Dating Decision Shows No Diplomacy

In China, apparently, there is no dating in pingpong.

Four Chinese Olympic table tennis players -- three women and a man -- were sent home for being “engaged in romantic affairs.”

A spokesperson for China’s table tennis association told Associated Press: “Dating is not against the law or regulations. But as professional players, they only have a few years to train and compete. They cannot spend it too much on dating.”

Another Chinese table tennis player was suspended for six months. His transgression? Drinking.

Trivia time: Quarterbacks from the same team finished first and second among NFL passers in 1951. Who were they?

Eyewitness: Reader Jim Finks Jr. of Newport Beach, the son of the former Minnesota Viking general manager, e-mailed in response to a recent Morning Briefing item about the Los Angeles Rams’ playoff loss to the Vikings in 1969. In the item, another reader, Clayton Cooper, recalled that officials had wrongly ruled Ram quarterback Roman Gabriel had been tackled for a safety near the game’s end.

Wrote Finks: “Don’t know what game Mr. Cooper was watching, but I just happened to be the ball boy for the Vikings that cold December day at the Met. I was on the Ram five-yard-line ... when Carl Eller blew past Ram tackle Bob Brown to sack Gabriel in the end zone and seal the 23-20 Viking victory. It was the loudest roar ever heard at old Met Stadium.”

More Ram memories: Reader Steven Martinez of Torrance e-mailed to say the Rams were 11-0 during the 1969 regular season before losing to the 10-1 Vikings in a regular-season game at the Coliseum, 20-13. It wasn’t easy being a Ram fan then. Martinez, noting that the game was blacked out in L.A., said, “Our father had to drive me and my brother to San Bernardino to watch the game at a motel.”

Type-casting: Gary Peterson of the Contra Costa Times suggests Rick Neuheisel as the next coach of the Oakland Raiders.

“Infamous, marginally overrated and slightly desperate, he is the perfect candidate,” Peterson wrote.

A nice appearance: Laker radio commentator Mychal Thompson, calling the Dallas Mavericks the Paris Hilton of the NBA, said, “They are good to look at, very rich and very pretty. But there’s not a lot there.”

Fish line: Dennis Green decided that doing a fishing show on cable television wasn’t enough stimulation, so he took the bait and accepted the Arizona Cardinal coaching job.

Said Randy Hill of foxsports.com: “Despite his fishing insights, Green seems unaware that the Cardinals have been operating on a catch-and-release coaching philosophy.”

Trivia answer: Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams.

And finally: Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel, to critics who say all the BCS hand-wringing is good for college football: “Mad cow disease creates controversy and conversation too, but that doesn’t make it good.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.