MORNING BRIEFING

Football gets the gold from Ueberroth

He is the outgoing chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and few can argue with the job that Peter Ueberroth performed, especially in light of the success of the U.S. athletes in Beijing.

Ueberroth’s term ends in the fall and then he will move into a non-voting role on the board of directors of the USOC.

Ueberroth, who turns 71 Tuesday, was the man behind the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and was commissioner of baseball for four years, from after the 1984 season to before the 1989 season.

But in a recent interview, Ueberroth said there’s a new national pastime. Sports Business Journal asked him about young people following the Olympics and he said the world is changing quickly.

“You never catch up. You just have to find your opportunities to reconnect,” he said. “That’s not exclusive to the U.S. Olympic movement. That’s also applicable to baseball. It wants to be the national pastime, but I submit that football is the national pastime.”

Somewhere, Roger Goodell is clapping.

Trivia time

Who preceded Ueberroth as MLB commissioner and who succeeded him?

Cover boy

Michael Phelps is still setting the pace, even when it’s just a picture of him.

The Sports Illustrated cover image of Phelps wearing his eight gold medals has sold about 130,000 copies at newsstands, about 72% more than the weekly average, according to the New York Post.

Tell Piniella

Stuart Scott of ESPN asked Chicago guy Barack Obama if he would root for the White Sox or the Cubs if both made it to the World Series.

“That’s easy. The White Sox,” he said. “You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball.”

Ouch

When his kicker/punter, Jason Smith, broke an arm in a non-contact Colorado State scrimmage, Coach Steve Fairchild had an instant reaction: “Our non-contact has a little contact.”

Apparently.

Trivia answer

Bowie Kuhn, Bart Giamatti.

And finally

Tony Stewart told the Dallas Morning News he’s perfectly OK about taking a back seat to Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch in the role of NASCAR’s No. 1 bad boy: “I’m fine with them taking on the wrestling roles for now.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com