What’s the Fuss? This Spam Is Just Lovely

The folks who keep track of such things say that Hawaiians eat almost 7 million cans of Spam every year. By choice.

University of Nevada receiver Caleb Spencer, who is Honolulu-born, doesn’t understand all the raised eyebrows that the processed meat attracts.

“I love it, man,” Spencer told the Reno Gazette-Journal before the Wolf Pack defeated Central Florida, 49-48 in overtime, Saturday night in the Hawaii Bowl. “People in Reno always look at me like, ‘Why do you eat that stuff?’ But that’s what I grew up on. It’s good stuff.

“It’s a delicacy here. It’s like steak.”

Are you listening, Monty Python?

Trivia time: The Seattle Seahawks’ last playoff victory was 21 years ago. Whom did they defeat?

Olympic vintage: Can the Winter Games in Turin match the Winter Games in Salt Lake City? Newsday’s Chuck Culpepper asked himself that question and then answered. “Well, I do know the wine will be better,” he said, “and they’ll serve it later.”

Seventh heaven: Arizona Cardinal quarterback Kurt Warner’s wife, Brenda, this month gave birth to twin girls, Sierra and Sienna, giving the couple seven children. “Five is chaos,” Warner told the Chicago Tribune’s Don Pierson. “Seven ... I’m about to find out.”

Hard to swallow: Spanish soccer powerhouse Real Madrid is in a slump even though Florentino Perez, the team’s president, has changed players, coaches and sporting directors.

“Florentino is like one of those people who goes into the chemist over and over, choosing a different pill every time,” wrote Alfredo Relano, editor of the Spanish sports daily AS. “One day he might stumble across the right pill, but he keeps refusing to go to the doctor to find out what’s actually wrong.”

Fired up: Iowa’s football fans are the toughest in the Big Ten, according to poll of players taken by the Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette. “Every once in a while they’ll throw cigarette butts at you,” Minnesota center Greg Eslinger said. “I keep my helmet on. Sometimes they’re lit.”

Howard’s end: Tonight marks the end of an era as ABC’s “Monday Night Football” closes after 36 seasons. Greg Cote of the Miami Herald will not be shedding any tears.

“Monday nights stopped consistently being a must-see event many years ago,” he wrote, and “over time became famous for being famous, not good.”

The blame, he said, lies with the network. “ABC in its self-importance has never seemed to understand that even when the network lucks [into] an interesting game ... what attracts us are the teams on the field, never the team in the booth.”

Dress code: Associated Press columnist Jim Litke contends that the Indy Racing League owes a lot to Danica Patrick who, he said, remains “the circuit’s only recognizable star in -- and especially out -- of uniform.”

Trivia answer: The Los Angeles Raiders, 13-7.

And finally: “Next Sunday, the 49ers play Houston in the Reggie Bush Bowl,” said Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News. “Loser takes all.”