A dinner date with country diva Carrie Underwood and her husband, Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators, was up for grabs at a recent charity auction in the capital. It went for 24 grand. “I’d probably bid that to have a night alone with my wife,” Fisher said. . . . Brent Sutter’s move to put five defencemen out on the Calgary Flames’ PP the other night was a desperate move by a desperate head coach. . . . Don’t you wish someone would rescue Jarome Iginla from Sutterville? . . . The now-retired Bob Green spent 24 seasons as head football coach at Montana Tech. He is a Vietnam War vet who once observed his club’s fitness level early in training camp and uttered: “It’s a good thing you guys weren’t with me in ’69. I wouldn’t be here.” . . .
Steve Simmons, in the Toronto Sun: “Got all excited when I saw the business story that the Ontario Teachers had sold their share of Maple Leaf. Until I read it. Turns out it was Maple Leaf Foods, not Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd.” . . . One more from Simmons, who spent most of last week in Edmonton: “My favourite Grey Cup outfits: Two middle-aged women wearing similar football jerseys, one with ‘Drunk’ as the player name on the back, the other wearing ‘Drunker.’ ” . . . Their grandchildren must have been proud. . . . A plug for a local business that is on board with The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund: Walmart now is open 24 hours a day for your holiday shopping enjoyment. . . . And if you don’t enjoy shopping, just go there, watch the people and try not to smile. . . .
How many times have we seen a hitter slam a home run and point to the heavens as he crosses home plate? Of course, they never point up there after striking out . . . But now we have Stevie Johnson, a wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills. He dropped a pass in an end zone in OT on Sunday and his guys went on to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the game, Johnson tweeted this: “I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO . . .” . . . It’s the Bills and Minnesota on Sunday and, as Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times notes: “If the Vikings’ cornerbacks are smart, they won’t be covering Johnson very tightly. The next thing he catches might be a lightning bolt.” . . .
Early in November, after Formula One driver Jenson Button was targeted by thieves in Sao Paulo, Brazil, F-1 honcho Bernie Ecclestone said: “They look for victims, they look for anyone that looks like a soft touch and not too bright. The people that look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at.” . . . The 80-year-old Ecclestone was robbed of jewellery worth $314,000 last week in London. . . . You know what they say about karma. . . . If you’re a Men’s Journal reader, watch for the Boogeyman, Derek Boogaard, in the January issue. “I’m wearing my Rangers’ jersey, with my skates on inside a meat locker punching a side of beef like Rocky,” the Boogeyman reports. . . . I’d take the Boogeyman over by a third-round TKO. . . . Hey, Rocky is 64 now. . . .
Whomever it was who broke into the car belonging to Line Gignac, the widow of Pat Burns, will be caught. And when they are caught, they should be put into a locked dressing room with Tie Domi and Ken Daneyko. . . . You may have noticed that the Monday Night Football game featured the San Francisco 49ers at the Arizona Cardinals, both of whom were 3-7. Do you think Howard Cosell would have put up with that kind of matchup? . . . Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “Did you see where President Obama told Barbara Walters that he is a Miami Heat fan and keeps tabs on the Heat’s progress from the White House? Should we really be surprised? I mean, why wouldn’t Obama be a big fan of a team that has spent tons of money but is getting no results? The Heat are the NBA’s version of the federal government.” . . .
Larry Brooks, in the New York Post: “When Mike Richards talks about P.K. Subban needing to show respect for his elders, he means like the way he respected Peter Forsberg when they were teammates in Philadelphia, and the way he respected David Booth in that game last year, right?” . . . One more from Brooks: “The name is the same, but this Matthew Barnaby of ESPN who doesn’t like anything (Sean) Avery does, this can’t be the same headhunting turtler who used to play in the league, is it?” . . . Is it just my imagination or is there more fighting in the provincial NDP than at a month’s worth of WHL games? . . . Also, is it just my imagination or were Liberal leadership candidates hard to find before the NDP started to implode? Now it seems that there are more people wanting to be this province’s next premier than B.C. has mountains. . . .
If LeBron James thought he had it tough going into Cleveland on Thursday night, he should speak with Byron Scott. Scott said that when he and the L.A. Lakers would go into Boston back in the day, “It got so bad they were mooning our wives.” . . . That’s bad. . . . The best t-shirt slogan spotted in Cleveland on Thursday: The Lyin’ King. . . . Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “A rural Wisconsin man blasted his TV with a shotgun after watching Bristol Palin’s Dancing with the Stars routine. Like all faithful viewers of the show, Steven Cowan, 67, had been drinking and was believed to suffer from bipolar disorder.”
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, follow him at twitter.com/gdrinnan, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
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