-- Did you know Patriots prankster QB Tom Brady once soaked the jock straps and socks of his offensive linemen with the same indelible dye banks use to stain money in the event of a robbery? ... Ever wonder how many tickets to Saints games were bought with FEMA money? ... Soon we'll probably hear about Cowboy WR Terrell Owens sending inappropriate E-mails to Eagle ballboys ... The 0-6 Raiders and the 1-5 Dolphins would make a great Game of the "Weak" ... How about the seven New Jersey fans who recently set a Guinness record by watching 70 straight hours of televised football?
-- The UM-FIU game that resulted in a brawl a couple of Saturdays ago in the Orange Bowl had been promoted as a "Salute to Florida High Schools" (teams across the state got in free). That same day, though it didn't get the publicity of the above mentioned game, fighting broke out between Ivy Leaguers Dartmouth and Holy Cross. Even Harvard is not immune, with their starting quarterback, running back and team captain dismissed from the squad ... Our favorite, however, was Ohio University, where 17 members of the football team have been arrested this year. Any player convicted received three days in supervised study hall or could plea-bargain his sentence down to dinner and a movie with a hot coed tutor.
-- According to Phil Coraccio, blood shoots out of the eyes of an angry horned toad.
-- Yankees should know it takes more to build a winner than "Cashman" (NY general manager Brian) ... Orioles have now had nine straight losing seasons and attendance is down another 18 percent. Hope owner Peter Angelos wakes up soon and smells the crab cakes! ... Former Red Sox CF Jimmy Piersall (a few grapes short of a bunch) is the godfather of troubled Rep. Mark Foley.
-- CBS broadcaster Lesley Visser recalls Halloween past: (when most) "girls dressed up like Mary Poppins--I dressed up as Sam Jones, my idol (Black ex-Celtic star)" ... Is Miami's Shaq O'Neal the next great TV golf announcer? ... Heat and Mavericks heavily favored for #1 this season. We like the Suns.
-- High stakes gambler Janet Jones' (Mrs. Wayne Gretzky) next movie: "Honey, I Shrunk the Bank Account!"
-- And finally, this from Marie Belanger: The parents of a little boy doing badly in math had tried tutors, special learning incentives, etc. without success. As a last ditch effort, they enrolled him in a local Catholic school, where he developed a serious look on his face, studied endlessly and soon received an A in math. His mother, curious, questioned him as to what had made the difference. Was it the books, discipline or uniforms? The boy looked at her and replied, "Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the "plus sign", I knew they weren't fooling around."
(Some of the information in this column was obtained from other news organizations)