Most of the Time, He Doesn’t Have Anything to Kick About

Columnist Art Spander of the San Francisco Examiner estimates that 49er punter Klaus Wilmsmeyer earns about $95,000 a year.

“Talk about a position that’s overpaid,” Spander writes. “Punting for the 49ers is like being a private barber to a bald man.”

Spander said that Wilmsmeyer didn’t even kick against Buffalo, had one punt against the New York Jets and didn’t get onto the field until there were a few seconds left in the third quarter of a 56-17 rout of Atlanta on Oct. 18.

Trivia time: Who holds the pro football record for playing in the most games?

Silent voter: Tom Schieffer, a Democrat, is president of the Texas Rangers. George W. Bush, the managing general partner of the team and son of President Bush, is obviously a Republican. When Schieffer was asked by the Dallas Morning News if he would support Bush’s father at the ballot box next Tuesday, Schieffer said: “I think I’d better keep quiet on that.”

Agonizing game: Golf pro David Feherty of Northern Ireland told Golf Digest:

“I think you definitely got to have a screw loose to play this game for a living for any length of time. It’s more of a medieval torture than it is a game. Most of the people who play it are infuriated by it.”

Just Dad to her: 49er quarterback Joe Montana keeps his priorities straight through his 7-year-old daughter, Alexandra.

“My daughter is just now realizing that Joe Montana and I are the same person,” Montana told C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle. “People would say, ‘Look there’s Joe Montana, and she’d say, ‘No, that’s my dad.’ ”

Shaq’s shack: Rookie Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic has a lucrative contract, enabling him to enjoy life’s luxuries, according to Pat Williams, Magic’s general manager.

“Shaq’s house is in such a great neighborhood (that) the bird feeders have salad bars and the Salvation Army has a string section,” Williams said.

They’ll be sorry: Washington State linebacker Anthony McClanahan likes to hunt in the woods near Pullman, Wash.

“I tell my teammates that I’m the only guy around with a full freezer of game and fish,” McClanahan told USA Today. “They say, ‘Ugh,’ when I come home with my stuff, but I tell them they’d all be over here if we had a food shortage.”

Defensive driving: What happens when a patrol car encounters a bull moose on a highway in Maine?

It happened to deputy Gary Fecteau, according to the Boston Globe. Fecteau showed proper driving etiquette where moose are involved by driving off the road and into a ditch.

Name game: Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre pronounces his last name “Farve.” Maybe that’s because his hometown of Kiln, Miss., population 63, is pronounced “Keen.”

Trivia answer: George Blanda, with 340.

Quotebook: Cornerback Frank Minnifield of the Cleveland Browns on wide receivers: “Aside from those on our team, they are the scoundrels of the earth. Throughout the game, they try to be your friend. Then, they catch a pass and they want to go through this war dance and spike the ball on you.”