrack very seriously, but I take life even more seriously.”

Readers recall

News reports that the designers of Central Florida’s new football stadium failed to include drinking fountains prompted readers June Gregson and J. Mark Pierce to write that Dodger Stadium didn’t have fountains for spectators when it opened in 1962, either.

According to Times archives, city officials identified two -- one in each dugout.

Just saying no

A different sort of beverage will be scarce at University of Colorado men’s and women’s basketball games.

Colorado athletic department officials told the Boulder Daily Camera this week that beer will no longer be sold at games in the . . . um, uh . . . Coors Events Center.

Beer sales have been banned at Buffaloes’ football games since 1996 -- in the cheap seats, anyway. Beer remains available to private groups at the Coors Event Center and in Folsom Field’s private suites and club seating areas.

Trivia answer

On Oct. 29, 1988, Washington State defeated top-ranked UCLA at the Rose Bowl, 34-30.

Beane counters

A Sports Illustrated poll of 469 major league players determined that Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane is not considered the smartest person in baseball.

The players’ choice: San Diego Padres pitcher Greg Maddux, who earned 10% of votes, edging Beane, at 9%.

St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa tied for third at 5% with Houston Astros catcher Brad Ausmus.

And finally

Michigan running back Mike Hart, who made good on his guarantee the Wolverines football team would beat Notre Dame, is out of the prediction business as Michigan prepares to play Penn State.

“It worked out, I guess,” he told reporters. “But I think I should quit while I’m ahead.”

--

robyn.norwood@latimes.com