Good fortune follows Kearse

Jevon Kearse, good-luck charm?

That's how Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor sees it, reciting earlier in the week a list of Kearse achievements during his first season with a football team:

1996: Kearse, a freshman, and Taylor win the national college championship with the Florida Gators.

1999: Kearse win the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year award with the Tennessee Titans, who reach the Super Bowl.

2004: In Kearse's first season with Philadelphia, the Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl.

2008: In his first season back with the Titans, Kearse is playing for the league's last unbeaten team.

"That stat doesn't help us out," Taylor said last week, "but it sure works in their favor."

He was right. On Sunday, Kearse and the Titans improved to 10-0 with a 24-14 victory over Taylor and the Jaguars.

• FIRING IRISH -- Will Notre Dame fire Charlie Weis? That's the question asked by the satirical Web site SportsPickle.com, which offered the following responses:

"No, they almost beat USC three years ago, and they are good enough to almost beat them again. ... Yes, do you have any idea the massive ongoing costs of heating a hot seat large enough to fit that man?. ... No, they are losing on the field, but they are winning where it matters: in the classroom ... man, I almost got that out with a straight face. ... Yes, he is taking way too long to set up a massive cheating system like he had in New England. ... No, but they will get him to resign with a severance package of savory pies."

• GIVE THANKS -- "What do Lions fans have to look forward to this month?" mused Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press. "For one thing, a marquee Thanksgiving matchup between the Lions and the Tennessee Titans, who very well could be 0-11 and 11-0, respectively.

"Stay the course, pilgrims."

• SOCCER SURNAMES -- What's in a name? Apparently everything when it came time to name this season's Great Northwest Athletic Conference soccer player of the year.

The award went to Western Washington University midfielder Matt Pele.

• LONG HAND -- Jerry Greene of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, on the just-concluded World Series of Poker: "There's something wrong when the poker season is longer than the NBA season."

• GOOSE, GOOSE, DUCK! -- In a new twist on an old soccer theme, players at Manchester United's practice facility are complaining about someone else's diving and marking tactics -- in this case, Canada geese.

Sounds like the team could use a good sweeper.

• LOVE CONNECTION -- Celebutante/socialite/model Kim Kardashian, to FSN, on what it's like being Reggie Bush's girlfriend at a Saints game: "I watch the big guys try to smoosh him. Then they ask for my sister's phone number."

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