-- Chicago nose tackle Tank Johnson, facing gun charges, has the backing of the National Rifle Association, which supports the right to "arm Bears". Please remember, he's stupid until proven guilty ... Cheapest ticket for Super Bowl I was $6. Cheapest ticket for this year's Super Bowl is $600 ... Immediately after the game, CBS will air "Criminal Minds", otherwise known as players only meeting for the Bengals ... Coming soon -- we'll be selecting the NFL All Handgun team!
-- A Chicago woman had labor induced three days early so her hubby could attend the NFC Championship Game ... It was so loud at the Superdome a couple of weeks ago, pleasingly plump sideline reporter Tony Siragusa couldn't hear himself eat.
-- Don Shula called ex-Dolphin coach Nick Saban "a liar, a quitter and a two-legged rat". At his first Crimson Tide news conference, Saban denied he ever left Miami. Osaban Been Lying.
-- According to Helen Cullom, 251,770,000 lbs. of pepperoni is consumed on pizza annually. #1 in Japan is eel and squid.
-- Average price of Knicks tickets--$70.51. Empty seats per game--1,907. One way to improve their poor record--get the Russians to poison their opponents.
-- Caltech men's hoopsters get their first NCAA victory in 11 years last week. It's gotta help recruiting!
-- Wouldn't you love the names of the 11 baseball writers who didn't vote for Babe Ruth in the first Hall of Fame balloting and the 23 who didn't vote for Willie Mays in 1979? ... Courtesy of Hall of Famer Hank Aaron: "It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course" ... Legendary pitcher Bob Feller recently invited Mark McGwire to come to his museum in Van Meter, Iowa, along with Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and ex-Braves pitcher Bruce Sutter. "Big Mac was extremely rude and demanded a huge sum of money to come," reported Feller.
-- USAToday's Top 25 college baseball's preseason poll: #1 - Rice, #2 - Clemson, #3 - Miami and #17 - FSU. Watch out for North and South Carolina.
-- Which is louder--Maria Sharapova hitting tennis balls or Little Richard plucking out his nose hairs?
-- Did you know Howie Mandel, host of NBC's "Deal or No Deal" was a 4'10, 86-lb. high school wrestler? Was he any good? "No, I had a tendency to pass out a lot," he admitted.
-- And finally, Roger Dunton submitted this cute Valentine quote from Mary Ann, age 4: "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
(Some of the information in this column was obtained from other news organizations)