Prior to Sunday’s big game, supermodel Gisele Bundchen apparently asked people to pray for a victory for her husband, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, in the Super Bowl. To which TNT’s Conan O’Brien said: "In response, God said, 'You know what, I think I've done enough for Tom Brady.' " . . . Steve Simmons, in the Toronto Sun, on New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin: “Not a lot of people know that Coughlin was Doug Flutie’s offensive co-ordinator at Boston College. Another Coughlin fact: He played running back at Syracuse, behind latter day hall of famers Larry Csonka and Floyd Little.” . . . Humourist Andy Borowitz, during the Super Bowl’s halftime show, via Twitter: “Madonna kicks off her show with a nod to her career beginnings in ancient Rome.” . . .
Brad Dickson, in the Omaha World-Herald: "An alien spaceship landed on Earth during the game. The aliens watched the Super Bowl ads, concluded there is no intelligent life here and returned to their home planet." . . . Jimmy Fallon of NBC-TV was amazed by a guy in Indiana who used 30,000 Lego blocks to build a replica of Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Stadium. “And this is even cooler,” Fallon noted. “He had enough Legos left over to build himself a girlfriend." . . . Peter King at SI.com, referring to Giants quarterback Eli Manning: “In three straight games against the best coach of this era and against an all-time quarterback, Manning has taken the ball with less than four minutes to play, trailing every time. And won every time.” . . . That was two Super Bowls and a regular-season game on Nov. 6. . . .
Phil Mushnick, in the New York Post: “It remains a modern cultural mystery that Eli Manning was able to succeed Sunday despite choosing to play without a swagger. Imagine how good he’d be if he ever learned to play with a swagger.” . . . One more from Mushnick: “So all those rowdy drunks who are invited to line the par-3 16th at the TPC Scottsdale every year — as seen over the weekend on CBS — they all drive home?” . . . The Indianapolis Colts will owe quarterback Peyton Manning a US$28-million bonus if they keep him past March 8. . . . See ya later, Peyton. . . . You can bet he’ll go wherever there is a top-flight offensive line. . . . No, it won’t be to the B.C. Lions. . . .
If you are a reader and a hockey fan, you can’t go wrong with Wayne Gretzky’s Ghost, a compilation of pieces from the keyboard of the great Roy MacGregor. . . . Len Berman, at ThatsSports.com: "Tiger Woods has a solution to get rid of long putters. He says a rule should make putters no longer than the shortest club in the bag (a sand wedge). Why stop there? Let's really level the playing field and make the same rule for drivers." . . . Headline at Onion.com: Soccer Star Diagnosed With Chronic MLS. . . . And another one from The Onion: Syracuse Leaves Big East For Woman Named Misti. . . . And this history note about 1936 from The Onion: “The fourth Winter Olympics, held in Bavaria, end in frustration for the Third Reich when Jesse Owens wins gold in the men's downhill and men's figure skating, and defeats Canada 3-2 in ice hockey.” . . .
If you are paying any attention at all to the NBA, you are aware that this isn’t one of its, uhh, finer seasons. As Charles Barkley put it the other day: “I can’t believe how bad the NBA is right now . . . I’m embarrassed about the product we’re putting out there.” . . . Which is what happens when you come out of a labour war and owners jam 66 games into seemingly 66 days. . . . Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “And from the Sometimes These Items Just Write Themselves File comes word that Denver Broncos running back Knowshon Moreno got pulled over and arrested for DUI while driving a Bentley convertible bearing vanity license plates reading . . . SAUCED.” . . .
The Left Coast Sports Babe was paying attention on Groundhog Day: “Rumour has it that Punxsutawney Phil was hoping to endorse Donald Trump for president. The groundhog thinks that furry thing that lives on the Donald’s head might be a relative.” . . . Late last week, there were rumours in Montreal that René Angelil was in the process of purchasing Schwartz’s, the famous deli that has been around since 1928. To which André Picard of The Globe and Mail told the Montreal Gazette’s Mike Boone: “I would think he’d go for something younger and with less meat.” . . .
There is news that the U of Winnipeg will be taking its men’s and women’s soccer teams into the CIS next season, meaning they both will compete in Canada West. It was thought that TRU’s teams would have been playing at that level by now, too, but it hasn’t happened yet. “Nothing from Ken,” Larry Read, TRU’s sports information officer, said, referring to AD Ken Olynyk who was at CIS meetings in Calgary. “At this point, soccer still going in 2013.” . . . “Hey, Phil Jackson has written another book!” writes Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Which makes sense. You can't point out all of Kobe Bryant's faults in one book.” . . . One more from Ostler: “Josh Hamilton is a reminder that the feel-good drug-recovery stories in sports are never wrapped up with a pretty bow. It's always, ‘They all lived warily ever after.’ ”
(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.)
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