Fantasy football enters a musical stage

Who knew a rejection to join the fantasy team of ESPN’s Bill Simmons and Matthew Berry would lead to a full-length musical?

That’s exactly what happened to David Ingber, whose show, “Fantasy Football: The Musical,” opens Oct. 1 at the New York Musical Theater Festival. He originally pitched the idea to Simmons and Berry when they were fielding applications last year to join their basketball fantasy league.

Upon being rejected, Ingber followed through with his project. The musical is set in 1991 and features Simmons and Berry inventing fantasy football.

“When people ask ‘What’s your show called?’ the response is either mild confusion or wild excitement,” Ingber wrote on the show’s website at www.fantasyfootballthe musical.com. “I encourage people with either reaction to come and check it out. You’ll have a good time. And there are gonna be hot chicks.”

Trivia question

What is the most lopsided victory in college football history?

A little light reading

The question involved Penn State’s No. 5 ranking in the Associated Press poll, but Nittany Lions Coach Joe Paterno diverted a reporter’s question at his weekly news conference by talking about his newspaper reading habits.

“I don’t read anything about us,” he said. “I get the paper. I go to the bathroom. I take the paper in there and I scan it. I look at it. The first thing I do is look at who died, all right. Second thing I look at are headlines. Something that says, ‘Paterno is the greatest,’ I read it. If it says I’m a bum, I don’t even look at it.”

Campaign push

For once, President Obama’s latest speech didn’t involve healthcare or the economy. It was about Chicago, which Obama says is “a city of legendary sports figures, legendary sports venues and legendary sports fans,” making it a fit to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

But don’t count on his competing, says First Lady Michelle Obama, who rolled her eyes when the president goofed around with a fencer during a White House event featuring former Olympic and Paralympic athletes. “You should have seen the president in there fencing -- it was pathetic,” she said. “But he passed the baton really well.”

Trivia answer

In 1916, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland University, 222-0. Cumberland had one play for positive yards, while Georgia Tech scored 32 touchdowns.

And finally

Besides Lane Kiffin’s play-calling, Fox Sports’ Steve Eubanks doubts the ex-USC assistant can succeed as Tennessee’s head coach because of his shoot-from-the-hip tendencies. “In the fishbowl of big-time college football where any utterance can end up on a locker room wall, message discipline is one of the most important jobs a head coach undertakes,” Eubanks said. “Unfortunately for the Tennessee Volunteers, it’s a lesson Lane Kiffin might never learn.”

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mark.medina@latimes.com