Legos put Las Vegas on display

The NFL shuns Las Vegas and its legal gambling.

The league doesn't allow commercials promoting Las Vegas to run during Super Bowl telecasts.

But leave it to wondrous Legos to get the Las Vegas skyline some exposure during an NFL game.

It happened during Sunday night's game between the New England Patriots and the host San Diego Chargers.

A camera crew slipped off to nearby Legoland for some footage and captured the pseudo Strip -- Miniland Las Vegas -- from the Luxor to New York-New York.

If Paul Tagliabue was still NFL commissioner, he probably would ban Legos.

• CHINA, NOT VEGAS -- A shovel of dirt has yet to be turned behind Bally's for a 20,000-seat sports arena proposed by Anschutz Entertainment Group and Harrah's.

The American economy and dip in tourism probably have caused the delay, not to mention no professional team has committed to move to Las Vegas and occupy the building.

So instead of its ballyhooed Las Vegas project, AEG and the NBA announced Tuesday a joint venture to design and develop about a dozen arenas in China, with the first expected to be in Shanghai.

• SCALPED -- You'd think fans of the Tampa Bay Rays have suffered enough.

But a 12-year-old supporter was punished by his middle school in Florida's Manatee County when he was kicked out Monday for wearing the popular "Ray-hawk" (Mohawk) hairstyle adorning the noggins of several Rays players and fans.

Zachary Sharples, of Palmetto, Fla., was sentenced to in-school suspension for violating his school's dress code, which forbids hair styles that are a distraction.

In today's youth market, a clean-cut hairdo with a part would be more distracting.

Sharples scoffed at shaving his head, so he must remain in detention during school days until his hair grows back.

The seventh-grader and his father attended the second game of the American League Championship Series, and Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes arranged for them to be on the field before the game and gave the youngster a bat autographed by the team.

"The kid got punished for being a Rays fan," Gomes said, according to MLB.com. "What's wrong with that?"

It would have made more sense for the school to punish him a year ago for supporting the Rays when they had baseball's worst record.

• SOCCER RACISTS -- Spanish soccer team Atletico Madrid was fined $204,600 and forced to move its next two home games in the Champions League to a neutral site because of violent and racist behavior by some of the club's fans.

"There were monkey chants against the nonwhite players throughout the game," a spokesman for the Union of European Football Associations told Britain's Sky Sports News.

Atletico coach Javier Aguirre was banned from joining his team for the home and away matches against Liverpool because of improper conduct during the game.

In American football, it's usually the players who do time.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL