Morning briefing

Fox Sports lives in its own reality

Fox Sports President Ed Goren brought an Emmy to Hollywood . . . uh, Hollywood, Fla. . . . for the Bowl Championship Series meetings this week. It was a victory-lap moment, as his network received the award for televising Boise State’s wild victory over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. In that game, Ian Johnson scored the game-winning two-point conversion in overtime on a Statue of Liberty play, then ran to propose to his girlfriend, Chrissy Popadics.

Fox couldn’t have diagramed it better on the Telestrator. Then again, maybe they did.

“Oh, we set that up,” Goren joked. “We control everything. We thought it was an audition for a reality show.”

Ed, if you really do control everything, can’t Fox get us some sort of college football playoff?

Trivia time

Who are the only two major league players to hit five home runs in a doubleheader?

Running a

circle route

Randy Moss is hitting the road again (easy, New England Patriots fans). The wide receiver introduced Moss Motorsports, entering the world of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

If nothing else, it disproves that old adage about tires. You know, a rolling Firestone gathers no Moss.

No way, Jose

Jose Canseco’s long and winding road has skidded around another hairpin turn. He cried poor to “Inside Edition” this week after losing his $2.5-million home to foreclosure, saying those big contracts are not what they seem.

Said Canseco: “ . . . OK, let’s say it’s $35 million. People have to understand that $35 million, you’re paying the government 41%. That leaves you with about $17 or $18 million, not even. Then you’re taking care of your whole family.”

Makes you wonder how the Cansecos ever managed to scrape by.

Puttering around

UCLA football Coach Rick Neuheisel suffered his first loss to USC on Sunday. Bruins fans will be happy to know it was against the University of South Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Bowl Alma Mater golf tournament.

Neuheisel and UCLA alum Sinjin Smith were tied for second, five shots behind South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier and former Gamecock Sterling Sharpe. Neuheisel told Thestate.com that Sharpe’s tee shots were “mash city.”

Of course, Neuheisel can compare the drives by that Southeastern Conference team with the ones by Tennessee on Labor Day.

Odd couples

Some noteworthy pairings from the golf tournament:

Alabama’s Nick Saban and Ken Stabler (which one is nicknamed “the Snake” again? Miami Dolphins fans want to know).

Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez and Brian Griese (Purdue’s coach did allude to “Rodriguez” and “Griese” in the same sentence, though he didn’t mean Brian).

Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe and Billy Packer finished three shots back of Neuheisel and Smith. So Billy, guess those West Coast schools can play a little golf.

Trivia answer

Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals) and Nate Colbert (San Diego Padres). Footnote: Colbert was an 8-year-old in attendance the day Musial set the record in 1954.

And finally

While honoring the New York Giants for their Super Bowl win, President Bush went for the laugh, saying about Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo’s girlfriend: “We’re going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democratic National Convention.”

You see, Simpson was blamed for the Cowboys’ loss to the Giants, so if she went to the convention . . .

Mr. President, we’d say “don’t quit your day job,” but it ends in January anyway.

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chris.foster@latimes.com