They’re Teams With Mentality of Street Fighter

That little brawl on Bourbon Street the other night between Sugar Bowl players from Florida and Miami came as no surprise to many, especially the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi.

Bianchi wrote, “The first inclination is to jump up on the soapbox and write some preachy pabulum about how this fight symbolizes the demise of sportsmanship and the degradation of intercollegiate athletics.

“The shock.

“The shame.

“The chagrin.

“Puh-leeze.

“This is Florida-Miami. What did you really expect? I mean, wouldn’t it have been just a little disappointing if there wasn’t a brawl?”

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Brawl II: “In Florida, we are what we are,” Bianchi continued. “We don’t know how to vote, and our college football players don’t know how to act. A man of great wisdom once said, ‘In Florida, they should start their college football games with a police siren.’ ”

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Trivia time: Nike’s “swoosh” logo was designed by artist Caroline Davidson in 1971. How much was she paid for it?

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Not so super: “The NCAA annually has March Madness,” writes syndicated columnist Norman Chad. “The NFL this year has a January Junkyard. Each team in the Super Bowl tournament is a bunch of spare parts in search of an engine.”

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A sea of suds: Ludde Ingvall this week captained the Swedish yacht Nicorette to victory in the demanding Sydney-to-Hobart race, making the 630-nautical-mile crossing in 2 days 14 hours 2 minutes and 9 seconds--the second fastest in the race’s 56-year history.

But, said Ingvall, the record was not what the crew was thinking about during the race’s closing stages.

“Cold beer,” he said, “has been the center of all our conversations in the past few hours.”

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Corn-ucopia: Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune believes Nebraska should not be a lopsided favorite to defeat Northwestern in tonight’s Alamo Bowl:

“That’s because Nebraska was the most overrated No. 1 since ‘The Bridges of Madison County.’ Northwestern will win, 36-21.”

Now you know.

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It’s in the bag: The Miami Dolphins have a wild-card playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts today. Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News doesn’t like their chances.

The Dolphins, he wrote, are “a team that ought to be forced to wear the bag over its head, or at least over its quarterback’s head and he would play just as well.”

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Engineering incentive: Mark Philippoussis will miss the Australian Open because of injury. That, says the Times of London, comes as a double blow to the tennis player because his coach, Peter McNamara, has ordered him to stop buying sports cars until he wins his first Grand Slam tournament.

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Icing call: It came as no surprise when the Florida Panthers simultaneously fired General Manager Bryan Murray and Coach Terry Murray, and the Miami Herald’s Greg Cote is certain no conspiracy was involved:

“A conspiracy requires like-minded thought turned into action. The Panthers haven’t achieved anything that close to teamwork all this awful NHL season.”

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Trivia answer: $35.

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And finally: Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News, reflecting on the Cowboys’ season: “A 5-11 season is not the end of the world, but it’s the next closest thing the NFL has to offer.”