For Peete’s Sake, She Loves The Game Too

Actress Holly Robinson Peete, wife of former USC and NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, has written what she describes as “a women’s guide to loving pro football.” It is titled “Get Your Own Damn Beer, I’m Watching the Game.”

In the book, she lists “the all-time annoying things we should never say to our men during a game.” The list includes:

* “So does this mean the trash is going to take itself out?”

* “I’m sorry, but this is the only time the decorator could come. And besides, it’s only a few dozen swatches.”

* “You’ve already watched three quarters. Why can’t we spend the last one talking about us?”

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Another possible title: Peete also describes her book as “sort of an ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the NFL but Were Afraid to Ask Your Condescending Man.’ ”

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Trivia time: Rodney Peete, as a redshirt freshman in 1985, led USC to a 17-13 victory over UCLA. Peete was named the starting quarterback the week of that game by coach Ted Tollner. Who had been the Trojans’ starting quarterback?

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Flavorful writing: Holly Peete writes in her book that when her husband was with the Oakland Raiders, one of six NFL teams he played for, “there was a sequence of offensive plays in the team’s handbook called ‘Spider 2, Banana 2 Over.’ Every time I heard him studying his plays, I used to think he was ordering some new Ben & Jerry’s flavor.”

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Football’s top three: “Three weeks into the NFL season, it’s hard to say which team is the best in the business,” wrote Jim Armstrong of AOL Sports. “So far, I’ve got it narrowed down to Tampa Bay, Cincinnati and USC.”

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Back to the drawing board: The New York Jets’ signing of Vinny Testaverde, 41, as a backup quarterback prompted this headline on the back of Wednesday’s New York Post: “Plan V.”

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Empty feeling: For a first-division soccer match between visiting Santos and Carmelita last weekend in a 2,200-seat stadium in Alajuela, Costa Rica, only 19 fans showed up, the newspaper Extra reported. And 15 of them came to root for Santos.

“We’ve had bad sales, but never like this,” Carmelita team President Carlos Gonzalez said.

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Looking back: On this day in 1954, Willie Mays of the New York Giants made his famous over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’s long drive to center field in Game 1 of the World Series. Dusty Rhodes’ three-run homer off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning gave the Giants a 5-2 victory on their way to a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians.

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Trivia answer: Sean Salisbury.

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And finally: Of Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, announcer Jack Buck on CBS Radio said, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

Of Mays’ catch in 1954, announcer Jack Brickhouse on NBC-TV described it as something that “must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].