To Say He’s Lost Is a Bit Understated

As reported in Morning Briefing recently, Canadian broadcaster Mark Jones has been known to mangle geography during U.S. football assignments.

For example, he once referred to a large football crowd in Las Vegas as “the largest crowd ever in the state of Las Vegas.”

Now it has been learned that when Jones called the 1991 Louisiana State-Georgia game, the first game played in Georgia’s newly enlarged Sanford Stadium, he called the crowd: “The biggest sports crowd ever in the state of Atlanta.”

If he ever does a Rose Bowl game, Pasadena will be up for statehood.

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for longest punt in the Rose Bowl game?

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Show-less time: Shaun Powell in the Sporting News: “The Boston Celtics are the only team without cheerleaders or dancing women. They’re also the only team to resist changing their uniform or colors. Thank goodness for tradition.”

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Losing it: Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Oliver McCall recently was arrested in Nashville. Police said he went on a rampage in a hotel lobby, throwing an ashtray, a drinking glass and--get this--a Christmas tree. He then spat on a police car.

Comment from Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune: “Is he a perfect opponent for Andrew Golota or what?”

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No sale: Rosenbloom, on McCall’s Feb. 7 bout with Lennox Lewis for the vacant WBC title: “This could be the dawn of a new pay-per-view option where they pay us to watch.”

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Skinhead: Vancouver Canuck Alexander Mogilny, after getting a haircut that left him looking like a shorn broom: “They had a buy-one-get-one-free deal. I took both of them at the same time.”

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Early retirement: St. Louis Ram cornerback Todd Lyght, on officiating: “Players in this league, they don’t play after age 40. I think it should be the same for the refs. You know what I mean?”

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Looking back: On this day in 1958, Alan Ameche’s one-yard touchdown run at 8:15 of overtime gave the Baltimore Colts a 23-17 victory against the New York Giants, the first overtime game in NFL championship history.

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Trivia answer: Elmer Layden of Notre Dame, 80 yards against Stanford in 1925. Layden later became Notre Dame’s coach.

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And finally: Jerry Tarde in Golf Digest writes that Nancy Lopez “seems to take more satisfaction in her husband Ray [Knight’s] career as manager of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.”

“Imagine the incongruity of having Marge Schott and Nancy Lopez as the two most important women in your life.”