Turns Out It Really Is the Thought That Counts

Roger Cooper is headed to either the NFL or a psychiatrist’s couch. Two months after participating in the NFL scouting combine at Indianapolis, the former Montana State linebacker still isn’t sure.

He told the Bozeman (Mont.) Daily Chronicle that he didn’t realize the combine would entail such a thorough mental evaluation. He was asked whether he’d rather be a cat or a dog; whether he would try to hide or escape if he were in a skyscraper during an earthquake; and whether he would be a leader or follower if he were in a gang.

One team asked him 450 questions.

Cooper knows only that it was “the most nerve-wracking experience of my life.”

Trivia time: On this day in 2001, Australia set a record for the most one-sided soccer match in FIFA history. What team did Australia beat, and what was the score?

A budding development: Times sports desk assistant Eric Maddy tipped Morning Briefing to a story involving Anthony Davis, an Austin Peay State basketball player charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, but cautioned to consider the source: the Leaf-Chronicle, which, it turns out, is a legitimate newspaper in Clarksville, Tenn.

Curses! The Boston Red Sox aren’t ones to rest on their laurels, as their expansive scouting missions show.

ABC News reports that the World Series champs have offered mean-swinging Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist a tryout. Gilchrist called the offer a “great compliment” but added that, for now, he’d stick to cricket.

New wave: Who are the Santa Cruz Stormriders, Ventura Pelicanos, Los Angeles Arc Angels, San Diego Sea Lions and Orange County Octopus? They’re pro surfing teams competing in the National Surf League’s second annual Quiksilver California Cup, which began this week at Santa Cruz.

Yes, the soulful art of wave riding has become a game loosely patterned after the NBA (four-quarter sessions) and golf’s Ryder Cup (four days of team competition) in an attempt “to bring the excitement and spectator-friendly nature of mainstream sports to surfing,” said Brad Gerlach, who developed the format with his father.

Next stop is April 13-17 at Leo Carrillo State Beach.

Easy to please: You know your team is in trouble when it’s struggling to gain a playoff spot and loses by 21 points, and the coach says afterward: “Overall, I was glad with our effort.”

That was not Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy, but Cleveland’s Brendan Malone on Wednesday after the Cavaliers had been routed by the Indiana Pacers, 98-77.

Trivia answer: Australia defeated Tonga, 22-0, in a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup.

And finally: Pro wresting legend Hulk Hogan, who has a pet rooster named Lily, has joined with the Humane Society of the United States in an effort to persuade Roy Jones Jr., who recently bought a cockfighting arena in Louisiana, to get out of that business. Borrowing a sentence often applied to his profession, Hogan said of cockfighting, “It’s not a real sport.”