Reggie Bush scandal costs USC more hardware and prestige

For Lane Kiffin and USC, fallout from the Reggie Bush scandal continues to be a pain in the asterisk.…

It’s somehow apt that the Trojans were asked to return the Grantland Rice Trophy after being stripped of the 2004 Football Writers Assn. of America national championship.…

Grantland Rice was the legendary early 20th century sportswriter who penned these famous words: “When the great scorer comes/to mark against your name/He’ll write not ‘won’ or ‘lost’/but how you played the game.”…

Bush played it fast and loose.…

Reader and former state Sen. Tom Hayden, describing himself as a devoted Dodgers fan, e-mails to suggest it would be a mistake for the team to dump Manny Ramirez.…

In a six-paragraph missive, Jane Fonda’s second husband also accuses sportswriters of “going soft” on the McCourt family, “which has squandered so much of its wealth on mansions, and now lawyers … which could have purchased better pitching.”…

If Ramirez winds up with the Chicago White Sox, he’d become the fifth ex-Dodger on Ozzie Guillen’s roster, joining Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, Paul Konerko and Edwin Jackson.…

Of the teams with the 10 highest payrolls in the major leagues, a list that includes the Angels, only Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees are virtual locks for the playoffs.…

Meanwhile, three teams with payrolls among the bottom 10 — the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays — probably will join them.…

Albert Pujols continues to insist he’s not a power hitter, but his average of 40 home runs a season suggests otherwise.…

Four years ago, after leading Spain to the title but before many Lakers fans knew much about him, the most valuable player in the FIBA World Championships was Pau Gasol.…

According to Forbes magazine’s annual rankings, the two teams that fled Southern California after the 1994 season rank among the NFL’s least valuable franchises.…

The combined value of the St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders, Forbes reports, is less than the value of Jerry Jones’ chart-topping Dallas Cowboys, which reportedly are worth $1.805 billion.…

Former USC safety Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, asked by the Sporting News whether any coaches ever gave him a hard time about his famously long hair: “No. I get more questions about how they can take better care of their own hair.”…

An 18-game NFL schedule seems inevitable, even if it might mean shorter careers for players and even more meaningless games in the season’s final weeks.…

It also would push the Super Bowl later into February.…

In a pair of college football openers Sept. 4, former UCLA quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson leads Sacramento State against Stanford and former USC quarterback Aaron Corp leads Richmond against Virginia.…

So, while studying game tapes the following week before games against Stanford and Virginia, the Bruins and Trojans also will have a chance to check up on their former teammates.…

Reader Christopher Foster of South Pasadena e-mails to ask, “Why won’t Vin Scully pronounce the first ‘d’ in Scott Podsednik’s name?”…

Answer: because it’s silent.…

Jeff Kearin, coach of a high school football team in Oregon that had 24 players receive hospital treatment for pain and swelling in their arms this summer after an “immersion camp,” is a former Cal State Northridge coach and USC assistant.…

South Florida held its 10-day football training camp at the former site of Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla. …

Kings captain Dustin Brown, on his life motto, tells Sporting News Today: “Life is too short to be ticked off.”…

Noting that Dennis Rodman claimed this week in an interview to have had sex with 2,000 women, reader Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., e-mails to note, “I always said he was one-tenth the player Wilt Chamberlain was.”…

Memo to oversleeping Jim Furyk: We’ve all been there.…

Rafael Nadal, winner of eight Grand Slam events but still looking for his first U.S. Open title, wore a watch at the French Open that reportedly was worth $525,000.…

Perhaps Furyk could use one.

jerry.crowe@latimes.com