Signature Play

A funny thing happened last week in a California courtroom. (And about time.) There was this woman who requested that a Superior Court authority raise her estranged husband's monthly child support. That wasn't the funny part. The woman reportedly wanted her wealthy husband to stop sending her $15,000 a month for their two children and start sending her (gulp) $130,000 a month. That wasn't the funny part, either. The court said no.

Mike Stuntz never envisioned becoming a poster boy for Nebraska football. But there's Stuntz, a freshman, looking completely sure of himself as he lofts a perfect touchdown pass to Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch on a poster simply titled, "The Play."

Mike Stuntz never envisioned becoming a poster boy for Nebraska football. But there's Stuntz, a freshman, looking completely sure of himself as he lofts a perfect touchdown pass to Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch on a poster simply titled, "The Play."

A funny thing happened last week in a California courtroom. (And about time.) There was this woman who requested that a Superior Court authority raise her estranged husband's monthly child support. That wasn't the funny part. The woman reportedly wanted her wealthy husband to stop sending her $15,000 a month for their two children and start sending her (gulp) $130,000 a month. That wasn't the funny part, either. The court said no.

DENVER -- It was another signature play in a career that is full of them. On the first play following the kickoff in overtime, Brett Favre connected on an 82-yard touchdown pass with Greg Jennings and the Green Bay Packers defeated the Denver Broncos, 19-13, on Monday night. Denver had tied the score at 13-13 on Jason Elam's 21-yard field goal as time ran out in regulation, setting the stage for Favre. "I feel like I've been on some better teams, but it's hard to doubt this team," Favre said.

USC and UCLA turn to bread-and-butter pass plays when they really need yards. The Trojans' signature play in recent seasons is a simple one -- the quick hitch, in which a wide receiver takes a jab step forward and then a few steps back to grab the ball. As for the Bruins, they have been effective dumping the ball off to a running back coming out of the backfield when their other receivers are covered.

The dunk is basketball's signature play. But where did it come from, and when? John Isaacs, who played for the New York Rens, an all-black barnstorming team during the 1930s, told the New York Times, "We could all jump high enough. But we never envisioned doing anything like dunking the ball." Isaacs, 88, said the first person he ever heard of dunking was Jackie Robinson, who was only 5 feet 11. But he was the 1940 NCAA broad jump champion at UCLA, winning with a mark of 24 feet 10 1/4 inches.

It's a regrettable fact that the plays of Oscar Wilde are often more fun to read than they are to watch. Elegantly crafted lines like "In married life, three's company and two is none" are almost too pure for spoken dialogue--it takes an Oscar Wilde to say them convincingly. Where some playwrights expand their sensibilities to include different types of characters, Wilde requires all his characters--men and women--to be Oscar Wildes.

Jarret Stoll, being engaged to actress Rachel Hunter, knows pretty. But when his teammate Matt Greene ambled into the dressing room sporting a cut and a golf ball-sized knot above his right eye, now that was a thing of beauty. "That's what wins games," Stoll said admiringly. And in the Kings' case perhaps it did. Stoll scored two power-play goals and Teddy Purcell had a pair of assists for the Kings in a 3-2 win over Vancouver on Monday night at Staples Center.

His prodigious jumping ability helped make "alley-oop" an integral part of the sporting lexicon. He remains, more than 40 years later, the all-time leading rebounder in the history of College of Idaho basketball. But in R.C. Owens' day, an alley-oop had nothing to do with a high-flying dunk off of a lob pass. It was a football play. Owens' leaping end-zone catches for the San Francisco 49ers gave rise to a term that would later be co-opted by basketball. "I don't know who came up with the name or why," Owens says of the 49ers' innovation of the late 1950s, "but that's what we called it: the alley-oop.

News flash: Rockets are old! Having sold all their tickets, deposited the money and seen their season ended for them by a younger and patently better team, the Houston Rockets conceded Saturday that perhaps picturing themselves as contenders with two rookie guards and a front line that went 36, 36 and 33 years old was a tad optimistic. "Well, guys," said a weary Charles Barkley at the postgame news conference, "we got beat by a better team." "You really believe that?" a Houston media guy yelled.

BACK HOME, there's a cough going 'round and the woodwork needs painting. The gutters should be cleaned before the next rain. Someone is talking about driving 50 miles just to cut down a Christmas tree. "They have this new thing now," I tell my wife. "Tree lots." "But I think it'd be fun," she says. Fun isn't as fun as it used to be. Fortunately, there is football. Touch football. Our national blast time. Our weekly fountain of goof. "You guys ready?"