Did the Cornhuskers spit at Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel?

Well, maybe.

“By no means am I calling Chase Daniel a liar,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini told reporters. “But I wasn’t there and there are mixed stories. Unfortunately, I can’t turn back the clock and go get a video and see exactly what happened.”

Did Nebraska players take cheap shots at Daniel?

Defensive tackle Zach Potter was flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Daniel — and he expressed no remorse about that.

“You don’t ever want those fouls to be called, but you’d rather have those fouls being called than not having guys hustling or pulling up on a tackle,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “We’re going to continue to be aggressive. Just because we had a couple personal fouls called isn’t going to change the way we play.”

Yeah, well, good luck beating good teams while getting flagged for penalty after penalty.

Down in the SEC, LSU defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois primed the pump for Saturday’s game with Florda by making an ill-advised comment about Gators quarterback Tim Tebow.

“If we get a good shot on him, we’re going to try our best to take him out of the game,” Jean-Francois said Monday, according to the Orlando Sentinel’s Web site. “With his size and his heart, it’s hard to get a clean shot.

“I think every lineman wants to get a good hit on a Heisman Trophy winner.”

Later, LSU issued a clarification attributed to Jean-Francois: “We have great respect for Tim as a player and a competitor. By taking him out of the game, I meant as a defense we are going to try to make him ineffective. I’m sorry that my initial comments were interpreted another way.”

That made everybody feel better, we’re sure.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Rams tight end Joe Klopfenstein can seize the day:

• How do Rams fans like watching Isaac Bruce pad his career TD total as a 49er?
• Are Chris Long, Adam Carriker and Clifton Ryan ready to stand in against the powerful Washington offensive line?
• How in the world did Elgin Baylor last 22 years at the helm of the hapless Clippers?

AN IDEA FOR JIM HASLETT

HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean soccer player drowned in a crocodile infested river during a ritual to cleanse his team of bad spirits before a match, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.

PEOPLE ARE STRANGE

To illustrate this point, let us remind you that Lakers sub Luke Walton has a stalker – a 34-year-old woman named Stacy Elizabeth Beshear of El Segundo, Calif.

Police arrested her after she pulled up to his car and pretended to fire gunshots at him with her hand, Sgt. Steve Tobias told the Associated Press.

“When she pulled up to my house and started yelling at me after she fired a fake gun at me, I couldn’t help but to start yelling back at her,” Walton told the Orange County Register. “She was in my driveway. But when we were interacting, I could tell by the stuff she was saying that she’s not all there in the head — which makes me feel bad for her.

“At the same time, most people who go on killing sprees are people who aren’t all there in the head.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “Remember in ‘Ghost’ when certain guys would die and those black shadows would come out of nowhere and snatch the guys away? I kept expecting to see them sneaking up on Scott Linehan during the Rams-Bills game last weekend. Didn’t happen. This seems like a good time to mention that when your defense has given up 147 points in four weeks, firing the head coach and promoting the defensive coordinator isn’t exactly the best way to fire your fans up.”

Gary Shelton, St. Petersburg Times: “As it turns out, the ALDS was merely a warmup, a chance to beat the socks off a lesser bunch of Sox. The Rays won 6-2 Monday to close out a plodding Chicago team that seemed to have no clue how to score other than to hit an occasional ball over the fence. Good thing the Sox fans wore black, wasn’t it? The last time a White Sox team went this meekly out of the playoffs, it was 1919 and Arnold Rothstein was passing out hundreds to Chick Gandil and Shoeless Joe Jackson. In the end, the most damage Chicago could muster was to boo as the Rays celebrated on their field.”

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Exactly 13 years after he was found not guilty of double-murder charges, a Las Vegas jury convicted O.J. Simpson of armed robbery and kidnapping Friday. Defense lawyers immediately vowed to appeal the verdict while O.J. begins writing his next book, ‘If I Didn’t Do It.’”

Rick Chandler, Deadspin: “O.J. Simpson was so sure of being found not guilty in his Nevada robbery and kidnap trial that he had planned an acquittal party, said a Las Vegas detective in a radio interview on Saturday. (Funny how my invitation seems to have gotten lost). Also, Simpson liked Vegas so much that he was considering moving there following the trial, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. Well, mission accomplished, I guess.”

Norman Chad, syndicated columnist: “IHOP and Applebee’s are now under the same corporate umbrella. This would be like ‘The Boomer Esiason Show’ and ‘The Tim McCarver Show’ being televised in the same cable hour.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Who do you suppose would win the following race (one lap around the bases, two false starts and you’re disqualified): Lane 1 - David Ortiz. Lane 2 - Vlady Guerrero. Lane 3 - The left field foul pole. We all know how speed-challenged Big Papi is, but when Vlady tried to go from first to third on a bloop single the other night … yikes. I’m convinced more than ever now that if it’s OK for Champions Tour golfers to use carts, then it should be OK for designated hitters to use Segways.”

MEGAPHONE

“Both of those kicks are supposed to be out of bounds, and when you say to somebody kick the ball out of bounds, that’s what you expect to happen That’s what I expect to happen with a professional football kicker . . . You know what? If he can’t do that, I’ll find someone that can kick the ball out of bounds.”

Vikings coach Brad Childress, after Reggie Bush fielded two Chris Kluwe punts and return them for touchdowns.