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Monday meanderings: The Chicago Bulls are upset about a Portland dunk with one second left in a 104-92 Blazers victory Sunday (Nov. 18) at the Rose Garden? Etiquette is for Emily Post or Miss Manners or someone else. The Bulls should be more upset by the way they played for much of the game before Damian Lillard’s dunk. Unless, of course, somebody on the Bulls had bet they wouldn’t lose by more than 10 points.
Spending time with Kiana Kim is one man’s idea of work. Credit: Rick Firfer
* Notre Dame is No. 1 in the college football polls. In case you hadn’t heard. And in case you hadn’t realized some Irish fans were sufficiently insufferable when the team wasn’t even a top 25 consideration.
* With USC quarterback Matt Barkley going tomiss the Trojans-Irish game Saturday (Nov. 24) in Los Angeles because of a shoulder injury, Notre Dame is poised to earn a berth in the BCS championship game. Either that or poised to turn a backup USC QB into an instant icon.
* Steve Mandell, the agent for Mike Ditka, says Da Coach plans to host his Tuesday radio show on ESPN 1000 after being released Sunday from the hospital. Ditka, 73, suffered a minor stroke Friday while playing cards at a suburban Chicago country club. Even with a hospital stay, it appears Ditka has been dealt a fairly good hand.
* For all those Bears fans concerned about the team with backup quarterback Jason Campbell playing in place of concussed Jay Cutler, this friendly reminder: The Bears did reach a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as quarterback. With the defense the Bears have shown this season, the team may be able to survive at QB without a playmaker and merely have a caretaker.
What a sweetheart: Thank you to Kiana Kim for taking the time to chat.
So how was your Sunday? Without the Bears playing, there definitely was time to accomplish more than usual. For some of us, that meant journeying to the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill., for the Chicago Sun-Times Sports Collectibles Convention.
The initial idea was to stop by the autograph area and see if Playboy Playmate Jaime Edmondson was accompanying boyfriend (might he by now be her fiance?) Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, who had an early-afternoon signing session. A cursory glance revealed no ravishing redhead in the proximity of the area allocated for autographs.
There was a black-haired beauty with a familiar female face, however. And also someone with a Playboy background. And somebody who has been featured on this site. Kiana Kim was resplendent in a red top and black pants. Kiani is the fiancee of baseball legend Pete Rose, one of the Sunday signers. Because he was busy signing dozens of baseballs and other memorabilia items behind the curtains where the signers do a good deal of their work after they have made their public appearances, your humble correspondent took the opportunity to have a brief chat. With Kiana.
Given the chance of spending time with baseball’s all-time hit king and a beautiful woman, I’ll gladly choose the beautiful woman. Plus it would have been bad form to interrupt Pete, right? At least that was some of the reasoning for the chat session with Kiana.
Kiana and Pete are set to star in a TLC reality series beginning in January. Kiana was gracious enough to talk about it. We look forward to hearing even more when we get closer to the program’s debut.
From the NFL department of facts (or whatever the public relations arm is called officially):
* Houston quarterback Matt Schaub threw for 527 yards in the Texans’ 43-37 overtime victory vs. Jacksonville. He tied Warren Moon for the second-most passing yards in an NFL game. Norm Van Brocklin holds the record with 554 passing yards (Sept. 28, 1951).
* In the Texans game, wide receiver Andre Johnson of the Texans had 14 catches for 273 yards with one touchdown and rookie wide receiver Justin Blackmon of Jacksonville had seven catches for 236 yards with one touchdown. It marked the first game in NFL history in which two players each had 235+ receiving yards.
* Washington rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III completed 14 of 15 passes (93.3 percent) for 200 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions for a 158.3 passer rating in the Redskins’ 31-6 victory over Philadelphia. His 93.3 completion percentage is the highest by a QB with at least four touchdown passes since Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young (Oct. 16, 1994).
* Griffin had a 61-yard TD toss to Santana Moss in the third quarter, his third touchdown pass of at least 60 yards this season. He is the first player in NFL history with at least three 60+ yard TD passes and a 60+ yard rushing touchdown in a season.
* Denver QB Peyton Manning had three touchdown passes in the Broncos’ 30-23 victory over San Diego and has 423 career TD tosses. He moved past Dan Marino (420) for sole possession of second place in that category.
* Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green had six catches for 91 yards and a touchdown in the Bengals’ 28-6 win over Kansas City. He has a TD recveption in ninee consecutive games to tie Lance Alworth (1963) for the third-longest streak in an NFL season. Only Jerry Rice (12 games, 1987) and Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch (10 games, 1951) have longer streaks.
There is always room around here for more Victoria’s Secret videos in anticipation of the annual VS television event Dec. 4:
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