Sports Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
FOOTBALL
REGGIE BUSH FINED $5,000 FOR TAUNTING BEARS
Reggie Bush was fined $5,000 by the NFL for taunting during his 88-yard touchdown reception in New Orleans’ NFC championship game loss at Chicago last week. An NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, confirmed the fine yesterday.
Although the rookie running was not penalized for pointing back at Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher or for somersaulting into the end zone, he subsequently received the league’s standard punishment for taunting. Bush, the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner, caught a short pass from Drew Brees on the left sideline. He sped downfield, cut back near midfield, and was several steps ahead of Urlacher when Bush turned and pointed at the Bears star.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
WISCONSIN IMPROVES TO SCHOOL-RECORD 21–1
Wisconsin eclipsed the best start in school history by relying on the formula that got it there.
Defense, poise, and a whole lot of Alando Tucker.
Tucker scored 27 points, Brian Butch added 13 points and 14 rebounds, and no. 2 Wisconsin beat Iowa 57–46 yesterday, topping the school’s old mark of 20–1 set in 1915–16.
Tucker went 11–of–14 from the floor for the Badgers (21–1, 7–0 Big Ten), who also extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 17 games and improved to 5–0 on the road.
HOCKEY
NHL ALL-STAR TV RATING PLUNGES 76% FROM 2004
TV watchers didn’t exactly warm up to the NHL’s midweek All-Star game, which experienced a 76% drop in household viewership from the previous All-Star game in 2004.
Wednesday night’s game in Dallas drew a 0.7 Nielsen rating on Versus, the cable channel formerly known as OLN. The game was viewed in an estimated 474,298 households and by 672,948 viewers, down from the ,985,000 households that saw the 2004 All-Star game on a Sunday afternoon on ABC.
Wednesday ‘s most-watched show, “American Idol” on Fox, drew an estimated 37 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour.
The NHL ratings drop-off was even greater when compared to the 2000 game in Toronto, which was watched in approximately 2,681,000 households on a Sunday afternoon.
