Grimm reminder not tasty

Russ Grimm recently became the first member of the Washington Redskins' legendary offensive line known as the "Hogs" to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Grimm more than lived up to his nickname one night in practice, when he threw up an entire hot dog, then picked it up off the ground and ate it, former Redskins offensive line coach Joe Bugel told the Washington Post.

"Can't waste a good dog now," said Grimm, a four-time Pro Bowler.

Joe Jacoby, Grimm's former teammate, also recalled the "hog-eat-vomited-dog" tale.

"He just chucked up a hot dog," he said. "One of our ballboys, we called him 'Booger,' just looked at it and said, 'Ooooh, that's gross.' Russ looked at him and said, 'You think that's gross, watch this.' He blew the dirt off the piece of dog on the ground, picked it up and ate it. True story."

Grimm, now the Arizona Cardinals' offensive line coach, told Phoenix radio station XTRA 910 that the story is partly true.

"It's a little embellished, but it's probably 60, 65 percent true," he said. "I'll just say it wasn't a whole dog. It was only a piece. It was in between practices. We hadn't been out to the bar yet, so it was in between practices. And basically the rest of it's true."

■ MAGICAL SMILE -- In his new book, "Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon," author Roland Lazenby writes that former Los Angeles Lakers guard Magic Johnson's shocking 1991 announcement that he was HIV positive "brought revelations about the climate of sexual frivolity around the Lakers."

The high-flying teams of L.A.'s "Showtime" era apparently scored just as much off the court as they did on it.

At the time, Johnson claimed he had 300 to 500 sexual partners a year.

"The team's locker room, and its sauna, had been a place where the star and other players had entertained women, even right after games," Lazenby writes. "Johnson would retire to the sauna after a game, have sex, then put on a robe and return to the locker room for his postgame media interviews."

No wonder Magic always wore a wide smile in interviews.

■ PATHETIC PROPOSAL -- A New York Rangers fan appeared to be publicly humiliated on Valentine's Day, when his marriage proposal on Madison Square Garden's JumboTron -- "Melissa, will you be my blueshirt bride? Love, Nick" -- promptly was rejected, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd of 18,198.

But don't feel too bad for the poor schlub; the Rangers revealed Monday that game-presentation staff staged the entire incident, and paid actors who are engaged carried it out.

Wow, we didn't realize the Rangers (28-27-7) were so bad they have to create stunts in the stands to distract their fans from how poorly they're playing.

Maybe the Wranglers (21-23-5) should try that.

■ SNOW JOB -- An overnight snowstorm forced ski officials to postpone Tuesday's men's super-combined race for nearly a week and call off women's downhill training at the Vancouver Olympics.

Skiing was canceled because of too much snow. What's next, canceling beach volleyball because of too much sand?

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL